Anne Joyce
After leaving school, Anne moved to Dublin to train as a dressmaker; then she worked for a couple of designers. “After that, I opened a business in Portarlington. I ran it for 14 years.” Back problems…
Keith Stuart: A Boy made of Blocks
ALEX is moving out of home. The 30-something still loves his wife Jodie; and his eight-year-old son, Sam, but he’s lost his ability to cope. Sam has autism, and Alex is terrified of his son’s fears,…
Herta Feely
Born in Yugoslavia, Herta grew up in Germany, and then, from when she was seven, in the USA. After College she moved to Washington DC, where she worked as a freelance doing publicity and press for…
Caroline Busher
An only child of Irish parents, Caroline has always written. But her first job was as a housing officer in Manchester, allocating properties to people. “I like to be involved in the social aspects of life.”…
Feature Writing at The Irish Writer’s Centre.
For anyone who wants to break into journalism, I’m giving a six week course in Feature Writing at the Irish Writers Centre. We’ll be talking about how to get ideas, how to pitch etc, but concentrating…
Emelie Schepp
A prolific writer since childhood, Emelie worked as a project manager in advertising, but after 10 years she tired of it, because writing articles for work didn’t satisfy her. “It meant limiting my words, and I…
Olive Collins
After dropping out of college, Olive managed a lab in Thurles before moving to England. From there it was off to Israel to work in a Kibbutz. “That was horrendous, so I went to Tel Aviv,…
Orla McAlinden
Orla practiced as a veterinary surgeon for 10 years, in England then Ireland, before training to become a secondary school science teacher. “I was married to a veterinary surgeon who works with racehorses. We both worked…
Michael Collins
MICHAEL COLLINS, an Irish emigrant, writer and runner, had great success with his first eight novels; he has won numerous awards, and his fifth book, The Keepers of Truth was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize…
Paul Gamble
Paul wrote short stories when he was in school, but always wanted to write a longer prose piece. At university, when he had some spare time, he wrote letters to radio and TV stations, and some…
Michael Hughes
Michael has always loved the theatre; his father was an aficionado; so although Michael had an idea that he wanted to write, he saw acting as a more accessible career. “I was excited by acting at…
Debut Round-up, September and October, 2016
Red Dirt. E.M. Reapy. Head Zeus. Whenever I think I’ve found my debut of the year, another, even better novel comes along. And it’s happened again. Such was the originality, scope, and sheer skill evoked between…