Existential Writing Questions and Tributes
I was away last week, hence the lack of newsletter. I know you were all suffering fierce withdrawal symptoms, so here's your fix.
How's The Writing Going?
While I was away, I was asked several times, "How's the writing going?" I seize up when I'm asked this question; the thought of having to justify my existence fills me with terror.
Never mind that most people aren't actually looking for an answer to this question. The truth is too much for most people, and especially for me. So, here's the answer I'm going to give from now on. "It's going. I just don't know where it's going to."
Talking to an Au. Thor at SpeakEasy
The SpeakEasy train is going full steam ahead, with our next event on Friday 21 March – and I'm in charge. I'm the MC for author Patrick Holloway, who will be our featured guest at SpeakEasy in Phil Grimes Pub at 8pm.
I'll be responsible for wining and dining Patrick, introducing his readings from his debut novel, The Language of Remembering, and asking him carefully considered questions about his work. The responsibility! And the fun!
Photo Description: This is our SpeakEasy poster, which gives all the information contained in the snippet, and also tells you that entry to SpeakEasy is €5 on the door, cash only.
I'll also be introducing our featured musician, singer-songwriter Stella and the Dreaming (AKA Stella Hennessy.) I first came across Stella when she was around twelve and had written her own book. I thought, there's a talent to watch out for. She's turned her writing talents to music now, and it'll be fascinating to hear her shine in another way.
Poetry By the Barrow
Lulu Sinnott is a regular at our SpeakEasy events and she runs a great event called Poetry by the Barrow. The next edition of this is on Sunday 23 March at 12.30pm in 'Doyle's fantastic pub,' as she delightfully describes it, at 12.30pm. You'll hear from The Inimitable Shed poets of North Wicklow and South Dublin. Lulu has secured Poetry Ireland funding for this event, so well done to her.
I was away for the last Speak Your Truth Poetry Lounge event in Waterford, another very well-run event, but well done to newsletter subscriber Breda Joyce, who was one of the featured poets.
RIP Pat Ingoldsby and Jennifer Johnston
While I was away, I heard with sadness of the deaths of two great Irish writers. Pat Ingoldsby and Jennifer Johnston were somewhat different in style, but they both made their mark on the literary landscape, and on me.
As a child, I loved the madcap antics of Pat's Hat, and Jennifer Johnston's novels the Railway Station Man and How Many Miles to Babylon still echo in my mind years later. Feel free to share your memories of these writers. If you don't know them, they're worth looking up, particularly Pat Ingoldsby's poem 'For Rita, With Love.'
Hope you had a good holiday Derbhile! I can understand your dilemma when people ask about 'the writing'. Most people haven't a clue what it entails. However you could just brag about your writing related activities like the Speak Easy which sounds like good fun and of course your Substack.
As for your call out for memories of Jennifer Johnston or Pat Ingoldsby - I only heard him on radio a couple of times, however I met JJ and she was very kind to me and very encouraging. Circa 1983 I did a creative writing workshop in Yorkshire with JJ and Bernard MacLaverty. It was excellent and gave me a lot of confidence in my writing. They were both more than kind and encouraging.
Subsequently, when I was teaching on a Community University Project one of the books we discussed was The Railway Station Man and I invited JJ to come to speak to the group which she very graciously did. I was always a big fan of her novels. She always wrote about unorthodox relationships and was ahead of her time in tackling some topics (incest, coercive control) that are now widely written about. And of course sectarian tensions in modern Ireland. She deserves to be read more widely today. I very much hope she gets a biographer worthy of her.