Look! It's a Woman Writer!

by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (Editor)

Mapping the changes that have occurred in Irish literature over the past fifty years, this volume includes twenty-one writers, poets, and playwrights from the North and South of Ireland, who tell their own stories. They are funny, tragic, angry, philosophical, but all are vivid personal accounts of their experiences as women writing during a pivotal period in the history of Ireland. With a foreword by Martina Devlin, and an introduction by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, the anthology includes essays by Cherry Smyth, Mary Morrissy, Lia Mills, Moya Cannon, Aine Ní Ghlinn, Catherine Dunne, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Mary O’Donnell, Mary O’Malley, Ruth Carr, Evelyn Conlon, Anne Devlin, Ivy Bannister, Sophia Hillan, Medbh McGuckian, Mary Dorcey, Celia de Fréine, Máiríde Woods, Liz McManus, Mary Rose Callaghan, and Phyl Herbert.

349 pages, Paperback

Published April 30, 2021

About the author

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne is a writer and critic. She was born in Dublin in 1954. She attended University College Dublin, where she studied Pure English, then Folklore. She was awarded the UCD Entrance scholarship for English, and two post graduate scholarships in Folklore. In 1978-9 she studied at the University of Copenhagen, and in 1982 was awarded a PhD from the National University of Ireland. She has worked in the Department of Irish Folklore in UCD, and for many years as a curator in the National Library of Ireland. Also a teacher of Creative Writing, she has been Writer Fellow at Trinity College and is currently Writer Fellow at UCD. She is a member of Aosdána.

Eilis Ni Dhuibhne is also known as Eilis Almquist and Elizabeth O'Hara.

Reviews

[Tracy Gaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In their own words, intimate portraits of Ireland's women of letters and the shit they had to go through to get published in a male-dominated profession. At the end, a brief history of a skewed publishing industry in Ireland. Eye-opening and excellent.

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved all of the intersections between these stories of Irish women writers born in the 50s following their creative writing careers. I LOVE that I get to read this kind of book and call it research!!! It did not make it to 4.5 or 5 stars because, at times, it felt like an advertisement for Arlen House more than a collection of these women's experiences.