Finished Laura van den Berg’s chapbook, THERE WILL BE NO MORE GOOD NIGHTS WITHOUT GOOD NIGHTS, from Origami Zoo Press and highly recommend the read. The stories are so skillful and moving and imaginative. Really beautiful work. Readers, treat yourself. Teachers of short-short fiction, this tiny, powerful book is a must for your students. Skeptics of short-short stories, go read and get thee converted.
thankyou, will do!
Hey, sent you an email last week, think I sent it to your comcast address, maybe you are not using this one anymore? Its a most important query for you
Loved your piece in the Irish Times today. I am also from Dublin, living in San Francisco. Your words rang in my heart. I miss family in Dublin so much, even after 28 years in SF. The mother thing, the guilt. Ain’t it awful.
Pauline, how lovely to hear from you and thanks so much for this kind note. It is awful, but I wouldn’t change my leaving. I’ve gained so much here. Shout if you ever need the company of a fellow Dub (name@gmail.com), although be warned I haven’t much of an accent to console you with
Dear Ethel, Good morning, gosh it’s interesting how little changes. I enjoyed the article very much. When I was writing my novel A Glassful of Letters which is about the emigrant experience in the 1980s I found that the same conflicts arose within people all the time. I was reared completely at ease with all this because our Monaghan summers were full of New York, Toronto, Florida cousins – I knew more about the Bronx before I was 11 than I did about Dublin. But over the years, spending time away mainly in Australia I have learned different things. When I emigrated there first in the 1970s I was determined not to have anything to do with the Irish community, and didn’t, but now I find myself finishing a novel on Irish Famine Girls being brought to Australia. I have indeed over time written a lot about the split person and what words mean, Escaping the Celtic Tiger, World Music and the Millenium is all about that, last story in last book. Perhaps you can pass on this email to your co-essayist, I have so far succeeded in not joining the plethora of new ways to communicate – actually I was signed up to Twitter for an hour and it frightened me. And tell her that Dublin will embrace her as it always does. My son recently visited from London and talked about how clean it was, that raised a laugh or two. Best of luck to you both. Evelyn Conlon