Welcome to the DBF Lounge- where we at the towers sit down and have a chat with some of this year’s authors. We find out everything from who influenced them most to what they would most like to steal from another author if they could!
‘poetry for me is the pure formulation of experience and it is so pure that not many people can engage with it at that level but when it is diluted then people get it in the broader sense. You will always find that poetry precedes prose. Poetry is first and then come all the plays and prose.’ [click to continue…]
”You get the sense from the best short story writers that they almost weigh the words, or that they let them alight and rest on the tongue or the heart, to taste them or test them, before finally settling on them.’
Mary Costello has been compared with the likes of every Irish literary giant from John McGahern to John Banville and with her debut collection of short stories having been nominated for the Sunday Independent Newcomer of The Year Award at the Irish Book Awards and the Guardian First Book Award, it seems that after years of chipping away at literary success, Mary is now well on her way. She took time out of what has become an increasingly busy schedule to talk to the DBF about what inspired The China Factory and what it means to be an ‘Irish’ writer. [click to continue…]
DBF There are quite a few of you from the West of Ireland at the DBF- tell me, where are you living at the moment?
DS I’m Dublin based, I’m currently living and working in Ranelagh. I go back to Galway a lot, though- to visit family and friends.
DBF A lot of writers identify a lot with where they are from. Is this true for you? Do you think there is such a thing as a distinctive ‘Irish’ voice when it comes to fiction writing?
DBF You grew up in the West of Ireland and indeed studied there. How much does the element of place infiltrate your writing? [click to continue…]
Michael Clifford is a reporter and columnist with the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Times. He regularly contributes to a variety of programmes on Irish radio and television. He is author of Love You to Death: Ireland’s Wife Killers Revealed and co-author of Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra Mafia and Scandal Nation. Ghost Town is his first novel. [click to continue…]
‘I think it’s rare for psychologists to end up on the other side of the couch, and barristers behind bars so I’m hoping I don’t end up as a serial killer.’
By day she is analyzing body language in the Central Criminal Court and by night she is on the phone with various permutations of the criminal classes. As if reporting on crime was not enough, however, Niamh O’Connor also manages to write true crime novels about it. Niamh O’Connor has indeed become one of Ireland’s best known crime authors. She is the true crime editor for the Sunday World and Her three novels, If I Never See You Again, Taken and Too Close For Comfort have introduced a refreshing heroine in feisty DI Jo Birmingham. Despite her busy and somewhat morbid schedule, the DBF managed to grab her for a few minutes to talk about what makes criminals tick and why she finds it all so exciting. [click to continue…]
Conor Kostick is a man of many talents, writing not only non-fiction history books but also children’s science fiction novels. He is perhaps best known in this regard for his Avatar Chronicles series and has also written a book for younger readers called The Book of Curses . If all of this were not enough, he also teaches medieval history at Trinity College Conor and was the recipient of a Special Merit Award at the Reading Association of Ireland Awards in 2009 for his book Move, and for his contribution to science-fiction writing in Ireland. He has achieved international success with Epic and Saga. Conor took time out of his exceptionally busy schedule to talk to the DBF about writing, juggling family life and his work, as well as how copyright law might well be changing for the worse for today’s authors. [click to continue…]
‘Oh temptation is a constant friend! It sits on one shoulder while the responsible partner digs its nails into the other.’
Joyce Russell is most definitely a lark in that her ideas come to her best in the early morning before ‘life intrudes’ on her day! Having grown up in the Yorkshire Dales, Joyce moved to Bantry in west Cork in 1978 after falling in love with it on holidays. She went to live the self-sufficiency dream and hasn’t looked back since. She has won or been shortlisted on multiple occasions for the Sean O Faolain Short Story Award, The Real Writers International Award, and the START Chapbook prize, the Bridport Prize, the RTE Francis MacManus Short Story Competition and the FISH Short Story Competition. She is a founder member of Friends of the Earth Ireland and is co-author with her husband, Ben, of The Polytunnel Book. Joyce talked to the DBF about her characters, the importance of place and what defines her most as a writer.
‘in 2005-2006, I imagined a world in which two candidates from Derry ran for the Irish presidency, the media attempted to crucify them both, while the extreme right launched attacks on a candidate because of his suspected homosexuality. I really do think I deserve the Nostradamus Award for that one.’
Garbhan Downey has been described as one of the best political satirists of the century- high praise and difficult to live up to, however, Garbhan is more than u to the challenge. As well as having published seven comedy-thrillers set in the post-ceasefire North, he has also worked as a journalist, broadcaster, newspaper editor, literary editor and released four works of non-fiction with Guildhall Press. He is currently Media Director for Derry’s 2013 City of Culture year. His latest book, Across the Line, frontlines football as the unlikely and yet likely catalyst for social disaster post ceasefire. Garbhan took the time to talk to the DBF about writing, politics, and using fiction as a weapon of cathartic revenge! [click to continue…]
‘I care a lot about language and the texture of my prose, the same way that people who like modern painters like Cezanne or Pierre Bonard will describe the surface of their painting’From farcical policemen in Cambodia/Malaysia to the poetry of the Samurai in the Edo period in 17th century Japan, John Givens is not afraid to experiment with his fiction. Originally from California, he has lived in various pockets all over the world and has, for the last number of years been living in Dublin. As well as penning highly sophisticated and gripping historical fiction and short stories, he also teaches fiction writing in Dublin. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Givens studied art and language in Kyoto for four years, and worked in Tokyo as a writer and editor for eight years. Givens’ published novels are: Sons of The Pioneers, A Friend in The Police, and Living Alone. His short story collection, The Plum Rains, was published in Dublin by The Liffey Press. [click to continue…]
‘I did think I was Buffy for a while when I was 12…………’
Laura Jane Cassidy writes supernatural mysteries for teenagers and is not afraid to be creepy. Her novels Angel Kiss and Eighteen Kisses are published by Puffin. She is also working on another series in which a group of teenagers predict the future by writing stories- the first of which she has just finished and hopes to get out some time next year. When she is not glued to her studio Laura’s favourite pastimes include wandering around Dublin bookshops and immersing herself in it’s ‘great literature scene’. The DBF met up with Laura in one of her favourite haunts- Starbucks on Dawson St. to ask her some questions and get to know this promising new voice in young adult fiction. [click to continue…]
‘I can’t hammer a nail in the wall or give you Pythagoras’ theorem but I can sniff out a tale from a hundred miles away! There’s no greater feeling that sitting down to listen to a story’
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