This article is from page 34 of the 2013-10-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 34 JPG
A NORTH Clare poet and writer has just won one of Ireland’s most prestigious short story competition for a story on Ireland in the recession.
Mary O’Donoghue saw off competition from more than 300 writers from all over Ireland to claim the Legends of the Fall short story competition.
He story, which is entitled ‘The Sweet Forbearance in the Streets’, tells the sport of a middle-aged woman whose husband has died and whose son has emigrated to Australia.
“It means a great deal to have been selected by writers whose work I deeply admire, Eilís Ní Dhuibhne, Donal Ryan and Fintan O’Toole. I wrote this story from a distance, so I’m especially honoured to be included in a series of writers responding to my home country’s thoroughgoing hardship and malaise,” she said
Miss O’Donoghue was born in Kilreedy in North Clare in 1975 but emigrated to America in 2001 and now lives in Boston. She teaches creative writing and literature in Babson Col- lege, Massachusetts, but returns to Ireland regularly to visit her family.
Her first book of poetry, ‘Tulle’, was published by Liscannor-based publishing company Salmon Poetry. She has since published a second collection of poetry, ‘entitled Among These Winters’, while her first novel, ‘Before the House Burns’, was pub- lished by Lilliput Press in 2011.
She has also won a number of awards including the Salmon Poetry Prize, a Hennessey New Irish Writing Award and two artist fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.