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Irish Independent
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Lisa McInerney talks to Rick O'Shea: ‘It starts off as a romp about a horny teenager but the ending just stunned me'
The award-winning author on the novels of two Chilean authors, one that is in the format of an exam, and the book about the 1980 uprising in South Korea that she brings to her own students Lisa McInerney is an award-winning novelist and short story writer, lecturer and editor of The Stinging Fly, and she unsurprisingly has great taste in books too.
RTÉ News
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Get Creative: The craft of non-fiction
Ever thought about writing non-fiction, be it an essay, a memoir or even a brief snapshot of your life? Why not take the leap? In a new series, author, critic and broadcaster Cristín Leach explores the craft of non-fiction. When I'm writing, I think of the late American author Denis Johnson's oft-quoted three rules. He advised students to: 1. Write naked. That means to write what you would never say. 2. Write in blood. As if ink is so precious you can't waste it. 3. Write in exile. As if you are never going to get home again, and you have to call back every detail. That said, when it comes to writing personal essays, it might be useful to pair those rules with Stephen King's evergreen editing advice from On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2020), to: "Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you… but then it goes out… it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it." The first personal essay I wrote and had published was written with the door slightly ajar, because I wrote it as I sat with my grandmother who was dying in a nursing home. The room was warm, her breathing steady, and she didn't wake up while I was there. The door was being kept just barely open as nurses came and went, stopping and popping their heads in to check if everything was still ok. Of course, nothing was ok because my grandmother was dying, but at the same time it was ok. She had lived a long life. She was comfortable. We were quiet and resting and waiting together. And, because I am a writer there was a notebook and pen in my bag, and so I began to write. Sometimes, your initial job as a writer is to just capture those words as they land. The essay was published almost three years later in Winter Papers 5 (2019), along with four photographs I took that day. While She Was Sleeping is one of those unusual essays that almost fell out of me fully formed. The stream of consciousness I wrote in my notebook by her bed was only lightly edited by me before submission, and barely touched by editors Kevin Barry and Olivia Smith, who suggested minor changes to some words and came up with the title to form the final version. Not every essay arrives like that, but opening or closing lines, or significant phrases attached to important observations, often do. Sometimes, your initial job as a writer is to just capture those words as they land. Right now, the island of Ireland is pulsing with a vibrant network of literary journals that are open to non-fiction writing, including personal essays: The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Gorse, Winter Papers, The Four Faced Liar, Profiles, Howl, The Pig's Back, Storms, Sonder, The Belfast Review, The Martello Journal, The Ogham Stone, Púca Magazine, Ropes, The Tangerine, Trasna. Tolka focuses exclusively on non-fiction (inviting submissions of essays, travel writing, reportage, and creative non-fiction hybrids like auto-fiction). They don't all pay for accepted work, but many of them do. And with publication comes something else: that early nourishment that can lay the ground for future themed anthologies, memoirs, and books of collected essays.
RTÉ News
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Fresh reads - 7 recent Irish debut novels you might have missed
The Irish literary scene has never not been in rude health - but its robustness is found in the new writers and work that is coming through. This year alone, there has been an abundance of stellar debut novels from Irish authors. Here are a few that may have slipped through the cracks, but which you really ought to read. Louise Hegarty - Fair Play If you're a fan of novels like Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, which blended mystery with elements of fantasy, then Fair Play will be right up your street. Having previously been published in journals including The Stinging Fly and Banshee, the Cork native's debut novel puts a clever spin on crime fiction with a story involves a party, a murder mystery and an unexpected death. Hegarty brilliantly harnesses humour and compassion in one of the most unique books you'll read this year (Picador). Róisín O'Donnell - Nesting Much like Ciara, the protagonist of her debut novel, Meath-based author Róisín O'Donnell was born in Sheffield to parents from Derry, before her family moved to Dublin when she was a teenager. Her sense of 'otherness' permeates both Ciara and this utterly gripping story about a woman attempting to escape an abusive marriage and a despicable husband to create a new life for her young children. With superbly-drawn characters, beautiful prose and a heartbreakingly tender story of coercive control and inner strength, you will not be able to put it down (Simon & Schuster). Catherine Airey - Confessions: A Novel The road from Ireland to the USA has been well-trodden in both a geographical and literary sense, but Catherine Airey's first novel offers a new take on the emigrant trope. Airey, an English-born author of Irish descent who now lives in Cork, tells the story of three generations of women set against several backdrops and eras, from the 1970s to post-9/11 New York and the 2010s. An absorbing read about family, belonging and the secrets that are sometimes necessary to keep (Penguin). Garret Carr - The Boy from the Sea What would you do if you found an abandoned baby on a beach? The Donegal-born Carr, who lectures in Creative Writing at Belfast's Queen's University, aptly weaves a tender story about a fisherman, Ambrose, who brings a new baby, Brendan, into his family in the 1970s - and the repercussions and impact that decision has. Carr has written for a YA audience in the past, but his debut novel for adults is an elegantly-written, beautiful story about compassion, love and landscape (Picador). Róisín Lanigan - I Want To Go Home But I'm Already There When it comes to genre, "ghost stories set in the rental crisis" are few-and-far-between - but that's precisely what makes Belfast-born Róisin Lanigan's debut novel so compelling. Áine, a twentysomething Irishwoman, moves into a flat in a bougie area of London with her English boyfriend Elliott, but it soon becomes apparent that all is not as it seems with their new abode. Encompassing themes of loneliness, social commentary and millennial angst, Lanigan's nimble storytelling - which often veers from eerie to existential - leaves the reader with plenty to think about (Penguin) Claire Gleeson - Show Me Where It Hurts With a starting point that is unimaginably horrifying - a husband one day deliberately crashes his car with his family inside - you might imagine that Show Me Where it Hurts is a difficult read. Well, it is. You will cry. Yet it's also a story of compassion, resilience and love. Gleeson deftly splits the story into two timelines - before and after the crash - to striking effect, making it a book that you won't forget any time soon. Gleeson has had numerous short stories published in the past, but her debut novel is a stunning effort (Sceptre). Elaine Garvey - The Wardrobe Department Here is a story set in a world that we don't read enough about. Written by Sligo native Elaine Garvey - who has previously had short stories published in Winter Papers and Dublin Review - her debut novel follows young Irish woman Mairéad, who works in the wardrobe department of the fictional rundown St. Leonard's Theatre in London. Unmoored and lonely, she returns to Leitrim when her grandmother dies, where she is forced to confront difficulties from her past. A quietly thought-provoking work (Canongate).
Irish Independent
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
New Irish Writing: Poetry by Paul McMahon
New Irish Writing's winning poetry entry for April 2025 Today at 21:30 Paul is from Belfast and lives in Clonakilty. He was awarded the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize by Carol Ann Duffy. Other poetry awards include first prizes in The Moth International, the Nottingham Open Poetry Prize and the Listowel Writers' Week Poetry Collection Prize. His poetry has appeared in Poetry Review, London Magazine and The Stinging Fly. For more details visit:
