WriteStuff

As well as being a gifted writer, Ian Maleney is a very thoughtful and articulate speaker, which comes across in this conversation. Ian talks about a lot of the topics that he has that he expressed in his collection of essays, Minor Monuments, as well as many of the challenges that face a young artist in Ireland today. 

In Hugo Hamilton’s fictional memoir, Dublin Palms, he explores themes of home and displacement and describes the difficulty of growing up in a multi-lingual home. Here he discusses those themes and describes the process of writing fictional memoir, which he says is like creating a ‘blurry self-portrait’. He also reads from Dublin Palms and talks about how he writes now, after so many years of experience and success. 

Anne Griffin’s debut novel, 'When All is Said' is rightly getting praise from authors, reviewers and the public for its depiction of Maurice Hannigan, a fictional character that you come to deeply know and relate to through reading the novel. Here, Anne speaks about how she got published, how she dealt with rejection and how she created such an affecting character. 

‘I think what poetry needs most of all is music.’ This episode of WriteStuff features Niall MacMonagle, who is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about poetry. He is a teacher and collector of poetry, being responsible for some much loved anthologies, including the Lifelines series and Windharp. He has also created texts which present poetry to students like Poetry Now. Here he talks about the value of poetry to everyone and quotes some of his most loved poems as he explains the beauty of poetry in all its forms. 

Helen Cullen offers insights into how she wrote her first novel, The Lost Letters of William Woolf. After reading from the opening of the novel, Helen describes how she came to the premise of the novel and how she developed the characters. She also offers an honest portrayal of the anxiety felt at the different stages of the publication process.

In 'Illuminate', Kerrie O’Brien has created a collection of poems that deals with a range of themes, yet is coherent in its style and beauty. Here she talks about ‘Illuminate’ and the work that went into creating it as well as reading two of the most loved poems from that collection. She also gives her take on the current literary scene as someone who has worked in many areas of it and the relationship between her poetry and her visual art.

‘I always think of the voices that don’t get amplified in society.’  Sorcha Fox is a multitalented performer, actor, writer, director and poet who has written a poetic sequence called Remember that invites her audience to remember their national past, which can invoke pride or often shame. Her words and performances are powerful evocations of the darker elements of Ireland’s past and by highlighting these elements force her audience to reflect on current problems.

 ‘Poetry is about addressing the limits of our perceptions.’ Martin Dyar is a poet who manages to be both a respectful scholar of the traditions of poetry and a voice that is contemporary and mindful of the future of the form. In this interview, Martin discusses the role of the poet and offers many insights into a life dedicated to the study and creation of poetry as well as reading three of his compositions.

In the Earlie King and the Kid in Yellow, Danny Denton has written a novel that really fits into the archive of Irish fictional writing while standing out as something unique in its delivery of an imaginative context of an alternative Ireland, with a plot that is exposed through various storytelling devices and characters that are both likable and very familiar. Danny talks here about rejection, persistence, the fun and the hard work of writing and gives some great insights into the life of a really dedicated writer that get the feeling that he has just begun to make his impact.

In this episode, Dr. Martina Carroll talks about the connection between writing and positive psychology. As a teacher, psychologist and writer, Martina has a lot to say about how writing can play a role in developing positive psychology.

‘When I sit down to write, I’m pursuing an ideal of total freedom.’ Rob Doyle talks here about his novel 'Here Are the Young Men', his story collection 'This is the Ritual', his forthcoming novel and an anthology of experimental Irish writing that he edited called 'The Other Irish Tradition'. He also talks about his introversion, a soon to be released movie of his novel and his passion for Nick Cave.

‘Sometimes I think this person can’t write a letter, so I don’t have the confidence that they can write a book.’  Jo Unwin went from working in a bookshop to establishing a very prestigious literary agency. We speak here about how she went from acting to setting up her agency. Jo talks about the importance of agents to writers, what she looks for in a writer and what influence technology is having on the literary world.

Kit de Waal’s latest novel; The Trick to Time tells two love stories, both involving Mona, a woman who has suffered a lot and who comes up with a way of using dolls to provide healing to women who have suffered the loss of a child. We talk about this in this interview as well as her great first novel; My Name is Leon, in which she drew a lot from her professional life in describing the experience of a child in a foster care system. Kit is also an advocate for protest, which comes up in thisdiscussion in the context of the housing protests taking place in Ireland.

This episode is a chat, a laugh and a song from Cork national treasure John Spillane. John tells us about his recent goings on, how his songwriting has changed through the years and he plays us a lovely version of Shanagolden as a tribute to Seán McCarthy.

The always engaging Michael Harding reads from his latest book ‘On Tuesdays I’m a Buddhist’ and goes on to talk to Chris about the importance of storytelling and his experiences of therapy, both of which are central themes of the book. He details his journey through various religions and philosophies and his connection to ritual as a means of ‘embracing the cosmos.’

Stephen James Smith is a poet with a voice that is unique yet distinctly Irish. He has written poems that epitomise being from Dublin, being from Ireland and being a son. He speaks about these poems in this conversation as well as the responsibility he feels when writing about his home, the financial struggles he faces as an artist living in Dublin and the many projects he is involved in at the moment.

In this episode, Chris talks to Emilie Pine who has just released her collection of essays called Notes To Self. In Notes to Self, Emilie beautifully articulates some of her most difficult experiences, in doing so, she gives the reader the opportunity to confront those experiences and emotions that we might tend to suppress. The collection is understandably getting a positive reaction from both critics and readers. Here she talks about some of this reaction and the difficulties that are inherent in writing about topics that are very personal.

In this episode, Chris talks to the brilliant Eimear McBride. Eimear talks here about her two novels, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing and The Lesser Bohemians as well as other projects she has been working on, including her work as the Inaugural Creative Fellow at The Samuel Beckett Research Centre. Eimear discusses adaptations of her work, in particular, the performance of Aoife Duffin in the stage adaptation of A Girl is a Half-formed Thing. She discusses how she edited The Lesser Bohemians from an eight-hundred page first draft to the final novel and tells us about a novella that she recently wrote while taking a break from a larger project.

Colm Tóibín is one of Ireland’s most prominent writers. A prolific writer of plays, essays, articles, poetry and many much-loved novels. In this wide-reaching discussion, Colm talks to us about change in Ireland, writing his recent novels compared to his earlier work, common themes in his writing and his process. The idea of flow in writing and sport is discussed as well as well as how he feels about his writing being analysed by others. He finishes by telling us about a book of essays that is due in November.

This podcast features interviews with President Michael D. Higgins and Professor Geraldine Higgins at the opening of Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again, a new exhibition featuring Heaney’s archives at the new Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre. President Higgins opened the exhibition and we feature excerpts from his speech at the event here in addition to an interview with the President as well as the curator of the exhibition. Listen Now Again opens on Friday, 6th July, and members of the public will be able to visit Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 4pm. In addition, the exhibition will open on a number of Sundays and other key dates, such as Culture Night. ‘Listen Now Again’ will run in the Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre until December 2021 and is free to enter. More information can be found at [www.nli.ie/seamusheaney](www.nli.ie/seamusheaney).

This episode features an interview with and reading from Gary Cunningham. In ‘Joys of Joy’ and ‘Life After Joy’ Gary wrote about his experiences as a prisoner and life after imprisonment respectively. Gary has gone through a lot and has used writing as a way of eloquently expressing his story. This should be a sad story, but Gary comes across as one of the most positive people around, infusing everything with humour and brutal honesty. This honesty comes across in this interview as Gary talks about the power of creativity, the process of getting over addiction and the rock opera that he is working on.

This is the first of a number episodes recorded at this year’s Listowel Writers’ Week.  Through a writing career spanning 55 years, Margaret Drabble has written such novels as A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Red Queen, and the highly-acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of The Oxford Companion to English Literature.  In this interview, Margaret discusses her career, what she is reading now, her reflections on editing The Oxford Companion to English Literature, what she would have done if she hadn’t become a writer and the recent referendum on abortion in Ireland in connection with The Millstone.

Paul McNamara – Performance Poet This episode features two performances and a chat with Paul McNamara. Paul has won a range of competitions for his performances and treated audiences at many festivals and events to his comedic and sincere poems that chronicle the misfortunes of a twenty-something Irish male. He delivers his poems with a precise rhythm and a physicality that make them rise from the platitude of a page and into something to be experienced rather than observed.  Paul performs his most well known piece, ‘Quarter Life Crisis’ before discussing what performance poetry is and how it differs from ‘page poetry’. Paul talks about the process of creating a performance poem and tells us about his one-man theatre and poetry show. Listen to the end for a second performance from Paul.

In the third episode of WriteStuff, Chris Fitzgerald interviews Kerry Neville. Kerry teaches creative writing at Georgia College and State University and was in Ireland to deliver workshops at the Frank McCourt Creative Writing Festival. Kerry’s first collection of fiction, Necessary Lies, received the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize in Fiction and was named a ForeWord Magazine Short Story Book of the Year. Last year, Kerry published her second collection, Remember to Forget Me, to great acclaim and she is currently working on her memoirs. Kerry has published her non-fction in The Fix, The Washington Post and The Huffington Post. In this wide-ranging conversation, Kerry talks about her Irish heritage, her role as a creative writing facilitator, writing that is ‘radically honest’, diversity of modern writing, publishing through modern media and much more.

In the second episode of WriteStuff, Chris Fitzgerald talks to Liz Nugent. Following on from the huge successes of her first two novels, Unravelling Oliver and Lying in Wait, Liz has just released Skin Deep. The novel tells the story of Cordelia and her relationships with various men as she moves from an Irish island to London and the French Riviera. As with all of Liz’s novels, it starts with a bloody scene and takes us through how this came about. Liz tells us about writing Skin Deep as well as other insights including the one book she wishes she had never read, her views on adaptations of her work and an exclusive piece of information on her fourth novel.

In this first episode of WriteStuff, we interview Donal Ryan. Donal is one of Ireland’s greatest literary talents, he has won a range of literary awards for his four novels and one collection of short stories, including The Guardian First Book Award for The Spinning Heart in 2013. Donal has just released his fourth novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea, which is receiving widespread praise for its weaving together of three seemingly distant narratives.  We talk about his new book and how he came to write about a Syrian refugee in From a Low and Quiet Sea. We touch on many aspects of Donal’s views on writing in this interview, including his advice for building fictional characters, finding his voice, dealing with good and bad reviews, his writing process from conception to publication, discipline, editing and drafting and his obsessive compulsion towards paragraphs.  Donal reveals his period of shame for writing in an Irish demotic voice before he overcame this to feel comfortable with pursuing writing in this vernacular. He critically reflects on the Spinning Heart and what he sees as its faults. He talks about the challenges he faces in his role as lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick and how that might influence his own writing and we use this perspective to talk about the current Irish writing scene. At the end of this podcast, Donal reads a very powerful passage from his new novel.