Nuala
O’Connor lives
in Co. Galway, Ireland. Her poetry and fiction have been widely published,
anthologised, and won many literary awards. Her sixth novel Seaborne,
about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny, is nominated for the Dublin Literary Award
and was shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year at the 2024 An Post Irish Book
Awards. Her novel NORA (New Island), about Nora Barnacle and
James Joyce, was a Top 10 historical novel in the New York Times. She
won Irish Short Story of the Year at the 2022 An Post Irish Book Awards. Her
fifth poetry collection, Menagerie, will be published by Arlen House in
spring 2025. www.nualaoconnor.com
1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most
recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My
first book (a poetry collection) cemented my commitment to the project of being
a writer. I was full of the joys, so hopeful, so (naively) sure of a steady
upward trajectory, rather sure I would make an OK living as a writer. I hadn’t
a clue what that meant at the time; if I had, I probably would’ve stayed longer
in the trad workplace.
My
new poetry collection, Menagerie (Arlen House, March 2025), has the same
devotion to language, but is perhaps a little freer in spots. It’s hard to be
objective about the work. I think I am a better writer since book #1,
after twenty-two years of writing/publishing.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or
non-fiction?
I
was writing poetry and fiction in tandem – I had enough work for a poetry
collection sooner.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project?
Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first
drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of
copious notes?
I
start quickly (I’m impatient) and tend to research as I go, which presents its
own issues but works for me. Drafts are like holey cardigans that eventually
end up mended, and quite wearable, between the efforts of me, my agent, and the
editor I’m working with. Some editors are hands off, some hands on, some are
gifted and hands on. It depends how many holes the cardi has, I guess.
But first drafts are almost never what is published.
Yes,
notes galore, I’m incessant.
4 - Where does a poem or work of prose usually begin for you? Are
you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or
are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
It
varies. Some things that start tiny – a spark that becomes a poem, flash, story
– end up as novels because I can’t stop thinking about the character. In fact,
that happens a lot e.g. with my novels Miss Emily, Becoming Belle, and
NORA. I have my writerly obsessions – mother-child stories; the body;
breaking love – so I tend to write across the genres on those. Others are
book-shaped from the start, novels like my WIP, a contemporary novel set
between Ireland and Greece.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process?
Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
They
are part of it – we’re expected to do them, and I also have to earn a living. I
(almost) always enjoy them in the moment, but being autistic, I live on my
nerves, so I’m in a constant state of anxiety, and I tend to dread every
social/public encounter. So, the public side is genuinely challenging for me,
and I rarely relish doing events, BUT, I also enjoy them, and I like meeting
bookish people and talking about literary things. The Dread is one of the
central conundrums of my life.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What
kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even
think the current questions are?
Feminism
has always been central to me. Also justice. I grew up working class, so I’m
interested in social standing, money, the working vs the middle class and
opportunity. But I don’t think in themes or symbols as I begin a project – it’s
just about the characters and what they’re dealing with. Obviously, war, the
collapsing environment, and capitalism are upfront for all of us, and they leak
onto the page.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger
culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should
be?
The
writer just needs to write the human experience in honest, realistic, and
imaginative ways. That’s all. Great language and something like a story. We’re
all struggling; most of us haven’t a clue what we’re doing here, and we’re basically
flawed and bonkers. We need to write that. Writing honestly is political, in
and of itself. It’s not the writer’s job to write a palatable version of life
with thoroughly decent players – we can pretend those people exist but they
don’t. If our work offers comfort, so be it, but each writer’s duty is to
themselves – to make the best work with the tools and understanding they have. And
not to be a fuckwit.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor
difficult or essential (or both)?
Both.
One always hopes to write a beautiful, breathtaking, meaningful work on the
first go. It rarely happens. Criticism is not easy, but fresh eyes are useful. A
good editor is a gift to a writer. I’ve had brilliant experiences on some books
(my last novel Seaborne, for example) and middling ones on others.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily
given to you directly)?
‘Eyes
open. Heart open. Feet on the ground.’ From the wonderful English writer Andrew
Miller.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to
short stories to the novel)? What do you see as the appeal?
Writing
is my safe-space, my joy, my comfort. The difficulty is in brain-space and
bandwidth. When I’m working on a novel, I don’t have the time or head-energy
for much else. I can break off from the novel to deal with story commissions,
for example but, in novel-land, I don’t have the lovely, swirly capaciousness
needed for poems and stories to brew naturally. So, I miss the green grass of
shorter work while engaged in long form and vice versa, often. Writers are
never happy…
The
appeal is the different momentum – the comfort blanket of the novel, the long
haul of it, versus the electric rush of completing something short.
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you
even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
As
an autistic person, routine is very necessary to me; I have to be at my desk by
9am, five days a week, or I get a bit loopy. I stay there for about three
hours, longer when I have a deadline.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for
(for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Good
writing (Elizabeth Bowen and Virginia Woolf, often; the classics; good poetry);
visual art; any cultural experience – a live poetry reading. Nature walks. The
sea. Historical happenings. Inspo is everywhere.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Lavender.
14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are
there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science
or visual art?
Visual
art is the big one for me. I write a good bit of ekphrastic stuff, poems and
fiction. I’ve always been an art dabbler – my family is chockers with visual
artists – so I make things too. Mostly collages and cards these days. A lot of
writers I know draw or sew or knit. Creativity is a nest – for most creatives, we
have our main branch, but we like to play with, and weave in, other seductive
twigs.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or
simply your life outside of your work?
I
like work that is tricky, dark-ish, language based, deep, empathic. I like
humour. Bowen, Joyce, Anne Enright, the Brontës,
Austen, John Banville. Too many to name, really.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Write
a novella. A good one.
17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would
it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you
not been a writer?
I
wanted to be a bus conductor or a nun, when I was a kid, neither of which would
have suited me 😊 Realistically: Archivist/researcher. Conservationist. Architect.
Interior designer.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
It’s
the perfect occupation for an introverted, shy, non-drinking, autistic loner
who loves words, anthropology, and history. Previously I was a translator,
librarian, and bookseller, and I worked in a theatre and a writers’ centre. You
can see my special interest never really waned: words, words, words.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great
film?
I
loved the Netherlands-set novel Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden: sharp,
challenging characters, a house as the main setting (I love buildings), a fold
and re-fold structure, strong sentences. Very good.
I
don’t watch many films these days, though I recently enjoyed Lonely Planet
about a writer in Morocco. I’m more of a series binger. I’ve recently loved Shetland
(rugged island landscapes; great characters).
20 - What are you currently working on?
Finishing
up my Greek novel. I’m also working out the plan for a memoir about autism,
writing, and hope. It can be upsetting to examine past life-blunders, and see
where I went wrong, but I’m in my mid fifties now so I care less than I used to
about what others think of me. So, onward!
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
