CĂșirt was fantastic, great fun, great festival and great readings from our anthology. Everyone is now looking forward to the launch of the print edition on the 17th May in Trinity College Dublin. The wonderful Nuala NĂ ChonchĂșir launched our ebook last Saturday and has kindly provided us with a transcript of her speech from the night, included below for your entertainment:
A Thoroughly Good Blue
Itâs always great to see writers at the start of their journey, though there are some in this anthology who appear to be well on their way. A Thoroughly Good Blue is an exuberant and diverse collection of fiction and poetry from the students on the M. Phil. in Creative Writing at Trinityâs Oscar Wilde Centre. It is a multicultural collection, which adds to its rich tone; here are writers who are from, or who have lived in, Ontario, Hong Kong, Missouri, Mayo, The Netherlands, Meath, Colorado and New Mexico. They bring with them to their work all of the exotic words and occurrences of these places. From the spareness of Melony Bethalaâs âBoat Ride on Lake Pontchartrainâ, to the rich prose and slowly delivered beauties of Sara Mullenâs âOn the Hill of Speculationâ, A Thoroughly Good Blue is an impressive gathering of finger-on-the-pulse work.
Humour is provided by John Dodge in âMile High Circusâ with Pickles the clown and a crazy but ultimately kind Mayor. Yaseena McKendry does mystery well in the opening to the novel âWinter Treesâ; there is a menacing, melancholic atmosphere in this piece â we are at a funeral in chapter one. Liz McManusâs masterful novel extract âThe Disappearedâ is marked out by assured writing, delight in the natural world, great dialogue, and a beautifully described swan.
A story of a life squandered, by Vanessa Baker ,sees a 12 year old girl brought to her first gig by her brother; this sets the girl up for life as a groupie and, ultimately, regret.
Zach Hively dazzles the reader with a menacing story set in Germany. A little boy falls in love with a woman and wants to rescue her, whether she needs rescuing or not. His mission brings him into a dark, dusty and creepy hostel that is peopled with mutant toys. The language is exuberant â there are lots of lively images such as the clubfooted pigeon whose foot looks like melted plastic, and an old man with âwet tissue paper hairâ.
Iâm a writer who delights in language, I love a good stylist, and I found plenty of that in this book. In Hsiang-Enâs poem âMonday Morning Tramâ we find âlike sculpture in an art exhibition, the passengers all look the sameâ, and in the poem âTsingtao Brothersâ, beer âsoftly sputters to kiss the nose / When held close to parched lips.â Here is a poet who revels in delicate language and apt visuals. Much like fiction writer Malu Bremer in âAfter the Toneâ, where a mother loses her unborn baby while saving her daughter from drowning in an ice-hole. The mother goes slowly mad, which makes the daughter leave. The language is stunning in this piece. We have âa smile thin as a paper cutâ; âa necktie the colour of old sweatâ; and âmarzipan lightâ that âhangs low over the townâ where icicles âweep themselves smallerâ.
In this anthology there are talking wolves, corruption in a third world country, unreliable narrators who want to be ill, and young girls facing their mortality. We have mythology in the form of a modern day CĂș Chulainn in âMrs Culannâs Dogâ. As well as in âLamentâ by Eimear Ryan, where a group of teenagers entertain themselves by pretending to be banshees by night, keening outside peopleâs homes. Eerily, the victims often soon die. The narrator lives with her feisty but ailing granny. Granny likes to tell it like it is: âPut [the egg] in water,â she says. âIf it floats, itâs fucked. Like a goldfish.â This story is interwoven with the legend of Diarmuid and GrĂĄinne â GrĂĄinne was doomed to roam as a shapeshifter, keening her lost love. The banshee game turns sour, however, when the ringleader decides the narratorâs granny is next on the list.
Poet Eamonn Lynskey looks at lifeâs big questions: religion and how the earth was made. His poem âEarly Christian Chronicleâ is a list poem of prayers, Popes and presences. As a teenager the narrator âfelt the axe descend / and split in two the breastplate of my faithâ.
All I can give you is a flavour of what is in this anthology. What you really need to do is buy it, as an e-book or in hard copy, and enjoy it for yourself.
I wish all the writers within the pages of A Thoroughly Good Blue the very best of luck with completing the M. Phil. in Creative Writing at Trinity and with their writing careers. May your ink always flow.
Nuala NĂ ChonchĂșir, CĂșirt, April 2012
