Nuala O'Connor - In Conversation
In conversation with Jennifer McMahon
In this session of Writer to Writer, international award-winning Irish author Nuala O’Connor discusses SEABORNE, her latest novel (which has been shortlisted for Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2024), the craft and practice of writing, and neurodivergence with Jennifer McMahon, our co-EIC.
Nuala O’Connor lives in Galway, Ireland. Her sixth novel SEABORNE, about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny, was published in April 2024 by New Island, and has been shortlisted for Book of the Year at the 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 Irish Book Awards and is editor at flash e-journal Splonk.
And a correction: Jennifer mentioned the Francis O’Connor Award - she of course meant the Francis MacManus Award.
SEABORNE, from which Nuala read, has just been shortlisted for Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It is available to order from New Island, and from all the usual places.
Also mentioned: Nuala’s award-winning novel NORA, about Nora Barnacle and James Joyce. It was a Top 10 historical novel in the New York Times.
When you have to wade through tides of exaggeration and misinformation, it's so much harder to figure out what actually happened and to write something truer to history. I admire you, Nuala, for tackling such a difficult subject.
Great discussion - how much of history we can know and how what is known informs what we write; neurodivergence; how we become a person; endings and finding out what we're writing about. And thank you for the phrase word-hoarding. As a fellow neurodivergent writer, I'm right with you on first person present tense, Nuala - and finding yourself anew with each book.