Reviews and Interviews

Nuala is featured today in a Q&A session with Mel Ulm on The Reading Life blog today. Yesterday he took a look at her short story collection To The World of Men, Welcome (Arlen House)

10th November: Órfhlaith Foyle's Blog in Galway
17th November: Vanessa Gebbie's Blog in Sussex, UK
24th November: Niamh Boyce's Blog in Kildare
1st December: Rachel Fenton's Blog in Auckland, NZ
8th December: Tania Hershman's Blog in Bristol, UK
15th December: Mel Ulm's Blog in the Philippines
22nd December: Parrish Lantern Blog in Kent, UK

Nuala has been interviewed on several web sites during 2010 about her fiction.

Nik Perring's blog
Italish
Barbara Smith' blog
Elizabeth Baines
Sarah Hilary
Adam Marek
Eimear Ryan

Below are some interviews with Nuala about her poetry:

with Rachel Fenton.
with Peadar O'Donoghue.
with Liz Gallagher.
with Vanessa Gebbie.
with Rachel Fox.

by Yvonne Hogan

...timeless, placeless and universal... a must read.

See a copy of the review here.

by Arminta Wallace

The novel flows beautifully and is understated in tone...This gem is sure to win her further acclaim. Nuala Ní Chonchúir is a writer to watch.

Go to irishtimes.com to read the review.

by Rachel J. Fenton

... Ní Chonchúir's skill is her ability to subvert and to break down labels, racism and sexism included, into their core traits and to show they are seamless, as an estuary. ...

You can read it read it at melusineblog.blogspot.com.

by Ethel Rohan

...this novel uses plain prose, vivid detail, fresh images, and the delightful Dublin vernacular. You is a compelling story that brings to life complex characters and delivers hard-hitting truths.

Read the entire review here.

by Sue Leonard

‘The novel flows beautifully and is understated in tone...This gem is sure to win her further acclaim. Nuala Ní Chonchúir is a writer to watch.'

You can read it online at: www.irishexaminer.com

Naked and Nude
Odd dignity and absolute conviction, says Sean McMahon

‘The two words have subtle semantic differences; ‘nude’, for example, can be a noun. Several of these 19 stories are literally about nudes as paintings: expatiations on François Boucher’s naughty L’Odalisque, showing the deliberately provocative pose of his wife, copied by the King’s mistress, Louisa O’Murphy, herself from Cork, in herpicture, the themes of ‘Madonna Irlanda’ and ‘Madamoiselle O’Murphy’, Le Déjeunersur l’Herbe by Édouard Manet, with one only nude woman in clothed company in ‘Ekphrasis’ and others...'

Read more in Verbal 28.

Body and soul laid bare
by Katie Donovan in the Irish Times (10/10/2009)

‘EROTIC, YES, BUT also deceptive, funny, anticlimactic. Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s new collection of stories revolves around the theme of the unclothed body. Here is the nude not only as depicted in art but also in other contexts where there is an observer prepared to frame a subject with love, obsession or delusion...'

Read on at irishtimes.com.

Nuala's virtual tour for nude saw her interviewed at ten literary blogs. To follow the tour click on the links below.
1st September 2009 on Snow Like Thought
8th September 2009 on TaniaWrites
15th September 2009 on Uiscebots Blog
22nd September 2009 on A Salted
29th September 2009 on Barbara’s bleeuugh!
6th October 2009 on PetinaGappah
13th October 2009 on She Is Too Fond Of Books
20th October 2009 on Irish Nomad in Norway
27th October 2009 on Vanessa Gebbie’s news
3rd November 2009 on Merc’s World - writing and ruminations

Interview on Arena

Nuala was interviewed by Sean Rocks on RTE radio one's Arena show on 16th September.

Listen to it here.

Who is it for? Do you have an audience or reader in mind?

I never have an audience in mind, no 'ideal reader' but I hope readers of contemporary literary fiction will like it. Also art lovers and artists. If all the people who loved Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring bought and read it that would be cool too. I just know they’d enjoy it!!...

Go to nikperring.blogspot.com for more.

She Is Too Fond of Books

'One of the greatest delights of this collection are the many voices the author channels. One such striking perspective is in I, Caroline. This is the story of Caroline Crachami (nee Fogle), a young woman not two-feet tall. Caroline’s parents sold her for twenty pounds to a 'doctor' who exhibited her until the time of her death...

Go to www.sheistoofondofbooks.com to read more.

(Click image to enlarge)

Art in Action


This is the last such publication for a while as editor Declan Meade informed us mournfully at the launch. The Arts Council funding without which this handsome but entirely non-commercial collaboration between literary magazine the Stinging Fly and art magazine Circa could not have happened was cut to ribbons in Budget 2009. Unlike OAPs, artists don’t have the ear or the sympathy of the Irish people...


Read it all at The Dubliner

My Literary Top 10

You describe the Irish and English forms of the poems published in both languages as versions. Is there any one of the poems which you feel that both versions are equally strong or even better in the target language?

I think some worked better in their TL versions than others. I’m fond of ‘Tatú’, the title poem, in both languages. And I like the way the last two lines of ‘Ó’, have an internal rhyme and assonance that the English version only has in the last two words. That sort of happy accident is pleasing. I think parts of some poems sound better in Irish, purely for the beauty of the language...

Go to Faoiseamh Questions and Answers for the full interview.
Alse see Faoiseamh Review for a review of Tattoo | Tatú

How long did it take you to write all the stories in your collections?

Nuala Ní Chonchúir: First one, The Wind Across the Grass: This was six years work; I wasn’t working towards collecting them. Arlen House had published my first poetry collection in an anthology, Divas, with two collections from established writers; I was the newbie. They then asked to see my stories and decided to do a book of them. Second one, To The World of Men, Welcome: 18 months...

Go to www.theshortreview.com for more.

Where were you born and raised?

County Dublin, Ireland. In a cold, old Georgian house, in a family of nine. I had a very happy childhood, spent as a tomboy and hungry reader.

What was it that first got you into writing and when did you start writing?

My writing is an extension of my reading, as it is for many writers. I've been writing poetry since I was a child. I have always written things but didn't know what to do with them. In 1998 I did a fiction writing workshop with the brilliant young writer Mike McCormack. It opened my eyes to the possibilities. I got serious about fiction and poetry after that...

Go to www.authortrek.com to read more.