Podcast appearances and mentions of Maeve Brennan

This week we travel back in time 100 years (!) to meet Edna St. Vincent Millay, girl poet and emblem of 1920s Greenwich Village bohemia. We are joined by the writer (and my former professor) Kate Bolick, who wrote extensively about Millay in her 2015 book Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own. We discuss Edna's passionate free spirit, her tragic end, and the self-renewing Dream of writerly collaboration in downtown New York. More importantly, we discuss the age old question of how to build a sustainable life as a woman artist — how to define “meaning” vs. “noise” for yourself, and how to live it out with poise.Discussed:Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own, Kate Bolick (2015)“All the Single Ladies” Kate Bolick in The Atlantic (2011)Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Nancy Milford (2002)“How Fame Fed on Edna St. Vincent Millay” Maggie Doherty in The New Yorker (2022)The Long Winded Lady (collection of essays by Maeve Brennan in The New Yorker)

Hubert and Rose Derdon have been together for a life, but when Rose dies, Hubert finds he is unable to grieve for his wife, with Barry McGovern, David Herlihy, and Jane Brennan.

fWotD Episode 2750: Costello's Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia’s finest articles.The featured article for Thursday, 14 November 2024 is Costello's.Costello's (also known as Tim's) was a bar and restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, from 1929 to 1992. The bar operated at several locations near the intersection of East 44th Street and Third Avenue. Costello's was known as a drinking spot for journalists with the New York Daily News, writers with The New Yorker, novelists, and cartoonists, including the author Ernest Hemingway, the cartoonist James Thurber, the journalist John McNulty, the poet Brendan Behan, the short-story writer John O'Hara, and the writers Maeve Brennan and A. J. Liebling. The bar is also known for having been home to a wall where Thurber drew a cartoon depiction of the "Battle of the Sexes" at some point between 1934 and 1935; the cartoon was destroyed, illustrated again, and then lost in the 1990s. A wall illustrated in 1976 by several cartoonists, including Bill Gallo, Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne, is still on display at the bar's final location.The bar was founded in 1929 as a speakeasy on Third Avenue by brothers Tim and Joe Costello, who had emigrated to the United States from Ireland. Tim was known as an affable, intelligent proprietor with an interest in literature. In the early 1930s, the bar moved to the corner of East 44th Street and Third Avenue, before moving one door away on Third Avenue in 1949. The bar moved to its final location at 225 East 44th Street in 1974. Costello's closed in 1992; the Turtle Bay Café took over the space, operating until 2005. Since then, the location has been occupied by a sports bar called the Overlook. The bar is remembered through the stories that have been told about it over the years. The writer John McNulty is credited with creating a mythology around Costello's—which he called "this place on Third Avenue"—through a series of short stories published in The New Yorker in the 1940s.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:43 UTC on Thursday, 14 November 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Costello's on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Matthew.

A história de The Visitor, ou de A visita, é a seguinte: Anastasia volta para Dublin, capital da Irlanda, pra casa da avó. Ela cresceu nessa casa e quando tinha 16 anos se mudou pra Paris, com a mãe. Agora ela tá retornando com 22. A história começa no trem chegando em Dublin, em uma noite chuvosa. Anastasia é a protagonista. Outras personagens importantes são a avó, que só conhecemos pelo sobrenome, Sra. King. Katharine, que é a governanta da avó. E uma amiga da família, Norah Kilbride. Anastasia retorna pra morar com a avó porque a mãe dela faleceu, mas a avó deixa claro desde o início que não quer a neta ali. Por que será? *Atenção para não confundir quando eu me refiro à nora da Sra. King, que é a mãe da Anastasia, uma personagem sem nome, e quando me refiro a Norah, que é uma amiga da família. A pronúncia é a mesma. Durante a edição, percebi que poderia gerar dúvidas. Fiquem atentos!

Betty Mackereth was Philip Larkin's secretary at the library at the University of Hull. They were work colleagues and good friends, growing  closer and more intimate, as the years went on. Betty turns 100 on 27th June 2024. We begin with Betty herself in conversation with James Booth when James was beginning his research into his biography of Philip Larkin . James calls her, Larkin's ‘ageing muse of vitality'. After this, we hear directly from James Booth who spoke Lyn and trustee Philip Pullen at James's house earlier this year. Thank you and special birthday wishes to Betty and thank you to Magnus Mackereth, Betty's nephew, for giving us his blessing. Thanks again to James Booth and Philip Pullen and Simon Galloway for support with sound production. Mary Judd -- See "'What fun we had in the early sixties!' Philip Larkin and Mary Wrench (Judd)" by James Booth, in About Larkin 45 (April 2018). Having appreciated The Less Deceived, Mary (b.1923) applied for a post as Assistant Librarian in Hull in 1956, wanting to see "what a poet is like". Larkin interviewed her himself, and flattered (and also intimidated) by her familiarity with his poetry, saw her off from Hull on the coach with the words "I hope you'll come". She fitted into the Library well, befriending Maeve Brennan and Betty Mackereth, took part in the momentous move of the library into its new building in 1959, and stayed until 1964. She married Stephen Judd and Larkin visited her in the hospital where she gave birth to her first daughter, Helen in 1962. Larkin became a conscientious long-distance godfather to Helen, and kept in touch with Mary, sending her cards and the occasional letter. Suzanne Uniacke. (There is a village in County Cork called Uniacke. The Uniackes came over with the Conqueror. It's a rare name!) Suzanne was a Reader in the Philosophy Department in Hull from 2006 to 2013. Pauline Dennison was a library colleague of Maeve Bennan. She cut a formidable figure in charge of the Issue Desk in the Brynmor Jones for many years. Brenda Moon https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/31/brenda-moon-obituary Don Lee Don was a trustee of the PLS for many years, and developed many Larkin walks in sites across the country that are still used today. Ivor Maw Philip Pullen- My Friend Ivor Maw (About Larkin 42) https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-42.pdf Poems mentioned: Love Again, The Dance, I Am Jake Balakowsky, Morning at last there in the snow, When First We Faced, We Met at the end of the party, Aubade, Symphony in White Major, Oxford, Broadcast, Toads Revisited, The Large Cool Store The Philip Larkin I Knew- Maeve Brennan (Manchester University Press, 2002) Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth  (Bloomsbury, 2015) Letters Home by Philip Larkin ed. James Booth (Faber, 2018) The Importance of Elsewhere: Philip Larkin's Photographs by Richard Bradford (Francis Lincoln, 2015) Philip Larkin Collected Poems ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 1988) The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin ed. Archie Burnett (Faber, 2012) Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion (Faber, 1994) https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-35.pdf  Early Days in Philip Larkin's Library Betty Mackereth https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-25.pdf   'New Brooms' Philip Larkin Betty Mackereth Philip Larkin and the Third Woman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRibIbHPAws ‘Former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion discovers an unseen and unpublished poem by Philip Larkin when he returns to Hull to meet one of the poet's former lovers. Speaking for the first time about her relationship with Larkin, Betty Mackereth reveals the man behind the famous poems.' Cast: Andrew Motion First episode date: 7 December 2010 Robbins report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_Report Music: Laura - Sidney Bechet Petit Fleur- Monty Sunshine Reckless Blues- Bessie Smith

On this episode we hear from Sinéad Gleeson about her upcoming debut novel Hagstone. Set on a rugged island somewhere in the wild Atlantic it centres around the life of Nel an artist who draws inspiration from the landscape, folklore and unexplained phenomena that surround her. The island is also home to a reclusive community of women, the Inions, who task Nel with the creation of a new artwork, a request that leads her to uncover truths both about them and herself. If you've read Sinéad's essays or know her work as an editor then Hagstone is exactly as you'd imagine. Thought provoking, unafraid and above all else a work of great story-telling. It was great to get the chance to sit down with her and hear how the novel came into being. And, along the way, we also had the chance to look back at her essay collection Constellations, discuss the incredible energy of the Irish literary scene and the enduring presence of Maeve Brennan. Hagstone  a huge recommend and is published in just a couple of weeks by 4th Estate on April 12th @fieldzine /www.fieldzine.com

This week, Sinéad Gleeson delights in the byways of Maeve Brennan's New York; and Costica Bradatan explores the enduring appeal of Henry David Thoreau.'The Long-Winded Lady', by Maeve Brennan, with an introduction by Sinéad Gleeson'Thoreau's Axe: Distraction and Discipline in American Culture', by Caleb Smith'Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living', by John Kaag and Jonathan van Belle'Henry David Thoreau: Thinking Disobediently', by Lawrence BuellProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

La alfombra de rosas, de Maeve Brennan.

Sincere thanks to the Dalkey Book Festival for the invitation to interview Roddy Doyle. This was a chance to talk about things as diverse as Maeve Brennan, the impact of the 1974 Dublin bombings, Myles na gCopaleen and more. A language warning on this one.

This talk was given to the PLS in 2001 by Winifred Dawson. Winifred was born in London, but educated in Belfast which is where she met Larkin when they were both working at Queen's University Library. Win also went on to write herself and published a biography of Amy Audrey Locke, a muse for the poet WB Yeats. Win opens with a reflection on Larkin's love for his parents, However, the talk is mainly about Larkin's relationship with the women in his life: Ruth Bowman, Winifred, Monica Jones, Patsy Strang, Maeve Brennan (who is listening in the audience) and Betty Mackereth. Ruth, Maeve and Win went on to form a friendship, having first met at Ruth's house in 1993, 8 years after Larkin died. Maeve Brennan can be heard very briefly at the end of the talk. The talk is full of humour, and a frank account of her feelings about Larkin, as well as readings of Larkin's poetry and letters. The poetry readings were not recorded at the time of the talk, and so are instead read by members of the current Philip Larkin Society committee. We have also added the 1975 poem ‘When first we faced' after Toads Revisited as a second poem about Betty Mackereth. Books and writers mentioned: Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion(1993) Philip Larkin Selected Letters ed. Anthony Thwaite (1993) Playing the Harlot- Patsy Avis (published by Virago in 1996) Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954) Peter Ackroyd, Katherine Mansfield, Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two- Birds (1939),  The Real Charlotte by Somerville and Ross (1894), John Betjeman, Scenes from Provincial Life by William Cooper (1950) , DH Lawrence, The Porter's Daughter: The Life of Amy Audrey Locke by Winifred Dawson (Sarsen Press, 2014) Larkin's review of The Girls by Henry de Montherlant (1959) can be found in Required Writing (1983) Poems mentioned- poems which are read in the episode are in bold: Days, Faith Healing, An April Sunday Brings the Snow , Reference Back, Mother, Summer, I Wild Oats, No Road, Within the dream you said, Show Saturday, Talking in Bed, Poem About Oxford,  Latest Face,  Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album, At thirty-one, when some are rich He hears his beloved, Long roots, Maiden Name, Broadcast, Morning at last,  Toads Revisited, When First We Faced, To My Wife, Counting,  An Arundel Tomb References: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/28/winifred-dawson Ann Thwaite's obituary of Win Dawson https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-01.pdf First issue of About Larkin  Further reading: Philip Larkin, Life, Art and Love by James Booth (Bloomsbury, 2014) Thank you to Jim Orwin for the original  recording and sleeve notes. Thank you to Graham Chesters, Simon Smith, Daniel Vince, Phil Pullen, Clarissa Hard, Rachael Galletly, Alex Davis, Gavin Hogg and Julian wild for reading the poems. Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com  Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Nochebuena, de Maeve Brennan.

Claire-Louise Bennett joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Family Walls,” by Maeve Brennan, which was published in The New Yorker in 1973. Bennett has published two books of fiction, “Pond” and “Checkout 19.”

O conto é “A noiva”, uma tradução minha do conto “The Bride”, que consta no livro The Rose Garden, uma compilação publicada no ano 2000, com contos da Maeve Brennan (1917-1993) em que quase todas as histórias se passam em Nova York.

Perry and David wind up the year by talking about the books they've read recently, including some neglected works and one being celebrated thirty years after it was first published. Introduction (02:36) General News (09:44) 2022 Best of the Year articles (04:59) 2022 Patrick White Award (01:20) Prime Minister's Literary Award (03:12) What we've been reading (53:17) How do you choose what to read next? (05:32) Ithaca by Claire North (07:56) The Visitor by Maeve Brennan (08:25) The Secret History by Donna Tartt (07:49) Night Blue by Angela O'Keeffe (09:13) The High House by Jessie Greengrass (07:17) A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi (06:50) Brief mentions (04:01) Psalms for the End of the World by Cole Haddon (00:28) The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner by Grace Tame(00:34) The Unbelieved by Vicki Petraitis (00:28) Mountains of the Mind by Robert McFarlane (01:15) Hull Three Zero by Greg Bear (00:59) Windup Image created by Wombo.art.

Perry and David wind up the year by talking about the books they've read recently, including some neglected works and one being celebrated thirty years after it was first published. Introduction (02:36) General News (09:44) 2022 Best of the Year articles (04:59) 2022 Patrick White Award (01:20) Prime Minister's Literary Award (03:12) What we've been reading (53:17) How do you choose what to read next? (05:32) Ithaca by Claire North (07:56) The Visitor by Maeve Brennan (08:25) The Secret History by Donna Tartt (07:49) Night Blue by Angela O'Keeffe (09:13) The High House by Jessie Greengrass (07:17) A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi (06:50) Brief mentions (04:01) Psalms for the End of the World by Cole Haddon (00:28) The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner by Grace Tame(00:34) The Unbelieved by Vicki Petraitis (00:28) Mountains of the Mind by Robert McFarlane (01:15) Hull Three Zero by Greg Bear (00:59) Windup Click here for more info and indexes. Image created by Wombo.art.

There can be few writers more deserving of Backlisted's attention than the Irish writer, Maeve Brennan. An adopted New Yorker, Brennan died there in 1993 and was by that time so thoroughly forgotten in her native land, that she received no obituaries in any Irish papers. We are joined by the writers Sinéad Gleason and David Hayden to discuss her collection, The Springs of Affection – subtitled ‘stories of Dublin' – which was first published posthumously by Houghton Mifflin in 1997, although all but one of these first appeared in the New Yorker, where Brennan was a staff writer for twenty-seven years. It was the enthusiastic praise from other writers including Alice Munro, Edna O'Brien and Mavis Gallant among others, that helped get The Springs of Affection the kind of international attention that the two collections published in Maeve's lifetime failed to achieve. Since then, Maeve Brennan's reputation has grown steadily, and her stories are now regularly and favourably compared to those of Joyce, Chekov and Colette. In Ireland, in particular, she has won the admiration of a new generation of women writers, who in Anne Enright's phrase, see her as ‘a casualty of old wars not yet won.' This episode also features Andy revisiting the Linda Nochlin's classic 1971 essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? while John is impressed by Orlam, P.J. Harvey's dark and brooding verse novel, written entirely in Dorset dialect. Timings: 08:44 - Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin 16:16 - Orlam by P.J. Harvey 22:46 - The Springs Of Affection By Maeve Brennan * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm * If you'd like to support the show, receive the show early and get extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/backlisted

A new collection of pieces on literature and life by the author of Am I Alone Here?, a finalist for the NBCC Award for Criticism. Stationed in the South Pacific during World War II, Seymour Orner wrote a letter every day to his wife, Lorraine. She seldom responded, leading him to plead in 1945, “Another day and still no word from you.” Seventy years later, Peter Orner writes in response to his grandfather's plea: “Maybe we read because we seek that word from someone, from anyone.” From the acclaimed fiction writer about whom Dwight Garner of The New York Times wrote, “You know from the second you pick him up that he's the real deal,” comes Still No Word from You, a unique chain of essays and intimate stories that meld the lived life and the reading life. For Orner, there is no separation. Covering such well-known writers as Lorraine Hansberry, Primo Levi, and Marilynne Robinson, as well as other greats like Maeve Brennan and James Alan McPherson, Orner's highly personal take on literature alternates with his own true stories of loss and love, hope and despair. In his mother's copy of A Coney Island of the Mind, he's stopped short by a single word in the margin, “YES!”—which leads him to conjure his mother at twenty-three. He stops reading Penelope Fitzgerald's The Beginning of Spring three quarters of the way through because he knows that finishing the novel will leave him bereft. Orner's solution is to start again from the beginning to slow the inevitable heartache. Still No Word from You is a book for anyone for whom reading is as essential as breathing. MORE: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

Esse vídeo corresponde à segunda aula do Minicurso "No place is home": Literatura de Migração em contos de Maeve Brennan, para a UNIFESSPA/FALET, em 5 de outubro de 2022. A aula 1, infelizmente, não foi gravada. Errata: Os outros textos de Maeve Brennan que falam nas mudanças em Nova York estão em The Long-Winded Lady (1998). Em The Springs of Affection (1997), o cenário dos contos é a Irlanda. Obrigada à Unifesspa/Falet pelo espaço, à professora Dra. Suellen Cordovil e aos participantes. O conteúdo da aula é parte da minha pesquisa de pós-doutorado pelo programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Literários UFSM (PPGL) com apoio do CNPq.

After nearly 20 years the Richmond Road Studio artists, creators and tenants are facing eviction into a Dublin that has no space for their work. Joining us to discuss this are painter Maeve Brennan and sculptor Adam Gibney. Cultural spaces are been pushed out of Dublin and with it the artists who should be the creative soul of the city. Sign the petition:https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/save-richmond-road-studios Join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack

El torno de los rumores, de Maeve Brennan.

POSTFACE, émission présentée par Caroline Gutmann. Elle reçoit Thierry Clermont, journaliste, critique musical et écrivain pour son livre " La balade de Galway" paru chez Arléa et parlera du livre de Yoann Lacono, "Le stradivarius de Goebbels" chez Slatkine et CIE. À propos du livre : "La balade de Galway " paru aux éditions Arléa Un ciel qui bouge, comme l'océan instable, au-dessus du vert tendre et lumineux des prés à l'herbe courte. L'horizon semble avoir disparu. À en donner le vertige. Nous sommes à Galway, l'une des pointes les plus occidentales de l'Irlande. Jamais fantômes n'auront été plus sereins dans un paysage. L'Irlande est une terre habitée par les vivants et les morts. La Balade de Galway leur rend hommage, et Thierry Clermont s'y promène avec les ombres familières de Joyce, Beckett et W.B. Yeats, ou la belle Maeve Brennan jusque sur les îles d'Aran. Après la pluie, se faufile, malicieux, un peut rongeur curieux dans le vert enchanté et infini des prairies.

Anne Enright delivered her first US lecture as Laureate for Irish Fiction at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House as part of the Laureate programme in April 2016. Speaking prior to the lecture, Enright said, “When I flew to New York in February 2000 I thought my life could not get better: I was pregnant, I was bringing the proofs for my first New Yorker story in my bag, and I met Seamus Heaney on the plane. The next day I went to the offices of the magazine and paused in the ladies room to remember Maeve Brennan, and to consider the rumour that she lived for a while in the washroom of the old offices on West 43rd St. I have always been interested in what drives a writer mad. It was natural for me to think about Brennan while I was living in the city this year. I wanted to put her on the streets of New York, to write about place - but of course I wrote about madness instead. What is the difference between imagination and psychosis? And what made it impossible for Maeve Brennan, an Irish woman abroad, to be herself?” Anne Enright was the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. The Laureate for Irish Fiction promotes Irish literature nationally and internationally and encourage the public to engage with high quality Irish fiction. The Laureate for Irish Fiction has been developed by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and is supported by University College Dublin (UCD) and New York University (NYU).

Un relato en el que la agudeza de la escritora y periodista irlandesa Maeve Brennan retrata algunos de los estereotipos sociales de su época.

ESSENTIEL, les rendez-vous du jeudi – Un monde de livres présenté par Josyane Savigneau qui reçoit Samuel Brussel, éditeur et écrivain, Thierry Clermont, journaliste et écrivain et Aurélie Serfaty-Bercoff, attachée de presse À propos du livre : "Alphabet triestin" Paru aux éditions La Baconnière J’ai découvert Trieste en faisant mon premier voyage comme employé de la Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, au début des années 1980. Au fil des années, j’y retournerai souvent. Je fréquentais pendant mes haltes la Libreria Internazionale Italo Svevo, où je rencontrai Bruno Maier, grand lettré italien, qui m’ouvrit sa bibliothèque et me fit découvrir de précieux trésors oubliés du monde triestin et istrien. Au mois de mars 2017, je tombai sur une dépêche de l’Agence de Presse italienne ANSA, qui annonçait la découverte d’une dizaine de lettres échangées entre le mythique Roberto (Bobi) Bazlen et Anita Pittoni. Anita s’apprêtait, en 1949, à lancer une maison d’édition, le Zibaldone, et demandait à son ami Bobi d’y participer. Je connaissais Anita Pittoni comme éditrice d’un des catalogues les plus raffinés de l’Europe de l’après-guerre et voilà que je découvrais l’écrivaine, avec ses lettres et son Journal, que venait de publier le libraire Volpato. C’est alors que j’eus une vision : libraires et éditeurs, artistes, écrivains et poètes : tous ces artisans ne formaient qu’un seul monde, le monde de la beauté et de la connaissance qui révèle à chacun son identité. Pendant quelques mois, j’écumais les librairies et les Archives de Trieste, dans une enquête qui me porta de rencontre en rencontre. Ce fut le début d’Alphabet triestin. Samuel Brussell a fondé et dirigé les Editions Anatolia de 1992 à 2011. Il est l’auteur d’une douzaine de récits romanesques, publiés principalement chez Grasset et à la Baconnière. Continent’ Italia, son prochain livre, paraîtra chez Stock en 2021. Samuel Brussell est l'auteur de nombreux essais et récits romanesques. Il a fondé et dirigé les éditions Anotalia de 1992 à 2011. Il collabore aux pages littéraires du journal Le Temps. Alphabet triestin est son douzième livre. À propos du livre : "La Balade de Galway" Paru aux éditions Arléa Un ciel qui bouge, comme l'océan instable, au-dessus du vert tendre et lumineux des prés à l'herbe courte. L'horizon semble avoir disparu. À en donner le vertige. Nous sommes à Galway, l'une des pointes les plus occidentales de l'Irlande. Jamais fantômes n'auront été plus sereins dans un paysage. L'Irlande est une terre habitée par les vivants et les morts. La Balade de Galway leur rend hommage, et Thierry Clermont s'y promène avec les ombres familières de Joyce, Beckett et W.B. Yeats, ou la belle Maeve Brennan jusque sur les îles d'Aran. Après la pluie, se faufile, malicieux, un peut rongeur curieux dans le vert enchanté et infini des prairies. Thierry Clermont est journaliste et écrivain. Ses derniers livres, San Michele et Barroco bordello ont été publiés au Seuil.

Eleanor Fitzsimons discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known. Eleanor Fitzsimons is a writer and researcher who lives in Dublin. She is the author of Wilde’s Women (Duckworth, 2015), which won the silver medal in the Biography category of the 2018 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. She is an honorary patron of the Oscar Wilde Society and a member of the editorial board of society journal The Wildean. Her second book, The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit (Duckworth, 2019), was a Sunday Times Book of the Year 2019, and was included in the Washington Post Top 50 Non-Fiction Books of 2019. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Dalkey Emerging Writer Award and won the Rubery Book Award for Non-Fiction. She has worked as a television researcher for the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ and was a contributor to The Importance of Being Oscar (BBC2, April 2019). The Diaries of George Bernard Shaw https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diaries-1885-97-Earlier-Fragments-1875-1917/dp/0271003863 The Tetrapod imprints on Valentia Island, County Kerry https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tetrapod-trackway The Short Fiction of Maeve Brennan https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/maeve-brennan-a-writer-who-was-at-home-in-neither-ireland-nor-america-1.3996762 The ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/how-japanese-art-technique-kintsugi-can-help-you-be-more-ncna866471 The Trier Amphitheater https://www.trier-info.de/en/places-of-interest/the-amphitheatre The Vaughan Bequest at the National Galleries of Scotland and Ireland https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/turner-vaughan-bequest This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

This week, guest Mairead Kiernan shares the tale of Maeve Brennan. Maeve was a glamourous and troubled writer who wrote for the New Yorker and Harper's Bazaar during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. A combination of Carrie Bradshaw, Nora Ephron and Grey Gardens, Maeve has seen a recent resurgence of popularity in Irish literary circles. Listen to this week's episode to find out more. Notes/ References Maeve Brennan: Homesick at the New Yorker; Angela Bourke, 2016; The Visitor; Maeve Brennan, 2001 published by New Island Press; Yvonnejerrold.com: Robert Brennan 1881-1964; Irish America: The Troubled Life of Meave Brennan; County Wexford 1916 Commemorative Website: Una Brennan; The New Yorker: Page Turner, A Maeve Brennan Revival?; The Irish Times: Maeve Brennan podcast with her biographer Angela Bourke; The New Yorker: Roddy Doyle reads Life without Children. Music by GeriArt from Pixabay

En una nueva emisión de Vidas Prestadas, Hinde Pomeraniec entrevistó  a la poeta, ensayista, traductora y Directora de la Maestría de Escritura Creativa de Untref María Negroni. En la sección Libros Que Sí, Hinde recomendó “Los papeles de Puttermesser”, de Cynthia Ozick, editado por Mardulce Editora y “Hospital francés”, de Daniel Gigena  publicado por Caleta Olivia. Y en La escondida contó la historia de la escritora y periodista irlandesa Maeve Brennan. En Mesita de luz la escritora y periodista Miriam Molero contó que libros está leyendo y en Voz Alta el  cineasta, escritor y dramaturgo Santiago Loza leyó un fragmento de “Toda una vida”, de Robert Seethaler.

Lyn and Rachael have been friends for over twenty years. In this episode, they discuss their shared enthusiasm for all things Larkin. Larkin poems referred to: Afternoons, Dockery and Son, The Mower, Sunny Prestatyn, The Large Cool Store, A Study of Reading Habits, Toads, Toads Revisited, As Bad as A Mile, Vers De Societe, Home is So Sad, At Grass, The Old Fools, Solar, Church Going, For Sidney Bechet, Reference Back, Wild Oats, Take One Home For the Kiddies. Prose: Jill and A Girl In Winter by Philip Larkin. Other Larkinalia: Trouble at Willow Gables, Selected Letters of Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite, The Philip Larkin I Knew by Maeve Brennan, Treat It Gentle by Sidney Bechet, The Sunday Sessions. Other bits and bobs: And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison, Modern Life is Rubbish (LP) by Blur, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Waste Land by TS Eliot. Presented by Lyn Lockwood. Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Audio production by Simon Galloway. Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Listen back to Dublin: One City, One Book 2018, when we celebrated The Long Gaze Back, and the female voice in Irish literature. This anthology of 30 short stories is edited by Sinead Gleeson. In this episode of the DCLA podcast, author Kathleen Hill gives an introduction to the life and work of Maeve Brennan, and how Ranelagh and New York helped inform the themes of exile and loss that run through her writing. Maeve Brennan was born in Dublin in 1917. She grew up in Ranelagh, her family left Ireland to live in Washington D.C. when Maeve was 17. Kathleen reads from Brennan's novella The Visitor, and short stories 'Stories of Africa' and 'The Poor Men and Women' both published in Springs of Affection. Introduction by jazz singer, composer and lyricist Emilie Conway who wrote "You Won't Forget Me" - A Celebration of Maeve Brennan in Words & Music. Recorded at Ranelagh Arts Centre on 15 April 2018. Our theme tune is Dream of the forest (jazzy mix) by articom (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. dig.ccmixter.org/files/articom/61177

Met Marita De Sterck over haar boek 'Demonen' en Roderik Six over 'Viralen', een nieuw digitaal literair magazine. Lieven Segers, voorzitter van het NICC, pleit voor een noodfonds voor de kunstwereld nu veel initiatieven afgeblazen werden door de coronacrisis. Christophe Vekeman las 'De breedsprakige dame' van Maeve Brennan.

Sie galt als Stilikone und begnadete Kolumnistin des "New Yorker", war Autorin zahlreicher Erzählungen und hat Truman Capote so beeindruckt, das er sie zum Vorbild für Holly Golightly in "Frühstück bei Tiffanys" erkor – dennoch ist die irisch-amerikanische Autorin Maeve Brennan fast vergessen. Andreas Schäfer stellt sie vor.

Hast du schon einmal von Maeve Brennan gehört? Hatte ich auch nicht. Bis ich Michaela Karls “Ich würde so etwas nie ohne Lippenstift lesen” gelesen habe. Jetzt habe ich das Gefühl, dass sie DIE Ikone im New York der 30er Jahre war. Und ich frage mich, wie schafft diese Autorin es bloß, eine Schriftstellerin von einem persönlichen Nobody zu einer persönlichen Heldin zu machen? Mein Artikel zum Thema "Muse": http://lebelieberliterarisch.de/literatur-kolume-das-drama-mit-der-muse/ (öffnet in neuem Tab) Mein Artikel zu Lou Andreas-Salomé: http://lebelieberliterarisch.de/freundschaft-liebe-zusammenarbeit-was-zeigt-uns-diese-stilometrische-analyse/ Und diese Folge als Blogartikel: http://lebelieberliterarisch.de/wie-man-eine-ikone-erschafft/ Viel Spaß damit!

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL 2019 – HEREAFTER Post-Screening Discussion: Maeve Brennan in conversation with Mirna Belina 22 February – De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Following the screening of Listening in the Dark (44 min, 2018), Maeve Brennan discusses the film with Mirna Belina and takes questions from the audience. Maeve Brennan’s film Listening in the Dark (44 min, 2018) takes a documentary approach, gathering a series of subtle yet penetrating soundings of human beings’ impact on the natural environment. Undisturbed, and largely unchanged for millions of years, bats’ nocturnal rhythms are being increasingly interrupted by the presence of wind turbines. While noting how such well-intentioned technological developments are affecting the atmosphere in ways we do not always appreciate, Brennan also illuminates how scientific research has revealed a whole sensory dimension that we were previously oblivious to. The film circles around the figure of Donald Griffin, pioneering zoologist and early advocate of animal consciousness, whose researches into bat navigation helped shape our understanding of the concept of echolocation. Following his example, Brennan reminds us, too, of other natural marvels – from the mysteries of animal evolution or the deep historical time of geology – that reveal not only our humbling insignificance in the bigger scheme of things, but also the disproportionate damage we are capable of doing to the planet. Director: Maeve Brennan; Director of photography: Jamie Quantrill; Editor: Mariko Montpetit; Producer: Laura Shacham Listening in the Dark was commissioned for the Jerwood/​FVU Awards 2018: Unintended Consequences, a collaboration between Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Film and Video Umbrella. Maeve Brennan is a London-based artist and filmmaker. Her recent solo exhibitions include Listening in the Dark at Jerwood Space, London, and Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin; The Drift at Chisenhale Gallery, London, and Spike Island, Bristol (all 2017); and Jerusalem Pink, OUTPOST, Norwich (2016). She was educated at Goldsmiths, University of London, and was a fellow of the Home Workspace Programme at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut (2013 – 14). She received the Jerwood/​FVU Award 2018 and her film The Drift was screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam.

With the aim of encouraging a co-production of indigenous and scientific knowledge to tackle climate extremes, filmmaker Maeve Brennan and researchers from King’s Department of Geography, Dr Camilla Audia and Frances Crowley, researched the knowledge and expertise held in Burkina Faso’s rural households; homes that are subject to the most immediate and dramatic effects of climate change. Academics and artists work together to offer new perspectives on contemporary issues. Now in its second year, the King’s College London x Somerset House Studios scheme sees Studios residents receive support to collaborate with King’s researchers, with each artist-academic partnership creating projects that test ideas and offer new perspectives on contemporary issues. https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/blog/kings-college-london-x-somerset-house-studios-scheme-2018

Podcast of Dr Ellen McWilliams's lecture - Style and Self-Invention in the Writing of Maeve Brennan - as part of 'Maeve Brennan (1917-1993): Centenary Perspectives'.

Podcast of a panel - Maeve Brennan: Texts and Contexts - as part of 'Maeve Brennan (1917-1993): Centenary Perspectives'.

Podcast of a panel - Maeve Brennan: Texts and Contexts - as part of 'Maeve Brennan (1917-1993): Centenary Perspectives'.

Podcast of Dr Ellen McWilliams's lecture - Style and Self-Invention in the Writing of Maeve Brennan - as part of 'Maeve Brennan (1917-1993): Centenary Perspectives'.

To celebrate the centenary of the birth of author and New Yorker magazine staff writer Maeve Brennan, whose work went largely unnoticed here until after her death, Irish Times books editor Martin Doyle and journalist Patrick Freyne talked to her biographer Angela Bourke.

Maeve Brennan’s short stories have long been admired by writers and cherished by readers. Born in Dublin in 1917, she became a staff writer at the New Yorker, and brought her formidable powers of perception and scathing wit to stories of childhood, marriage, longing and exile before dying in obscurity in the early nineties. Now a new edition of her celebrated Dublin stories, The Springs of Affection, aims to bring her to a wider readership. Join us as publisher Declan Meade talks to broadcaster and critic, Sinéad Gleeson, and Brennan’s biographer, Angela Bourke, about her troubled life; and actress Caitriona Ní Mhurchú reads extracts from the work of one of the forgotten greats of twentieth-century Irish fiction. Presented in association with The Stinging Fly.

“There still exists little organized sense of what a woman's biography or autobiography should look like,” Carolyn G. Heilbrun wrote in her 1988 classic, Writing A Woman's Life, noting, “Even less has been told of the life of the unmarried woman.” One can only hope that Kate Bolick‘s Spinster is a sign that, nearly thirty years later, the circumstances Heilbrun described are, at long last, about to change. Bolick burst onto the national scene when her article in The Atlantic, entitled “All the Single Ladies,” went viral in November 2011. But Spinster is a departure from her reportage rather than a continuation or a sequel– a biographical/autobiographical/sociological mash-up that is engaging, observant, and fiercely critical. Examining the socio-historical phenomenon of the feme sole, Bolick mines her own experiences and the lives she's read about to examine how, as Heilbrun suggested, we use the stories of other lives to navigate our own. “Taken together,” Bolick writes of the people whose lives interested her, “they were a dynasty of adopted uncles and aunts adults who weren't my parents who opened portals to lives I couldn't have imagined until they showed me how.” This is a process of which we are often unconscious as it's happening, but which becomes visible in hindsight. It is also, I believe, one of the great values of reading biography: the ability of these stories of other people's lives to open possibilities within our own. It's a dynamic not limited to stories of the lives of women, but it does appear to hold particular resonance for female readers, perhaps due to the relative cultural scarcity of representations of unconventional female lives. In her quest to become a writer, Bolick notes, “Maeve Brennan served a psychological purpose for me. By climbing into her point of view and trying it on for size I was cobbling together a template for my own future.” Spinster provides compelling evidence of both the personal and collective power of stories and our use of them. It also reveals something of the life of the unmarried woman, elegantly illuminating an experience that has, up to now, been culturally undervalued and, often, biographically ignored. Oline Eaton is a doctoral researcher at King's College London. She is writing a biography of Jackie Onassis and has written extensively on the subjects of biography, celebrity, and gossip, and the flow of stories through culture. Her work can be found at FindingJackie.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“There still exists little organized sense of what a woman’s biography or autobiography should look like,” Carolyn G. Heilbrun wrote in her 1988 classic, Writing A Woman’s Life, noting, “Even less has been told of the life of the unmarried woman.” One can only hope that Kate Bolick‘s Spinster is a sign that, nearly thirty years later, the circumstances Heilbrun described are, at long last, about to change. Bolick burst onto the national scene when her article in The Atlantic, entitled “All the Single Ladies,” went viral in November 2011. But Spinster is a departure from her reportage rather than a continuation or a sequel– a biographical/autobiographical/sociological mash-up that is engaging, observant, and fiercely critical. Examining the socio-historical phenomenon of the feme sole, Bolick mines her own experiences and the lives she’s read about to examine how, as Heilbrun suggested, we use the stories of other lives to navigate our own. “Taken together,” Bolick writes of the people whose lives interested her, “they were a dynasty of adopted uncles and aunts adults who weren’t my parents who opened portals to lives I couldn’t have imagined until they showed me how.” This is a process of which we are often unconscious as it’s happening, but which becomes visible in hindsight. It is also, I believe, one of the great values of reading biography: the ability of these stories of other people’s lives to open possibilities within our own. It’s a dynamic not limited to stories of the lives of women, but it does appear to hold particular resonance for female readers, perhaps due to the relative cultural scarcity of representations of unconventional female lives. In her quest to become a writer, Bolick notes, “Maeve Brennan served a psychological purpose for me. By climbing into her point of view and trying it on for size I was cobbling together a template for my own future.” Spinster provides compelling evidence of both the personal and collective power of stories and our use of them. It also reveals something of the life of the unmarried woman, elegantly illuminating an experience that has, up to now, been culturally undervalued and, often, biographically ignored. Oline Eaton is a doctoral researcher at King’s College London. She is writing a biography of Jackie Onassis and has written extensively on the subjects of biography, celebrity, and gossip, and the flow of stories through culture. Her work can be found at FindingJackie.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“There still exists little organized sense of what a woman’s biography or autobiography should look like,” Carolyn G. Heilbrun wrote in her 1988 classic, Writing A Woman’s Life, noting, “Even less has been told of the life of the unmarried woman.” One can only hope that Kate Bolick‘s Spinster is a sign that, nearly thirty years later, the circumstances Heilbrun described are, at long last, about to change. Bolick burst onto the national scene when her article in The Atlantic, entitled “All the Single Ladies,” went viral in November 2011. But Spinster is a departure from her reportage rather than a continuation or a sequel– a biographical/autobiographical/sociological mash-up that is engaging, observant, and fiercely critical. Examining the socio-historical phenomenon of the feme sole, Bolick mines her own experiences and the lives she’s read about to examine how, as Heilbrun suggested, we use the stories of other lives to navigate our own. “Taken together,” Bolick writes of the people whose lives interested her, “they were a dynasty of adopted uncles and aunts adults who weren’t my parents who opened portals to lives I couldn’t have imagined until they showed me how.” This is a process of which we are often unconscious as it’s happening, but which becomes visible in hindsight. It is also, I believe, one of the great values of reading biography: the ability of these stories of other people’s lives to open possibilities within our own. It’s a dynamic not limited to stories of the lives of women, but it does appear to hold particular resonance for female readers, perhaps due to the relative cultural scarcity of representations of unconventional female lives. In her quest to become a writer, Bolick notes, “Maeve Brennan served a psychological purpose for me. By climbing into her point of view and trying it on for size I was cobbling together a template for my own future.” Spinster provides compelling evidence of both the personal and collective power of stories and our use of them. It also reveals something of the life of the unmarried woman, elegantly illuminating an experience that has, up to now, been culturally undervalued and, often, biographically ignored. Oline Eaton is a doctoral researcher at King’s College London. She is writing a biography of Jackie Onassis and has written extensively on the subjects of biography, celebrity, and gossip, and the flow of stories through culture. Her work can be found at FindingJackie.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“There still exists little organized sense of what a woman’s biography or autobiography should look like,” Carolyn G. Heilbrun wrote in her 1988 classic, Writing A Woman’s Life, noting, “Even less has been told of the life of the unmarried woman.” One can only hope that Kate Bolick‘s Spinster is a sign that, nearly thirty years later, the circumstances Heilbrun described are, at long last, about to change. Bolick burst onto the national scene when her article in The Atlantic, entitled “All the Single Ladies,” went viral in November 2011. But Spinster is a departure from her reportage rather than a continuation or a sequel– a biographical/autobiographical/sociological mash-up that is engaging, observant, and fiercely critical. Examining the socio-historical phenomenon of the feme sole, Bolick mines her own experiences and the lives she’s read about to examine how, as Heilbrun suggested, we use the stories of other lives to navigate our own. “Taken together,” Bolick writes of the people whose lives interested her, “they were a dynasty of adopted uncles and aunts adults who weren’t my parents who opened portals to lives I couldn’t have imagined until they showed me how.” This is a process of which we are often unconscious as it’s happening, but which becomes visible in hindsight. It is also, I believe, one of the great values of reading biography: the ability of these stories of other people’s lives to open possibilities within our own. It’s a dynamic not limited to stories of the lives of women, but it does appear to hold particular resonance for female readers, perhaps due to the relative cultural scarcity of representations of unconventional female lives. In her quest to become a writer, Bolick notes, “Maeve Brennan served a psychological purpose for me. By climbing into her point of view and trying it on for size I was cobbling together a template for my own future.” Spinster provides compelling evidence of both the personal and collective power of stories and our use of them. It also reveals something of the life of the unmarried woman, elegantly illuminating an experience that has, up to now, been culturally undervalued and, often, biographically ignored. Oline Eaton is a doctoral researcher at King’s College London. She is writing a biography of Jackie Onassis and has written extensively on the subjects of biography, celebrity, and gossip, and the flow of stories through culture. Her work can be found at FindingJackie.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“There still exists little organized sense of what a woman’s biography or autobiography should look like,” Carolyn G. Heilbrun wrote in her 1988 classic, Writing A Woman’s Life, noting, “Even less has been told of the life of the unmarried woman.” One can only hope that Kate Bolick‘s Spinster is a sign that, nearly thirty years later, the circumstances Heilbrun described are, at long last, about to change. Bolick burst onto the national scene when her article in The Atlantic, entitled “All the Single Ladies,” went viral in November 2011. But Spinster is a departure from her reportage rather than a continuation or a sequel– a biographical/autobiographical/sociological mash-up that is engaging, observant, and fiercely critical. Examining the socio-historical phenomenon of the feme sole, Bolick mines her own experiences and the lives she’s read about to examine how, as Heilbrun suggested, we use the stories of other lives to navigate our own. “Taken together,” Bolick writes of the people whose lives interested her, “they were a dynasty of adopted uncles and aunts adults who weren’t my parents who opened portals to lives I couldn’t have imagined until they showed me how.” This is a process of which we are often unconscious as it’s happening, but which becomes visible in hindsight. It is also, I believe, one of the great values of reading biography: the ability of these stories of other people’s lives to open possibilities within our own. It’s a dynamic not limited to stories of the lives of women, but it does appear to hold particular resonance for female readers, perhaps due to the relative cultural scarcity of representations of unconventional female lives. In her quest to become a writer, Bolick notes, “Maeve Brennan served a psychological purpose for me. By climbing into her point of view and trying it on for size I was cobbling together a template for my own future.” Spinster provides compelling evidence of both the personal and collective power of stories and our use of them. It also reveals something of the life of the unmarried woman, elegantly illuminating an experience that has, up to now, been culturally undervalued and, often, biographically ignored. Oline Eaton is a doctoral researcher at King’s College London. She is writing a biography of Jackie Onassis and has written extensively on the subjects of biography, celebrity, and gossip, and the flow of stories through culture. Her work can be found at FindingJackie.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“There still exists little organized sense of what a woman’s biography or autobiography should look like,” Carolyn G. Heilbrun wrote in her 1988 classic, Writing A Woman’s Life, noting, “Even less has been told of the life of the unmarried woman.” One can only hope that Kate Bolick‘s Spinster is a sign that, nearly thirty years later, the circumstances Heilbrun described are, at long last, about to change. Bolick burst onto the national scene when her article in The Atlantic, entitled “All the Single Ladies,” went viral in November 2011. But Spinster is a departure from her reportage rather than a continuation or a sequel– a biographical/autobiographical/sociological mash-up that is engaging, observant, and fiercely critical. Examining the socio-historical phenomenon of the feme sole, Bolick mines her own experiences and the lives she’s read about to examine how, as Heilbrun suggested, we use the stories of other lives to navigate our own. “Taken together,” Bolick writes of the people whose lives interested her, “they were a dynasty of adopted uncles and aunts adults who weren’t my parents who opened portals to lives I couldn’t have imagined until they showed me how.” This is a process of which we are often unconscious as it’s happening, but which becomes visible in hindsight. It is also, I believe, one of the great values of reading biography: the ability of these stories of other people’s lives to open possibilities within our own. It’s a dynamic not limited to stories of the lives of women, but it does appear to hold particular resonance for female readers, perhaps due to the relative cultural scarcity of representations of unconventional female lives. In her quest to become a writer, Bolick notes, “Maeve Brennan served a psychological purpose for me. By climbing into her point of view and trying it on for size I was cobbling together a template for my own future.” Spinster provides compelling evidence of both the personal and collective power of stories and our use of them. It also reveals something of the life of the unmarried woman, elegantly illuminating an experience that has, up to now, been culturally undervalued and, often, biographically ignored. Oline Eaton is a doctoral researcher at King’s College London. She is writing a biography of Jackie Onassis and has written extensively on the subjects of biography, celebrity, and gossip, and the flow of stories through culture. Her work can be found at FindingJackie.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“There still exists little organized sense of what a woman’s biography or autobiography should look like,” Carolyn G. Heilbrun wrote in her 1988 classic, Writing A Woman’s Life, noting, “Even less has been told of the life of the unmarried woman.” One can only hope that Kate Bolick‘s Spinster is a sign that, nearly thirty years later, the circumstances Heilbrun described are, at long last, about to change. Bolick burst onto the national scene when her article in The Atlantic, entitled “All the Single Ladies,” went viral in November 2011. But Spinster is a departure from her reportage rather than a continuation or a sequel– a biographical/autobiographical/sociological mash-up that is engaging, observant, and fiercely critical. Examining the socio-historical phenomenon of the feme sole, Bolick mines her own experiences and the lives she’s read about to examine how, as Heilbrun suggested, we use the stories of other lives to navigate our own. “Taken together,” Bolick writes of the people whose lives interested her, “they were a dynasty of adopted uncles and aunts adults who weren’t my parents who opened portals to lives I couldn’t have imagined until they showed me how.” This is a process of which we are often unconscious as it’s happening, but which becomes visible in hindsight. It is also, I believe, one of the great values of reading biography: the ability of these stories of other people’s lives to open possibilities within our own. It’s a dynamic not limited to stories of the lives of women, but it does appear to hold particular resonance for female readers, perhaps due to the relative cultural scarcity of representations of unconventional female lives. In her quest to become a writer, Bolick notes, “Maeve Brennan served a psychological purpose for me. By climbing into her point of view and trying it on for size I was cobbling together a template for my own future.” Spinster provides compelling evidence of both the personal and collective power of stories and our use of them. It also reveals something of the life of the unmarried woman, elegantly illuminating an experience that has, up to now, been culturally undervalued and, often, biographically ignored. Oline Eaton is a doctoral researcher at King’s College London. She is writing a biography of Jackie Onassis and has written extensively on the subjects of biography, celebrity, and gossip, and the flow of stories through culture. Her work can be found at FindingJackie.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Skype, Cathy Byrd speaks with London-based curator Helena Reckitt about the artists she selected to participate in Nuit Blanche, Toronto, 2012. Projects in Once More With Feeling, Helena's curatorial zone, will animate ideas of repetition, remaking, renewal and revolt. The annual art event that brings a million people out onto the streets of the city from dusk to dawn takes place this Saturday, 29 September. Sound Editor: Leo Madriz Photos courtesy Helena Reckitt Episode Sound Performers, in order of appearance: Katie Paterson, Hadley+Maxwell, Susan Stenger The ProjectsPlanes, Trish Brown Dance Company | Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon), Katie Paterson | Smells Like Spirit, Hadley+Maxwell | Thought Balloon, Brian Cauley | Moth Maze, Oliver Husain | The Structures Of Everyday Life: Full Circle, Susan Stenger | The Day After, Tomorrow, Dave Dyment | Tremolo, Maeve Brennan, Ruth Ewan | Ensemble for Mixed Use, JD Walsh | Body Xerox, Simon Denny, Yngve Holen

Roddy Doyle reads Maeve Brennan's short story "Christmas Eve," and discusses Brennan's relationship with Ireland and Doyle's own family, with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman.