Monday, February 08, 2010

Nuala Ní Chonchúir Interview






I'd like to give a big warm welcome to Nuala who is here as part of her Virtual Book Tour for her pamphlet 'Portrait of the Artist With a Red Car' which is published by Templar Poetry Press.
I have long been an admirer of Nuala's writing and was lucky enough to meet her last year at Flatlake Festival, so I am delighted that she has taken time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions.

We have our red carnival outfits on and I know Nuala loves shoes so have set out a special pair for her. And the guys on the car bonnet are who we are hanging out with in true carnival style tonight! So let's get down to the Interview.


Nuala, I really enjoyed the poem 'Saint Patrick's Day, Achill Island', which, with permission of Templar Poetry,I have pasted below. I love it for its way of bringing me back to a colloquial, rural Ireland that is fast disappearing, could you tell us how this poem came about? The ending is very powerful, had you planned to end it this way or did it surprise you in the same way that I imagine it surprises the reader?

Saint Patrick's Day, Achill Island

'Jamesie,' she says to me, from the chair,
'put the green frock on me today,
I'm feeling powerful festive.'
'I will, Dolly,' says I, 'it's the one colour
that brings up the gold in your hair.'
'Don't cod me,'she roars,'the hair's a disaster.'

We settle down, watch the parade on RTÉ,
and drink six bottles of porter apiece.
'This is the life, Dolly, hah?' I say,
but there isn't a gug out of her;
all I hear are gulls and the hum-thrum
of a tractor going down the boreen.


Hi Liz, it’s lovely to be here in Gran Canaria. Thanks for having me on my virtual tour for Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car.

I’m glad you like the poem. I wrote it in response to photographs taken by Kathy Marsh of an old man on Achill Island and of a doll in a green dress. She invited writers to make a connection between the two images through poetry or prose. She called the project ‘James Barrett and the Doll in the Corner’ and it was exhibited as a multimedia exhibition in Belfast and will be made into an Art Book.

To answer the second part of the question. No, I didn’t plan the ending. I don’t plan as I write. I start with an image and/or line and I write to see where that takes me. The poem is about loneliness and the odd things it makes people do. In this case, imaginary conversations between an old man and a doll.


I also particularly enjoyed the title poem 'Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car', to me it is like a prose-poem or flash-fiction piece and very different in tone and narrative to the other poems in the book, have you written or are you writing any other prose-poem pieces? And do you think there is a different process to writing them? Are they a little like joining your love of poetry and short-fiction together?

Yes, it’s a prose poem. I haven’t written lots of them but I love them as a reader and as a writer. I’m quite finicky when it comes to the layout of a poem, so if a poem I’m writing sounds very prosey, as opposed to a piece with very definite line breaks, internal rhymes etc., I feel it works better as a prose poem. There’s a couple of them in my second collection Tattoo:Tatú. I’d love to write more of them.

I don’t make the connection myself between my poetry and my fiction: my poems are usually about personal things, my stories are very much fictional. As this poem is based on actual events, it works better – for me – as a poem.


Nuala, you also write Irish language poetry, are there any poems in the pamphlet that are also written in Irish if so, which ones, and if not, which, if any, would you like to translate to Irish or re-write in Irish? Could you speak to us a little of this dual way of writing as your poetry book Tattoo: Tatú is a bilingual book of poetry. Will your next poetry book also be bilingual? Are there any plans at the moment for a new full collection?

I’m more of a translator than a writer in Irish. I’ve always loved translation and I did my MA in Translation Studies. None of these poems in Portrait have Irish versions. Some of the ones about the female body, like ‘Fruit’ and ‘Menses’ would be fun to translate into Irish – those kinds of ones worked well in Tattoo, I thought – the sensuous ones. Irish has great vocabulary around the body. The idea for Tattoo:Tatú being bilingual was suggested by my then publisher Arlen House. The publisher knew I was writing a little in Irish and he thought it would be good to get those poems out in the world. I haven’t written in Irish since then (2007). My writing life is so busy that I tend to prioritise the things that are most important to me: fiction, poetry and paid writing work!

My next full poetry collection The Juno Charm will be published by Templar Poetry in November this year. I also have a novel You coming out in April from New Island. So it’s full steam ahead!


I love the title, Nuala, thank you very much for visiting and for answering my questions. It has been a pleasure. Best of luck with all the exciting publishing times that lie ahead...

And thank you, Liz. It’s been lovely answering your questions. Your readers can buy Portrait of the Artist With a Red Car here. if they are interested.

(All carnival images from here)

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Short Circuit/Nuala Ní Chonchúir's Visit




I entered The Short Review competition a while back and just got news from Tania Hershman, the editor of The Short Review, that I have won a copy of Short Circuit.

Short Circuit has its own webpage here. It is edited by Vanessa Gebbie and published by Salt Publishing and more details are to be found here on its Salt Webpage.

This is a quote taken from Short Circuit's webpage.

Published by Salt Publishing, Short Circuit is a unique and indispensable guide to writing the short story. A collection of 24 specially commissioned essays from well-published short story writers, many of them prize winners in some of the toughest short story competitions in the English language. The writers are also experienced and successful teachers of their craft.

I have been following its Virtual Tour and really want to read this book. So I am really delighted that it is now making its way to me.

An added delight with this book is that multi-talented Irish writer, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, also has an essay in it titled: Language and Style: a guide from a short story writer/poet. Sounds good!

And this brings me to yet more delight as Nuala will be visiting this Blog on Tuesday the 9th of Feb. to talk about her latest poetry pamplet titled: Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car, which has been published by Templar Poetry and can be bought here.

I am busily getting some carnival outfits ready for Nuala's visit as the carnival season is in full swing here. It will be carnival-party-a-go-go after our talk which
I hope you tune in to....so see you there, full carnival-outfit in tow please!

(Short Circuit image from its website. Las Palmas Gala Queen Images from here)

Monday, January 25, 2010

Last Maximus Miracle Virtual Tour Stop




Today, the Maximus Miracle Virtual Book Tour is in the U.S.A. for its last stop with Jeanne Iris Lakatos. Jeanne is the perfect hostess and due to the 'January thaw' and chill in the air, Jeanne has rustled up a delightful hot buttered rum drink to get us in the mood for our fireside chat.

And chat we do, Jeanne uses terms like 'epiphanic and epiphenomenal moments' to describe my poetry which has warmed the cockles of my heart, rum or no rum! We talk about poetic purpose, angels, sound-waves and renewal in nature and possibly in poetry...and Emily Dickinson...and my poem 'A Lady in the Bath with Angels' is up there...take a look, have a read and let us know what you think!

And just to say a big thank you to all the Host Bloggers who lent their own very inimitable ways to the tour, making each stop a different experience...and thanks to everyone who has followed and commented...it's been great, I'm a little sad it is all over but at the same time it has run its course....I don't think I have ever talked so much about me or my work in my whole life! ;)

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Belated Happy 2010 and A Photo Story

A photo story about our trip to Lanzarote. From Legs Eleven to a chef with a bee in his bonnet...belated Happy 2010 to one and all.
Come Monday, I'll be doing my last Maximus Miracle interview with Jeanne...maybe see you there.










Monday, January 11, 2010

Maximus Miracle Virtual Book Tour Resumes



Stop 9 of the Virtual Book Tour is up at Jim Murdoch's Blog today. In one way I can't quite believe it's still 'on the go' and in another way it still feels as if it is just beginning!

Jim's questions are great, he mainly asks me to zone in on a 'favourite' poem and talk about the hows and whys of how it came about...all is revealed here if you'd like to have a read.

Jim also reviewed the book a while back and the review can be read here.

Will be back later with photos from our trip to Lanzarote and an update on some comings and goings.... : )

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Happy Christmas!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Hitching a Lift on TFE's Poetry Sleigh




I've awkwardly flung myself onto
TFE's Santa poetry sleigh (thanks for flagging him down, TFE). Luckily, Santa is a nifty driver, otherwise I would have been flattened...try as I might, this is all I could come up with. (If anyone else fancies a go, it's all here at TFE's...go on you know you want to, you've got till Christmas Eve, still time! ; ))
Happy Festive Season everyone. ; )

A Not-So Christmas Poem

What happens when you sit to write a christmas poem and one won't come?
What happens when thoughts of mulled wine and redemption and the colour
red and even Mrs Claus all want a look in and you are too glad for any such
look-ins that you stick them into your christmas poem. Then you read it over
and you immediately want them out. Only how do you go back on your word?

You don't. You keep going. You leave them in the poem. As the poem moves
on maybe they will move out and you can have the christmas poem you really
want but don't yet know. Then Santa clamours for a piece of your poem. He
moves his sack in. He hurls the sleigh into the main part of the poem. The part
you were keeping for the important message of your christmas poem. Before

long the reindeers are striding long-leggedly onto the edges of your poem
looking for a tiny piece of the action of your christmas poem that in your
estimation has not yet started. At this stage you want out of the christmas
poem that you haven't yet started. You had not bargained for a no-exit claus
(e). You might have known. You wonder how to make the best of being in

a christmas poem that acts as if it is your christmas poem. You bring your
husband in. He starts calling the upside down quarter moon an arabic moon.
You like that.You settle into your christmas poem. The arabic moon makes you
think of Aladdin and his genie. Aladdin makes you think of a red hard-back
story book you once got for christmas. Inside you find The Snow Queen and

Puss in Boots. Now you are skating on ice. Then you are inside your christmas
poem. The arabic moon moves behind the chimney pot. Santa steadies his feet.

(Photos: Christmas 07)
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