The Madwoman in the Attic

The Paris Review Interviews are a great resource if you love reading about other writers, which I do. I'm reading  'Women Writers At Work - The Paris Review Interviews' at the moment and was struck by Joyce Carol Oate's interview - here's an extract...

Interviewer: Do you find emotional stability is necessary in order to write? Or can you get to work whatever your state of mind? Is your mood reflected in what you write? How do you describe that perfect state in which you can write from early morning into the afternoon?

Oates: One must be pitiless about this matter of “mood.” In a sense, the writing will create the mood. If art is, as I believe it to be, a genuinely transcendental function—a means by which we rise out of limited, parochial states of mind—then it should not matter very much what states of mind or emotion we are in. Generally I've found this to be true: I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card, when nothing has seemed worth enduring for another five minutes . . . and somehow the activity of writing changes everything. Or appears to do so. Joyce said of the underlying structure of Ulysses—the Odyssean parallel and parody—that he really didn't care whether it was plausible so long as it served as a bridge to get his “soldiers” across. Once they were across, what does it matter if the bridge collapses? One might say the same thing about the use of one's self as a means for the writing to get written. Once the soldiers are across the stream . . .

You can read the interview, and others online at The Paris Review 

I'm over at Lisa Redmond's Blog - The Madwoman in the Attic - today 

chatting about the writing process, my favorite writers and books. 

Thanks to Lisa for inviting me over and letting me ramble :)

You can read the post Here

Irish Literary Review

I was interviewed recently by Catherine Higgins-Moore of the The Irish Literary Review for their summer issue, we talk about the writing process, editing, and how to keep going. You can read the interview HERE. There are lots of great poems and stories in this edition, and they accept submissions from all around the world, you can find the submission details here.

Battle of the Books!

I'm very excited to be judging this new competition from the organiser's of the infamously fabulous Swift Festival! The Battle of the Books is a new international writing competition (open to poetry and prose) and is organised by the Swift Festival in Trim, Co Meath, Ireland. And, unusually, previously published work is accepted! The deadline is July 1st, so get sending!

Theme:‘Travel is the theme of the competition, but the interpretation of ‘travel’ will be very wide indeed... In other words, anything goes – as long as it has some mention/whiff/suggestion of travel. It can be pure fiction or memoir or any other genre of writing. Humour is not essential but it certainly won’t do an entry any harm. Entertainment is highly desirable.’

Deadline: Tuesday 1^st July, 2014.

Poems: minimum 40 lines, maximum 60 lines.

Prose: minimum 800 words, maximum 1,000 words.

Entry fee: €5 per entry or €10 for three entries.

Prize: €500

For further details and to enter - click the Festival Website *HERE*