Ethel Rohan

I remain grateful to Lori Narlock, founder of the Napa Valley Book Fest, for chatting with me about inspiration, obsession, imaginary friends, micro and macro aggressions, and going on with our wounds and our wonder. Thanks also to the wonderful Napa Bookmine for hosting the event and supporting my books. I very much look forward to returning to in person gatherings, and to bookshop and wine country visits!

I don’t like to watch myself back on video (does anybody?) but I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation on craft, process, storytelling, fixations, and life with Joy Lanzendorfer, author of the sweeping and gripping debut historical novel RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM (Blackstone Publishing, May, 2021). My deep thanks to The Booksmith San Francisco for hosting the launch of IN THE EVENT OF CONTACT and for their longstanding support.

My deep thanks to Peter McDermott and the Irish Echo for including me in their long-running writer interview series. This was one of the more fun interviews I’ve done recently, and I hope you enjoy.

I’m grateful to Courtney Harler and the ever excellent Masters Review for this thoughtful interview that touches on writing and publishing short stories, and on how we go on with our wounds.

Cleaning out her deceased father’s home in Dublin, a woman reluctantly accepts help from an unsettling stranger.

I’m deeply grateful to World Literature Today for publishing a short story from my just-out collection In the Event of Contact. You can read the full story here.

I am thrilled that In the Event of Contact is on BuzzFeed’s Summer Recommended Reading List along with these 27 delicious-sounding other books. Do these lists result in reads/sales? YES. At least they do for me as a book shopper (and there are others I’ll order from my local library). I purchased 5 of the titles on this list. If you correctly guess which five titles I purchased, I’ll buy and ship you the book of your choice from this list, and a signed copy of In the Event of Contact dedicated to you or the recipient of your choice (entries welcome worldwide). First correct answer wins and contest ends. HINT: 4 of the titles are in the image below, and the 5th in from the full list of titles in the Buzzfeed article. Answer in comments. Good luck!

I am beyond thrilled to be included among BuzzFeed‘s latest Book Recommendations and to receive this dream response to my stories from editor Arianna Rebolini. I’ve been reading her round ups and reviews for years and hoping, dreaming…

While he lived, I put everything into making my Irish dad proud. If I succeeded, he never let on. Such was his reticent way. But I think even he, a barman who never finished school, would get a kick out of IN THE EVENT OF CONTACT being reviewed in Stanford University’s The Daily. Thank you so much, Lily Nilipour.

“Throughout “In the Event of Contact,” Rohan offers compassionate and vivid portraits of people looking for connection. Yet, in these searches, we see that we can find ourselves fragmented, sidetracked and in places we never expected. Such is the route by which we come to discover ‘that thing called love.’”

As its author, In the Event of Contact keeps delivering surprises, and most are the best kind, largely around who the book is reaching and who’s supporting it. I’ve long admired and applauded Literary Hub, a robust site devoted to all things books. Daily, alongside original content and exclusive excerpts, LitHub showcases contemporary literary culture, and does so with enormous generosity, intelligence, and finesse. I’m thrilled that today LitHub featured an except from my short story collection’s titular story “In the Event of Contact.”

An earlier, unpublished version of the story was longlisted for the 2017 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award and I remain deeply grateful for that huge nod, which boosted my belief in the short story and allowed me to revise it with vigor, and with my imagining the story one day going on to reach readers. Here we are; that vision achieved, along with my dream goal of seeing my fiction included on LitHub. It’s as though, along with creating the stories in this collection, I was also conjuring a story about the book, and myself, and it’s coming true.