I have a short essay in HEAL (Humanism Evolving through Arts and Literature) about what it’s like to have fibromyalgia. HEAL is a medical narratives journal from the Dept of Medicine at Florida State University, edited by Tana Jean Welch and Liz Ruelke.
‘Fibromyalgia is a joyless, ever-present, prismic garment, complex and invisible.’
Download the issue pdf here.
I have a new essay ‘Cailín Deas, Cailín Dána’ published in Trasna today. The essay is about many things, including Switzerland, sibling loss, autism, giving up alcohol, Maria Edgeworth, and photographs…it’s a braided/hybrid piece, a mixumgatherum. You can read the essay here. Hope you enjoy it!
I’m busy, naturally, as we get closer to the Ulysses 100 anniversary on 2.2.22, so here are a few of the events & things you can catch me at:
22nd January 2022 – I have a piece about the background to writing Ulysses – how life was for Nora and Joyce – in the Irish Independent. Read it here.
Saint Brigid’s Day / Lá ‘le Bríde – 1st Feb. – I’m talking live to Ambassador Eamon Hickey at the Embassy of Ireland, Bern, in Switzerland. 5pm Irish time. More here.
Saint Brigid’s Day / Lá ‘le Bríde – 1st Feb. – I’m taking part in the celebration of Ulysses at Embassy of Ireland Paris, with Ambassador Niall Burgess. Time tbc. Watch back here.
2nd Feb – Ulysses 100 day – the exhibition I’ve curated at MOLI – ‘Love, says Bloom’ – opens today. So exciting! Sadly, Covid restrictions mean we won’t be having a shindig, but please visit the museum to see this immersive audiovisual presentation, where I took the love between the four Joyces – and their love of music – as inspiration. It includes some magnificent performances from artists including Julia Spanu of Moxie, Ian Lynch of Lankum, and Lisa O’Neill. More here.
2nd Feb – Ulysses 100 day – I’ll be on RTÉ’s Arena talking Ulysses with Sean Rocks and a panel of Joyce fans. 7pm. RTÉ Radio 1. You can hear this here.
2nd Feb – Ulysses 100 day – I am giving away a signed copy of the One Dublin One Book edition of NORA (out Feb. 24th from New Island Books). Enter until midday 2nd Feb! See my insta for details.
4th Feb, 6.30pm – I’m launching the new edition of Ray Burke’s wonderful book, Joyce County – Galway and James Joyce, in Galway city at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop. Illustrated by Joe Boske. Published by Artisan House in Connemara.
4th Feb, 10.45pm – I’m on BBC Radio 3, on The Essay, concluding a week of Reading Ulysses, with my thoughts on the Penelope episode. Other essayists include Mary Costello, John Patrick McHugh, Colm Tóibín and Anne Enright. Listen here.
I have an essay about writing NORA in Books Ireland magazine. You can read it here.
My radio essay about Nora Barnacle, James Joyce, and geese, on today’s Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, is now on the RTÉ website. My bit starts around 11:11 – listen at this link.
I have an essay in The Irish Times this weekend about Nora Barnacle, language, and emigrant letters. You can read it here.
My Paris Review essay about Nora Barnacle and James Joyce’s erotic letters is now published. This was fun to write 😉 You can read it here.
I have a new essay today at Craft called ‘The Marys’. It’s about my lifelong love of Holy Mary statues, their meaning to me, Ulysses, Ireland in 1985, and the legacy of Catholicism. Read it here.
Nuala has an essay about Nora Barnacle and James Joyce’s first meeting on the 10th June 1904, and the days that followed, at RTÉ Culture today. Read it here.
Nuala has a new essay about perimenopause (and hope!) in the new non-fiction journal from Bay Path University, Multiplicity Magazine. In ‘The Hope Cure – Negotiations with the Peri-fog’, she touches on everything from ee cummings to ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. You can read the essay here.