In the evenings, I often listen to interviews with novelists and poets online. This month, I have taken a deep dive into the life and publications of Edna O’Brien who passed away July 27, 2024, at the age of 93. Born Josephine Edna O’Brien on December 15, 1900, in the West of Ireland, she grew up in County Clare. It took only one viewing of an interview with her to make me a devotee. I immediately wished that I had known her personally. I’m familiar with the landscape of her youth because I have traveled in Ireland but I had never read any of her novels. I set myself to reading some critical works, a complementary article in The Guardian that detailed her life, work, awards, and impact, and ordered some of her novels from the library to begin my personal study of her writing. In the YouTube videos that I watched, Edna O’Brien’s delight with language, story, and place resonated with me. Her passion for writing, reading, and speaking resounds in every word she expresses.
In the interview and discussion at the celebration for her at the Charleston-Chichester Award for Lifetime’s Excellence in Short Fiction in 2014 when she was 83, Edna was asked about her appreciation of Alice Munroe. She responded that they have had a correspondence: “I like that she writes about wild and isolated places, I like that she surprises one. I think she is sturdier than I am, although we have resemblances. … She is a woman of strength. … She carved her own path there in that part of Canada. And she told stories that originated there but then had a resonance in the world beyond.” Based on what I know of O’Brien’s work, this could be a description of her own path.
When asked what being an Irish writer means, Edna responded: “I’m an Irish writer in that I’m an Irish woman. And my landscape, psychic and physical, is mostly Irish. I feel as Flannery O’Connor once said, ‘If you are going to write, you better come from somewhere.’ … I want to be read the way I read American writers. It is in a sense a duality. You keep the strength and the roots that you happen to have even if they are quite painful and from that you can extend and explore another world. … Everything I feel about in this universe always has some hesitation to it. … You cannot write out of hatred. There has to be love as well in what you write.”
While Edna O’Brien’s early writings were controversial to the point of being banned and even burned, after an extensive career O’Brien was honored with multiple and prestigious literary awards. She was quoted in 2014 as saying “I had to grow old before they’d give me credit.” Nevertheless, in 2015, O’Brien was elected to the Irish Aosdána, an academy of Irish artists and writers who are chosen by their fellows for work that is distinguished and original and was named a “Saoi” or wise one.
If you aspire to be a notable and innovative writer of fiction, the remarkable Edna O’Brien sets a good standard for you (and me) to attempt to achieve. Personally, as I listened to various interviews with O’Brien, I was struck by her life, human, and literary wisdom. She gave me the courage to write because I have a deep sense of place and my stories are rooted in its nature and people.
My Writing Goals for 2024
Continue to develop my poetry and connections with other poets:
This past month, I attended the CPC poetry group at the Boulder Bookstore. I also attended Bardic Trails on Zoom featuring Michael Thompson whose excellent reading I thoroughly enjoyed. The presenter’s reading is always followed by an “open mic.” That evening, I found the courage to read aloud a new “turn” poem. Michael wrote me a comment in the chat saying, “You stuck the landing!” His response thrilled me!
Finish my first novel and query agents:
I drafted two new chapters and shared them with my critique group. I also realized I needed to do more research on one aspect of the novel and have spent several hours filling in some gaps.
Continue to work on my second novel:
I didn’t do any revisions or research on this draft this month.
Continue to work on my third novel:
I joined a new BWA critique group to work on this novel. I revised around 2000 words to share with the group which will be meeting next week.
Continue to develop a network of kindred spirits in the world of writing and publishing:
Boulder Writers Alliance: We held our well-attended and fun Summer Social at Chautauqua in August. For the first time, we featured BWA authors whose books have already been published in 2024. Our BWA Writers Who Read group is meeting a week late this month because of our speaker’s illness.
Denver Woman’s Press Club: I assisted the membership committee.
Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers: I read the newsletter.
Women Writing the West: I wrote new pages for my critique group and posted my 2024 poetry book, Moonglow, on the WWW website. I have also been reading about the women who founded the group.
Document my writing progress through my blog and post it on the seventh day of each month, one blog per month in 2024:
Today is September 7, 2024. I am posting my ninth blog of 2024. We had a nice damp August with enough rain to green up the lawns in town. My little garden has managed to produce arugula and green beans, and the yellow pattypans are starting to form.
Writers who were born in September that I particularly enjoy:
Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Stephen King, Angie Thomas
Poets that I admire who were born in September:
T.S. Eliot, Mary Oliver
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