Wild Quiet on the Transition Year Curriculum

Many thanks to the lovely Transition Year students at Coláiste Cois Lifé in Dublin West who kindly invited me to their school for a chat. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I found out that teenagers in Dublin West were reading Wild Quiet (and hopefully enjoying it!!). I was living in this part of the city when I wrote the collection, so it’s weirdly as if the book has found its way back home (now that sounds like a magical realist plot…)

Thanks to Rang Abhoca, Rang Bandon, Rang Beirú, Rang Coimín and Rang Eana, and to your fantastic teacher Ms Nig Uidhir for organising the visit. I hope to talk to you again sometime. In the meantime, keep writing those short stories and remember, writing ‘rules’ are made to be broken!

Go raibh míle maith agat!

By the way thanks also for the lovely card. I love how you interpreted the symbolism of each of the short stories in Wild Quiet.

Winner of the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year Award 2018 at the An Post Book Awards!

We did it!!!!… Against what felt like impossible odds, my wee story ‘How to Build a Space Rocket’ and my brave little narrator Keshika have won the award for Short Story of the Year 2018. The announcement was made at the An Post Irish Book Awards on Tuesday 27th November. I got the shock of my life! It was such a strong shortlist, featuring talented best-selling authors. As far as I can remember, I think I said something like this:

‘I can’t believe this... I didn’t think I’d even be able to attend the awards because I’m due a baby NOW! Earlier in the week, when my editor RM Clarke had asked me if I had a few words I wanted her to read out in case I won, my reply was ‘ah sure, I don’t think we need to worry about that!’ The other stories were all so good. I could never have imagined this…

I’m even more thrilled because my story was published in a really important anthology called The Broken Spiral, which was published last year in aid of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. It’s an anthology about the power of words and the power of stories as a force for healing.

Thanks to my editor Remie Purtill-Clarke for nominating my story for this award, and to our publisher New Island. Also, thanks to my family for their love and support. I’d like to dedicate this award to my little daughter Mary, and to my new baby who is due to arrive very soon (but hopefully not just too soon!). Thank you so much.’

Writing.ie Short Story of the Year long list announced

6am, amidst the morning mayhem today, I received an email with some exciting news. One of my stories has made the long list for the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year. I’m in good company on the long list, alongside well-known and up-and-coming Irish writers. Here’s the long list of 12 selected writers…

Dublin One City: One Book - April 2018

Back in 2015 one of my stories 'Infinite Landscapes' was selected for inclusion in a very special anthology... This year, The Long Gaze Back, an anthology of short stories by Irish women writers, has been chosen as the book choice for the Dublin One City: One Book festival. I couldn't be happier for all the fantastic women writers involved in this groundbreaking literary project, and for New Island Books. 

Throughout the month of April there will be readings and other events to celebrate The Long Gaze Back. The book has been selected as the choice for the Irish Times Book Club, and the Book on One for RTE radio. The event listings are now live on the Dublin One City: One Book website. Here are a few photos from the launch... 

Listen Back - Short Stories with Danielle McLaughlin

You can now listen back to the reading I did with Danielle McLaughlin as part of the Dublin City Libraries reader series. In this extract, Danielle reads from the stunning title story of her collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets, and I read from Infinite Landscapes, which appeared in the BGE Book Award winning anthology The Long Gaze Back. Enjoy! 

Short Stories with Danielle McLaughlin and Roisín O'Donnell

Listen to an extract from WILD QUIET

"It was as I sat swinging my legs that I first heard it: a low moan with the sadness of whale song, drawn out and muffled as if reaching me from across oceans, yet close enough to make the windowpanes shiver.."

May 16th has come around at last! Today is the official publication day of my first short story collection WILD QUIET. To celebrate, I've recorded an extract from the first short story in the collection - Ebenezer's Memories. Here, I chat a little bit about my family roots and about the origins of the story. Happy listening... 

Acclaimed Irish short-story writer Roisín O'Donnell reads from her story 'Ebenezer's Memories,' from her debut collection WILD QUIET published by New Island Books on May 16th 2016. Roisín's stories have been published internationally and feature in the anthologies Young Irelanders and The Long Gaze Back. With family roots in Derry, she grew up in Sheffield and now lives in Dublin. You can find her at roisinodonnell.com

I'm thrilled to have been asked to contribute to The Glass Shore, an anthology of stories by women from the North of Ireland

Last autumn, I took part in an event at the Belfast International Arts Festival in which the four Northern contributors to The Long Gaze Back read from and discussed their work. Joining editor Sinéad Gleeson in conversation were myself, Lucy Caldwell, Anne Devlin and Bernie McGill. One of the questions raised at the event was 'why hasn't there been an equivalent anthology of stories by women from the North of Ireland?' 

Not one to turn down a challenge, Sinéad has now announced the forthcoming publication of 'The Glass Shore.' The anthology will be published by New Island Books in autumn 2016, and features a beautiful cover by designer Martin Gleeson. The anthology will include work by: 

Linda Anderson, Margaret Barrington, Mary Beckett, Caroline Blackwood, Lucy Caldwell, Ethna Carbery, Jan Carson, Evelyn Conlon, Anne Devlin, Martina Devlin, Polly Devlin, Erminda Rentoul Esler, Sarah Grand, Rosemary Jenkinson, Sheila Llewelyn, Bernie McGill, Alice Milligan, Rosa Mulholland, Anne-Marie Neary, Mary O’Donnell, Roisín O’Donnell Tara West, Una Woods

I'm excited to see how the new anthology turns out. I have a sneaking feeling it might be quite different from The Long Gaze Back, but I'd better keep my predictions to myself for now!