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Updated / Friday, 9 Apr 2021
19:47
Louise Kennedy will be reflecting on the rave reviews her debut short story collection
The End of the World is a Cul de Sac has garnered.
my ma crying in her pyjamas when she saw I d dedicated the book to her and my da. wait til she realises it’s full of riding pic.twitter.com/kAlsmesVRf Louise Kennedy (@KennedyLoulou) April 1, 2021
The offshoots of this media attention vary from her mother being something of a star on Irish Book Twitter and of Louise herself being something of an inspiration for other women who have come to writing later in life. After all, Louise didn t think writing was for people like her (her words) until she was badgered into attending a writing group in 2014.
At the beginning of February, the author William Sutcliffe revealed on Twitter: “I have been a professional writer for more than twenty years. I have made my living from the resource of my imagination. Last night I had a dream about unloading the dishwasher.” This tweet inspired a newspaper article where various authors echoed Sutcliffe’s sentiments about the pandemic stifling their creative impetus.
For many Irish writers, however, the last year has proven to be a fruitful time. The annual RTÉ Short Story competition in honour of Francis MacManus, which is currently open for submissions, received an unprecedented 4,000 entries in 2020, twice as many as it had in 2019.
Something for the Weekend - Jarlath Regan s Cultural Picks rte.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rte.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Big Girl Small Town with the best synopsis ever – “
Milkman meets Derry Girls. A cracking read’ – which is proudly emblazoned on the Irish version of the cover. Majella is one of those outliers – ignored by most people, and reasonably content to potter on with her life. She lives with her
alcoholic mother, works in the local chipper, and obsesses over the lives of Bobby, Sue Ellen, and Pam in her wall-to-wall Dallas reruns. She keeps herself to herself, has no friends and no boyfriend, and she thinks her life is the better for it. But when her grandmother dies and the will reveals a couple of surprises, Majella soon finds that she is the object of everyone’s curiosity. Initially, she hates the attention, but she soon realises that maybe she can change her life for the better. Reminiscent of Roddy Doyle’s dialogue-driven work, this is a really fantastic debut novel from an author we’ll definitely be watching out for.