Come and Share the Story with Eileen Casey- A Guest Post by the Author of Snow Shoes

Today I am very honored to present a guest post by Eileen Casey about her experiences at a conference on Life Time Learning with a special focus on using the short story to encourage life time learning The conference took place in Copenhagen and she also shares her first impressions of the city with us. She is involved in projects to promote lifetime self-development for people of all ages. Many people stop reading once they get out of school. I have even read blog posts claiming people over sixty cannot really read "hard" literature. Of course I totally repudiate these ideas and I applaud the efforts of Casey and others to encourage self development programs, with reading at the core.

Eileen Casey is an Irish writer. Originally from the Midlands (Co. Offaly), she has lived in South Dublin County since the late 1970’s. She is a fiction writer, poet and journalist. Her many awards include a Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship (Poetry) and a Sunday Independent, Hennessy Literary Award (Fiction).

A debut short story collection ‘Snow Shoes’ was published by Arlen House, 2012.  She holds a B.A. in Humanities (Hons.) from Dublin City University and completed an M.Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin in 2011 where she was awarded distinction.  

Her debut poetry collection Drinking the Colour Blue was published by New Island in 2008.  Collaborative works with Visual Artist Emma Barone  are Reading Hieroglyphs in Unexpected Places (2010) and From Bone to Blossom (2011) with an introduction by Grace Wells.  

Guest Post by Eileen Casey

Where Words Fail, Music Speaks  - Hands Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid

A hundred years ago in 1913, sculptor Edward Eriksen created and unveiled the figure that is perhaps most associated with Denmark.  The idea of creating such a landmark figure was first thought of by brewery owner Carl Jacobsen, who got the notion while attending  The Little Mermaid fairytale ballet at the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen.  There were many discussions between the brewery owner and the sculptor, discussions regarding whether or not this famous creation should have legs or a fishtail and where exactly she should be placed in the area known as Langelinie, the park near Copenhagen harbour. In the event, Denmark’s most famous celebrity sits on large rocks close to the shore at the south of the park which starts at Toldboden, continuing to the outside of Kastallet and the large marina.
When myself and my band of fellow travellers rounded a nearby curve in the park pathway and caught first glimpse of this famous lady, our initial reaction was emotional to say the least.  There’s just something about this small, modest figure (she is only 1.25 metres tall) with her human legs in the process of metamorphosis from fish tail that inspires such a response. Words certainly fail, a reminder too that in this particular fairytale, this other-worldly creature exchanged her precious voice for legs. Copenhagen has many interesting sights, including Nyhavn (The New Harbour) and The Free Town of Christiana. However, over one million tourists come especially every year to visit The Little Mermaid. There is indeed something poignant about the gaze of this sea creature who so longed to be human.  In fact, so intense was her longing in Hans Christen Andersen’s memorable tale, that she was also willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity to gain a human soul and the love of a human Prince.  Eriksen captures this sense of yearning and self sacrifice so evocatively. There’s something about the patience and endurance of  The Little Mermaid’s pose that immediately touches the human heart.
On the day we visited her in May this year, the cherry trees had just blossomed sprinkling the setting with their soft pink tinge. In 2005, the Danish Consul in Horoshima, Selichi Talaki, gave the city of Copenhagen 200 Japanese cherry trees to celebrate the two hundred year since Hans Christian Andersen was born. Our trip to Copenhagen was by way of a stopover on our continuing journey to Odense, the actual birthplace of Denmark’s master storyteller.  It seemed fitting to pay our respects to one of his most popular fairytale characters, enjoyed by children and adults alike. The Little Mermaid has been translated into musical theatre, film and of course, is never out of print all over the world.

We were visiting Odense as part of a Grundtvig Seminar called Come Share the Story through music.  As a lifelong learner and tutor in adult education, I’m part of an initiative called Bridging the Gap.  Carmel Maginn, educationalist, writer and broadcaster, was instrumental in setting up the South Dublin segment of the programme (which encourages people from all walks of life back into self-development and education); with the assistance of AltEnts Arts Group.  Lifelong learning is extremely empowering. It’s wonderful to know that senior citizens in particular who, perhaps for one reason or another, did not get the opportunity to progress in formative years, can return to learning at any stage in their lives.  In my case, I studied as a mature student for a B.A. degree in literature and history with Oscail (Dublin City University). It took me seven years to get this degree, due to work and family commitments.  In a way, Andersen’s story The Ugly Duckling speaks to us of this empowerment through change.  Andersen himself (born to poor parents in Odense in 1805) is himself synonymous with the ugly duckling tale.  Life was very hard for this thoughtful man who never found or received the love of his life.  He even considered himself to have an ugly duckling appearance, being so tall, thin and possessing a very large nose.

Harsh childhood
His childhood was harsh. His father was a shoemaker  and they lived in one room in Odense. His mother, a washerwoman for the wealthy of the town, died a pauper in a Franciscan Monastery. She was also an alcoholic, relying on drink to keep her warm while she washed clothes outdoors in freezing temperatures. His grandmother was imprisoned for eight days in Odense prison for being a loose woman (three children with three different fathers earned her the title and the sentence). 

Andersen left home to make his fortune and fame at the tender age of fourteen. Although poorly educated, he tried his hand at acting and singing and got a second chance when the director of the Royal Theatre and Patron of the Arts, took him under his wing. Andersen went to the University at Copenhagen. Like his duckling creation, Andersen soon turned into a powerful swan with embracing wings. His stories won him fame and fortune and he was eventually honoured during his lifetime by Odense in a ceremony of light which symbolised illumination. The Hans Christian Andersen Museum comprises a set of houses in the old part of Odense, one of which is the actual house where Andersen was born. The museum makes for a fascinating visit as it contains quite an amount of Andersen memorabilia, including examples of the paper cut outs he excelled at and with which he entertained the wealthy classes who welcomed him into their homes because he was so witty and entertaining. The museum has one of Andersen’s tall hats in a glass case which gives some indication of his size.  Interestingly, it also has the rope that Andersen brought everywhere he went in case a fire broke out and he could shimmy down from the window if he happened to be on an upper floor.

Meeting with facilitators and students from other countries such as Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Denmark, reminded me of the variety of different cultures and people in the world and how it is so important to engage with such rich diversity.   Andersen in his autobiography once wrote: ‘To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while you give, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live.  Part of the Grundtvig programme is exactly this aim, to encourage European citizens to meet and learn from each other and to put what’s learnt into practice. 

Nikolaz Frederick Severin Grundtvig founded The Folk High School Movement in Denmark in 1830.  He wanted to provide a source of enlightenment for poor, uneducated peasants who would then become ambassadors, returning to their own part of the country and try to create change.  Grundtvig’s ethos was to help people become full rounded human beings first and foremost; as opposed to following ideals of measuring ability solely through the exam system.  Having seen my youngest daughter (who is now almost eighteen) go through the recent stress of Leaving Certificate examinations, I think the Grundtvig way is admirable.  Our group were lucky enough to visit a Folk High School at Ryslinge, situated on Fyn, only a short distance from the expressway between Odense and Svendborg.  The principal of the school, Tyge Mortensen, greeted us warmly and explained how the school works, that there are no exams as such, that creativity and innovation are the twin pillars on which students are judged. We were brought to the music room where we gathered around the piano to sing  Amazing Grace  and  You’ve got a Friend , accompanied by one of the music teachers at the school, Janne Wind, a phenomenal lady. Students at the school begin the day by singing, the best natural elixir in the world for releasing joy and well being. I felt a little awkward in the beginning because I’m not used to singing in a group but by the end of an hour, with my adrenaline on speed dial, I could have taken on the world!

The Ryslinge Folk High School was one of the many highlights of our seminar. The Culture Day at Laerdansk, a modern language centre at Odense, was a musical feast. I’d never heard singing in Kurdish or Vietnamese so my ears and my heart responded to these new and other gorgeously exotic sounds. Music as a vehicle for expanding confidence and creativity was very much in evidence at this event. Songs as a learning tool provides an understanding of culture and language as well as being a universal source of communication.  Music is known to support memory and also, encourages integration and empathy.  Co-ordinator Lene Bolding and her team in Odense certainly did a wonderful job in organising all the events we so enjoyed.

As a contribution to the workshop element of the Grundtvig seminar at Odense, I facilitated ‘Small Landscapes at the Bottom of the Teacup’. I devised this workshop around the culture of tea drinking, because this simple yet iconic ceremony is so important in our lives.  Some years ago, my good friends Sam and Lynda Tavakoli, gave me the gift of a beautiful Samovar and Iranian tealeaves.  When I drank the tea I noticed the wonderful image which was at the bottom of my teacup, the image of a ship in full sail.  Thus began a new way of accessing stories and poetry (in particular, haiku, a Japanese three line form). Exploring tealeaf shape and form gives rise to lots of ways of opening the storehouse of memory and also of writing stories which begin with an image. The results are often delightful and inspiring. Finding the key to opening the creative door is every tutor’s goal.  Storytelling, as Hans Christian Andersen knew so well, comes from sources of tension, feelings of inadequacy, unresolved conflicts. He once wrote a story about a teapot that was proud, proud of its long spout and broad handle –

‘But it didn’t mention its lid, for it was cracked and it was riveted and full of defects and we don’t talk about our defects – other people do that” – (from Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen).One of the great benefits of writing is that it allows us to take these ‘defects’, these ‘ugly duckling’ elements and use them to create stories that are full of truth and beauty where readers can find empathy.  Human nature is not perfect and in order for characters to become ‘swan-like’, the challenges of life have to be met and resolved as best as is possible at any given time. Story tellers like Andersen knew this only too well.  What better way to enjoy bringing characters to life than through tea culture, a familiar and much loved ritual? Tea culture has indeed many interesting and intriguing ‘flavours’ (with exotic titles such as Geisha, Rose Garden, Chou Mei, Jasmine and Falling Snowflake among others)and the ability to create stories where characters, situations and events emerge to both entertain and engage.  On November 16th this year, I’ll be hosting ‘Small Landscapes at the Bottom of the Teacup’ at the beautifully sumptuous and scenic Aherlow House Hotel & Lodges. For full details, contact Joanne 0’Dwyer Hicks, 062-56153, sales@aherlowhouse.ie. 

For more information on visiting Copenhagen and Denmark, contact:
Danish Tourist Board, 55 Sloane Street, London SW1 X9SY.
Tel: 0044 207 3330200. Email: contact@visitdenmark.com
www.visitdenmark.com


End of Guest Post

My great thanks to Eileen Casey for this post on a topic of great importance.  I recently read an article that said one of the best protections against dementia and other mental issues associated with aging is a life time of reading, the more challenging books the better your protection.  

My post on Eileen's wonderful collection of short stories, Snow Shoes.  I very strongly endorse this book.

Mel u

"Bridging the Gap: The Power of the Story" by Eileen Casey

March 1 to April 28

My post on Snow Shows by Eileen Casey

A Q and A Session with Eileen Casey - must reading


  Eieen Casey is an Irish writer. Originally from the Midlands (Co. Offaly), she has lived in South Dublin County since the late 1970’s. She is a fiction writer, poet and journalist. Her many awards include a Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship (Poetry) and a Sunday Independent, Hennessy Literary Award (Fiction).

A debut short story collection ‘Snow Shoes’ was published by Arlen House, 2012.  She holds a B.A. in Humanities (Hons.) from Dublin City University and completed an M.Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin in 2011 where she was awarded

distinction.  

Her debut poetry collection Drinking the Colour Blue was published by New Island in 2008.  Collaborative works with Visual Artist Emma Barone  are Reading Hieroglyphs in Unexpected Places (2010) and From Bone to Blossom (2011) with an introduction by Grace Wells.  

Bridging the Gap: The Power of Story

By Eileen Casey

Thanks to the Grundtvig Foundation’s Lifelong Learning Programme, I’ll shortly be travelling to Copenhagen and Odense, Denmark as part of a ‘story’ team led by educationalist, broadcaster and writer Carmel Maginn.  As far back as early 2,003, Carmel, founder and cornerstone of the ‘Bridging the Gap’ project, had an interest in promoting ‘story’ as an empowerment tool in terms of personal and educational development.  Based in South Dublin County, there are currently eight groups involved in promoting pilot programmes which are relevant to educational institutions and community groups.

    ‘Story’ is already nurturing, encouraging and enabling people at both ends of the generational scale. It is being used to assist teachers working with cultural themes in primary schools in disadvantaged areas and also in promoting personal expression in older people through storytelling and song.  Listening to music and the stories of others in a group scenario, promotes a connection which reduces isolation and provides a trigger for memories to surface.    

    Children and young adults are also catered for.  For example, team member Kathleen Toner facilitates a project called ‘Little by Little’ where the concept of  expressing personal stories surrounding family life is aligned to formal learning programmes. One of the main benefits of this process is that a shared learning exchange takes place between parents and siblings. At present, negotiations are underway with the Graphics Department of a local Technical College to use the stories of the children involved as the basis of a graphic novel/comic.

    Carmel Maginn and members of the ‘Bridging the Gap’ team have just come back from Estonia where, over a period of a few days, seminars and workshops were held with local groups also involved in promoting learning and social inclusion through ‘story’.  Finding teaching strategies which are effective and enjoyable appear to be the main challenges facilitators regularly face, together with funding deficits.  

    From my point of view, as a writer, it’s fascinating to see the broad range of skills that facilitators bring to the ‘story’ table in order to help participants achieve confidence and learning abilities through self expression. Arts and crafts, music and dance, traditional telling of folktales, folk games, the employment of drama techniques, all of these ensure that participants can express themselves in ways that comply with their current competencies.  The value of visits to other countries (the Denmark trip is part of a year long itinerary) is to exchange ideas and to learn from other cultures how best to move forward.

    My own input in  the ‘Bridging the Gap’ programme, is that of writer and creative facilitator.  I devise creative workshops, delivered over a period of ten weeks,  for the various professional facilitators.  The workshops focus on the holistic elements of creativity itself.  I’ve always believed in the power of  play and that anything is possible if you follow your star.   My workshops, among other elements, develop the connection between place and emotion/how both are intrinsically connected.  Also, ‘Story’ comes from first hand or second hand joys as well as sorrows so exercises around these dual emotional poles ususally sets off a trail of ‘what ifs/if onlys’, eventually culminating in the opening of the storehouse door.  In an introduction to an edition of William Blake’s ‘The Tyger,’ Yehudi Menuhin talks about the child’s world being full of symbols, shapes and sizes until that dismal day when it is taught to put a label on each and everything it has felt, touched and smelled, thereby forcing it to shrink it by a name.  Exploring shape and size from childhood can bring an amount of wonderful memory stories from a very simple, non invasive trigger.

    Over the years, as an editor, I’ve devised a number of community based anthologies and I continue to employ their basic premises.  One of these, Flavours of Home (supported by The Social Inclusion Unit, South Dublin County Council)is a collection of memories based on family meals around the kitchen table. The family is a microcosm for the global community.  Sourcing ideas from Joyce’s Dubliners

and Isak Dinesen’s Babette’s Feast gives a solid literary precedence for accessing stories of this nature.  Using examples from literature broadens the scope of an individual’s personal ‘story’ frame.  

    I find the use of a storyboard a tremendous entrance to the gathering of family memory.  Because of its portability, I generally use a roll of wallpaper with various photographs, newspaper cuttings from specific timeframes, words which are personal to my own family (Paul Muldoon’s wonderful poem ‘Quoof’ features in this regard).  The storyboard builds up to present a personal profile of each participant, a visual journal to share with others.  It’s a tremendously powerful way to find a starting point and frame a personal story.

    At present, I’m working on a pilot scheme in a local Community School whereby traditional myths and legends will be revitalised through the prism of first year students/transition year students who have their own vast and colourful ‘story’ experience.  I know I’ll be learning a lot from these young people.

‘Bridging the Gap’ as a project continues to grow, mostly through the efforts of Carmel Maginn and her team of dedicated facilitators who are constantly finding new and invigorating ways to explore and express the power of ‘story’.  Grateful acknowledgement of support is owed AltEnTs Arts Group, Rua Red, Tallaght and The Grundtvig Foundation’s Lifelong Learning Programme.

End

Webpage of Grundtvig Foundation

Short stories can do more than just entertain or edify us and I am proud to be able to let my readers know of the wonderful work of the Grundtvig Foundation and Eileen Casey.  I am a total believer in lifetime learning, in fact one of the big reasons I have my blog is that it is has evolved into a fabulous life time learning experience for me.  We will hear more from Casey in May, I hope.

Mel u

Our long love affair with the short story By Eileen Casey

March 1 to March 31

A Reading Life Special Guest post 

"Our long love affair with the short story"  

  
Eileen Casey

         

Eileen Casey, author of Snow Shoes, has very kindly allowed me to share with my readers an address she gave at The Cork International Short Story Festival, considered the most prestigious short story event anywhere.  

A Question and Answer Session with Eileen Casey

My post on her wonderful collection of short stories, Snow Shoes.

Author Data

Eileen Casey is an Irish writer. Originally from the Midlands (Co. Offaly), she’s lived in South Dublin County for since the late 1970’s. She is a fiction writer, poet and journalist. Her many awards include a Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship (Poetry) and a Sunday Independent, Hennessy Literary Award (Fiction).

A debut short story collection ‘Snow Shoes’ was published by Arlen House, 2012.  She holds a B.A. in Humanities (Hons.) from DCU and completed an M.Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin in 2011 where she was awarded distinction.  

Her debut poetry collection Drinking the Colour Blue was published by New Island in 2008.  Collaborative works with Visual Artist Emma Barone  are Reading Hieroglyphs in Unexpected Places (2010) and From Bone to Blossom (2011) with an introduction by Grace Wells.  

Writing.ie has an excellent article in which Casey talks about the stories in Snow Shoes as well as a wide range of other topics.

There is more information on Snow Shoes on the webpage of her American distributor Syracuse University Press

"Our long love affair with the short story"    

          By Eileen Casey

The Cork International Short Story Festival, 2011

On 17^th September, 2011 in the Metropole Hotel, Cork, Edna 0’Brien read from ‘Saints and Sinners’, her 21^st work of fiction.  She received the standing ovation she truly deserved. Such an enthusiastic response to her work was not solely in recognition of her contribution to world literature over a career that spans half a century; neither was it entirely attributable to the fact that, given she is enjoying her eighty-first year, she read beautifully and without missing a beat, for the bones of forty minutes or so.  0’Brien brought the rapt audience to their feet because she is purely and simply a master story teller.  Her work is multi-layered, nuanced, her themes hugely important and her use of language unerringly evocative.  As it happened, the acclaim was justified because the next evening on the same stage in the Metropole, 0’Brien received the Frank 0’Connor International Short Story Award, a prize which carries the biggest monetary recognition in literature for a short story collection, €35,000.  It was good to see an Irish writer win the prize and indeed there were two Irish writers on the short-list this year.  Colm Tóibin, who has achieved enormous success worldwide, was nominated for his collection, ‘The Empty Family.’ 

     Ireland has long been associated with the short form, a history that has its origin in an oral, anecdotal tradition.  By 1960, the year before Edna 0’Brien published ‘The Country Girls,’ there was a consensus that the Irish short story was on a par with its Russian and American counterparts. The Irish literary short story, from as far back as George Moore’s ‘The Untilled Field,’ (1903), continues to serve as an influential model for so many writers, worldwide.  However, the remaining four short-listed writers for the 2011 Frank 0’Conner Award, are a reflection of the international range of the award with writers such as YiYun Li (Beijing born and a previous winner), Valerie Trueblood (USA), Alexander MacLeod (Ontario) and Suzanne Rivecca (currently living in Rome and San Francisco, CA). Other writers featured on the festival programme, not in competition, included British authors Helen Dunmore and Clare Wigfall.  There was also the opportunity to enjoy literature in translation with Michael Ajvaz from the Czech Republic.

     The  Frank 0’Connor Award for a collection of short stories was introduced seven years ago. This corner of the world has much to celebrate in this regard, claiming a literary school of writers which include William Trevor, Elizabeth Bowen, Daniel Corkery and Sean 0’Faolain, among others.  0’Connor, in earlier times however, had been a writer, ‘Whose star had been obscured by clouds.’ The brochure introduction by Patrick Cotter, Festival Director, explains that part of the festival’s initial aim when it was inaugurated eleven years ago, was to remove those clouds.  Among other things, Frank 0’Connor was blacklisted by De Valera’s government for his condemnation of Irish neutrality and for leading a private life at odds with Catholic Church morality.  Yet, despite being regarded as a bête noir, 0’Connor, in his own lifetime, was treated as a hero of the short story form in America.  He was a writer able to create from his own unhappy personal experiences, a storehouse shared by Edna 0’Brien who is quoted as saying, “Unhappy houses are a very good incubation for stories.”  One of 0’Connor’s more famous collections ‘Guests of the Nation,’ is also the title of one of the stories contained in it.  Set during the War of Independence, it has at its source, 0’Connor’s own service in combat during that same war. Exile and isolation are themes 0’Brien and 0’Connor share also.  In the opening story in ‘Saints and Sinners,’ one of the characters says,”Exile is in the mind and there is no cure for that.”  In 0’Connor’s story Lost Fatherlands (‘A Set of Variations’), empathy exists between a runaway monk and a publican because of their shared experience of exile.  0’Connor’s collected essays in the anthology ‘The Lonely Voice,’ have been influential in moulding writers such as Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff, Raymond Carver and many others. 

     This year, I had the pleasure of reading at the festival as part of the programme.  I shared the platform with P.J. 0’Connor, winner of the 2011 Sean 0’Faoilain Short Story Prize.  0’Connor won with a story called The Haggard and he held the room in the palm of his hand, so wonderfully entertaining the story and its delivery. The judge of this really prestigious competition, Ian Wild, proclaimed the story as being witty and in the vein of Flann 0’Brien, high praise indeed. Also given prominent platforms were new writers from The Stinging Fly Press, The recent Faber anthology and there was a special showcase this year of stories from the Francis McManus Award read by actors who really know how to deliver a story. This in itself proved very useful for the aspiring story writer.  It brings to mind the importance of pacing and explains how masters such as John McGahern spent whole mornings arranging and then re-arranging a sentence.  Such attention to craft can be picked up by the ‘ear’.

    A festival which  focuses entirely on the short story and which enjoys such huge attendances (a full house for most of the events) shows a strong endorsement of the form and the realisation of how alive and well it is. From such a small (in terms of size) word ‘field’, writers have sown and reaped very successful careers. The mastery of the form in the case of Irish writer Claire Keegan places her as a direct successor to John McGahern.  Faber published her winning Davy Byrne Memorial Award work Foster, as a stand alone story, an accolade most writers can only dream about. I had the privilege of being in one of Claire Keegan’s writing groups in Tallaght over twenty years ago when she was just starting out, although even then she was making an impression with her work.  She was dedicated and highly disciplined, two of the traits a writer really must possess in order to bring the work to its best.   Annie Proulx’s short story Brokeback Mountain (published in her collection ‘Close Range, Wyoming Stories’), transferred seamlessly to the big screen, proving the resilient nature of the short form.

     My own list of favourite writers is constantly lengthening. The last collection I read was ‘Elizabeth Strout,’ by Olive Kitteridge.  I found it stunning and memorable.  Before that, I read Kevin Barry’s ‘There are Little Kingdoms.’  Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’ is a treat I would never tire of and I am always altered in some way by it.  ‘The Collected Stories’ of Dylan Thomas is still hugely enjoyable to me as is Richard Brautigan’s ‘Revenge of the Lawn.’  Brautigan’s stories are really short, sometimes just a paragraph.  It could be said he was writing flash fiction before the term was coined.  I would always want to read William Trevor and of course, I’m open to recommendations.  Having access to really well put together forums, workshops, discussion panels and readings as developed by The Cork International Short Story Festival, ensures a feast of new work alongside the more established. Together with all the short-listed collections at the festival, ‘My Mistress’s Sparrow Is Dead,’ edited by Jeffrey Eugenides and containing stories ranging from Chekhov to Munro seems a good bet for the winter nights ahead.

    Where do short stories come from? This question is often asked of writers of the form.  Unfortunately, they are not found under heads of cabbages.  Most writers agree that short stories are concerned with one single event held over a specific timeframe within which change, of some degree, changes the lives of the characters in the story but also the perspective of the reader.  Joyce maintained that short stories presented moments of heightened perception or epiphanies.  At a recent seminar in Trinity College, Dublin, facilitated by American writer Richard Ford, he articulated what lay at the heart of the short story and what it is that holds it together. “Short stories by nature are daring little instruments and almost always represent commensurate daring in their makers.  Short stories want to give us something big but want to do it in precious little time and space.” Writing in ‘Handbook of Short Stories,’ (Writers Digest), Joyce Carol Oates talks about people beginning to write and being buoyed up by energy, “The sense that they have something unique to say and that only they can say it.  This energy, this mysterious conviction, is the basis of all art.”   Writing in the same handbook, Marilyn Granbeck addresses the often pondered question, “Why do today’s magazines publish so many short stories that have no plot or structure?” Grenbeck makes the observation that in the hands of a skilled writer, “The framework of the story is as invisible as the bones of the beauty contestant.  Just as that girl’s total physical appearance is made possible by her skeletal system, a story is often good because of its hidden structure.  The experienced writer may disguise the bones so effectively the reader doesn’t see them sticking out as separate pieces.  The bones of the story can be so well hidden, the reader may think they are not there at all”.  Richard Ford agrees. Of structure he says: “A novel with a defective structure, a wrong opening movement, a dead end or a fractured end part, can still be a novel and may on balance be good.  But if a short story suffers these aesthetic flaws, it risks being nothing at all.’

     It appears that the best way to get under the skin of the form is to read short stories and learn through the process, writing them from the type of energy Joyce Carol Oates describes so well. There’s a quote from 0’Connor in the festival brochure which seems to encapsulate the whole point of having buoyant energy, a quote taken from 0’Connor’s thoughts about what constitutes ‘ A real European capital.’

     Speaking to the BBC in 1961 0’Connor said; “I have a feeling that, at one time, Cork, for a short time at least, during the reign of Cormac McCarthy, was a real European capital.  It has ceased to be that and the problem now is how it’s going to create a life for itself, a life in which a man can live completely from the cradle to the grave; that I think is a problem not only for Cork, but for the whole of Western European Civilisation. Life has to start flowing back into smaller places.  Metropolis ended with Hiroshima.  People have got to start living a much less specialized form of life, a much more community form of life and my feeling about this city is…either people make a success of it or Western Europe is finished.”

     Because of the sponsorship of Cork City Council and all the various activities of the Munster Literature Centre, a life without limits is possible.  In the words of  Festival Director Patrick Cotter, such sponsorship ensures “That men and women can develop to their fullest creative and intellectual extent; so that they are never obliged to leave their home city to fulfill themselves.’

     Sincere thanks to Patrick Cotter, The Munster Literature Centre and The Hennessy Literary Award for giving me the opportunity to read on such an international platform. I returned home rejuvenated and with a renewed sense of purpose.

Eileen Casey’s collection of short stories, Snow Shoes, was published by Arlen House in 2012.

    End of Guest Post

There is a great deal to be learned about the short story and Irish literature from this very insightful article and I give my great thanks to Eileen Casey for her allowing me to share this with my readers during Irish Short Story Month.

In May she will be attending an event related to the short story held in Copenhagen and she will be sharing that experience with us.

   

I give my complete endorsement to Snow Shoes.  Here are my closing words on the collection from my post.

Snow Shoes by Eileen Casey has 13 stories in all.   Each one is very much worth reading, beautifully written and explicated with a deep artistic sensibility.   You can feel the author's deep compassion for the trials and burdens of ordinary lives and extraordinary ones.   I find her work profoundly emphatic.  

I endorse these stories for any and all lovers of the form.  Several of the stories are about long term marriages and I think anyone in such a situation will find themselves reflecting on the state of their own relationship.   Her ability to write so movingly about a Korean comfort woman shows she can go outside the scope of her immediate world to project herself into psyches foreign to her immediate environment and shows the range of her imaginative power. 


Mel u

An Interview with Eileen Casey author of Snow Shoes

Irish Short Story Month Year III

March 1 to March 31

A Special Event

Today I am very happy and honored that Eileen Casey, author of Snow Shoes, has agreed to answer a few questions.   Everyone who has read Snow Shoes, including me for sure, has loved it.  (My post on it is here.)

Eileen Casey is an Irish writer. Originally from the Midlands (Co. Offaly), she has lived in South Dublin County since the late 1970’s. She is a fiction writer, poet and journalist. Her many awards include a Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship (Poetry) and a Sunday Independent, Hennessy Literary Award (Fiction).

A debut short story collection ‘Snow Shoes’ was published by Arlen House, 2012.  She holds a B.A. in Humanities (Hons.) from Dublin City University and completed an M.Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin in 2011 where she was awarded distinction.  

Her debut poetry collection Drinking the Colour Blue was published by New Island in 2008.  Collaborative works with Visual Artist Emma Barone  are Reading Hieroglyphs in Unexpected Places (2010) and From Bone to Blossom (2011) with an introduction by Grace Wells.  

1.  Who are some of the contemporary short story writers you admire?.   If you had to say, who do you regard as the three best ever short story writers?  The best woman?

 I have quite a store of writers I admire, my list is long and lengthening.  I like Deirdre Madden, 

Geraldine Mills, Nuala Ni Chonchuair, Kevin Barry, William Trevor (a big favourite of mine),Valerie Sirr, Madeleine D'arcy, Vivienne McDade, Dermot Bolger,James Martyn Joyce...it's a long list. And Enda 0'Brien of course. A wonderful writer. I'm currently reading her memoir, it's gripping and beautifully written. I heard her read at the Cork International Short Story Festival, it was memorable. Long may she continue to write. She has such discipline and stamina.

The three best short story writers ever?! that's a hard one.  I might say three today and a different three tomorrow.  But...William Trevor, John McGahern, Elizabeth Strout.

2.  I have read lots of Indian and American short stories in addition to Irish and alcohol plays a much bigger part in the Irish stories.   How should an outsider take this and what does it say about Irish culture.

  The Irish psyche is steeped in alcohol for sure.  One of my own stories in 'Snow Shoes' 'That Woman' is about a woman in the throes of alcoholism. The story is told from a 'split personality' perspective.  Most Irish fiction is doused in drink, it's very much a part of our culture.

3.  Declan Kiberd has said the dominant theme of modern Irish literature is that of the weak or missing father.   Do you think he is right and how does this, if it does, reveal itself in your work?

 I admire Declan Kiberd very much and I would trust his judgement. He is a wonderful, articulate speaker. He came to Tallaght some years ago and enthralled us with his wonderful delivery. The weak or missing father as a theme in Irish literature is a recurring one. It surfaces as a theme in my own work (both poetry and fiction).  I'm from the generation where the man of the house was often 'absent' even while present.

4.  When did you begin writing?

 I feel it was inevitable from the beginning that I would one day write.  I come from a very colourful street in a small town in the Midlands.  Living in that street was like being in a soap opera.  Everybody knew each other so stories were always beginning and ending.  It was a street full of commotions, quiet ones and not so quiet ones.  I remember playing in the street one day and the windows of a near by house were blown out because one of the children of the house had thrown batteries into the fire.  I read a book everyday while I was growing up but I didn't start writing in earnest until I was in my early thirties.

5.   One of the stories in your collection is about a Korean comfort woman captured by the Japanese in Korean in 1941 and taken to the Philippines and placed in a military brothel.  How did you come to write this very moving story?  I live in the Philippines and there are still a few women alive here who were used as sex slaves by the Japanese during WWII and prior to reading your story I did not know the Japanese imported Korean women to work in their military brothels in the Philippines.  

5.I came across the story of Soon-Ae-Kang in a Sunday newspaper supplement back in 2000.  She was still alive then, living out her days in a house of shelter.  I was very moved by her story, her wasted childhood.  It still can bring the tears. Writing stories like that can be difficult.  I didn't want to be in any way sentimental.  My daughter was the same age in 2000 as Soon-Ae-Kang was (eleven years old) when she became a comfort woman. I began researching the backdrop to Soon-Ae-Kang's story and from those facts, the story came.

6.  I sometimes wonder why such a disproportionate amount of the regarded as great literature of the world is written in the colder temperate zones rather than in the tropics.   How big a factor do you think the Irish Weather is in shaping the literary output of its writers?   I cannot imagine The Brothers Karamazov being written on a tropical island, for example.

  Weather is hugely important in Ireland. As a matter of fact, all things meteorology is my husband's interest.  I have weather forecasts morning, noon and night.  It was the lexicon I grew up with also and I realised that characters talking about the weather could tell me lots about their relationship. There could well be a collection someday entitled 'What do we talk about when we talk about the weather'! John McGahern said that the events of a story follow on from how the 'light falls'. 

7.  You sometimes teach creative writing to adult learners.   What do you find the biggest rewards and challenges in this?

 I love facilitating creative writing classes.  It's always intriguing to see the dark horses.  Most people who come along to the classes have talent but it's the ones with discipline AND talent who generally succeed in getting work published.  I feel stirrings of the 'old magic' whenever I experience first hand the excitement of that wonderful dam burst of imagination that new writers bring to the table. There's nothing like it.

8.  Who do you see as the first modern Irish short story writers?

 George Moore comes to mind when I think of early writings.  Sean 0'Faolain is there also and Liam 0'Flaherty.

9.  why have the Irish produced such a disproportional to their population number of great writers?

The Irish are natural story tellers.  We are writing in our heads most of the time and we are great talkers. However, we always hold enough back so our inner lives are very fertile too.  I think it's out of what we withhold from each other that the stories come.

10.   ( this may seem like a silly question but I pose it anyway)-do you believe in Fairies?-this quote from Declain Kiberd sort of explains why I am asking this:

" One 1916 veteran recalled, in old age, his youthful conviction that the rebellion would “put an end to the rule of the fairies in Ireland”. In this it was notably unsuccessful: during the 1920s, a young student named Samuel Beckett reported seeing a fairy-man in the New Square of Trinity College Dublin; and two decades later a Galway woman, when asked by an American anthropologist whether she really believed in the “little people”, replied with terse sophistication: “I do not, sir – but they’re there."   

 I certainly DO believe in fairies.  I have fairies all over my house and in my garden.  Some of these fairies are invisible to the human eye but they are there. On a physical level, I have a lovely collection of Margaret Tarrant Fairies and of course, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book is part of my fairy book collection. I have a store of fairy dolls and if I like someone I give the doll as a gift. The fairy doll is then a guardian angel for the recipient, a protecting influence. 

11.  Do you like the Stories of an Irish R. M.?  either the stories or the TV show?   are the stories of Edith Somerville and Martin Ross mocking or celebrating Irish heritage?

  I grew up in a Georgian town in the Midlands where there was a great diversity of social stratas.  As a result I was able to identify with the Irish R.M.stories.  I feel the stories are so successful because Somerville and Ross understood the dynamics of class and religion. My family came from a working class/catholic background and I knew as a young child that those from the better off prostestant community were 'different' in lots of ways. We met them in the shops that they owned. Our mothers spoke differently to them than when they spoke to each other and that often, what was said to their faces in public

was often contradicted  behind closed doors.  

12  How important are the famines to the modern Irish psyche?  

 The famines have played their part in shaping irish literature. The decline in population and the exodus from the land in search of brighter prospects is an enduring theme. Joseph 0'Connor's 'Star of the Sea' is a tour de force, following the destinies of characters leaving a barren land in search of fortune and adventure. It's a harrowing tale but stories such as this also reveal the stoicism and resilience of human nature.

13.    Does the character of the "stage Irishman" live on still in the heavy drinking, violent, on the dole characters on finds in many contemporary Irish novels?

 The 'stage Irishman' as depicted by Dion Boucicualt has passed into lore regarding the stereotypical Irishman.  There's more than a grain of truth here.  I grew up in a street where dole and drink went hand in hand and I still see this kind of culture in contemporary life.

14.  William Butler Yeats said in "The Literary Movement"-- "“The popular poetry of England celebrates her victories, but the popular poetry of Ireland remembers only defeats and defeated persons”.    I see a similarity of this to the heroes of the Philippines.  American heroes were all victors, they won wars and achieved independence.   The national heroes of the Philippines were almost all ultimately failures, most executed by the Spanish or American rulers.   How do you think the fact Yeats is alluding , assuming you agree, has shaped Irish literature?

 Yeats statement is interesting and yes, there's a lot of truth in it.  Our sense of self-esteem as a people can be epitomised in Joyce's 'Dubliners' where the characters are gripped by paralyses, unable to move forward.  Joyce saw this as a 'conditioning' process, our ties to church and state. These ties aren't as strong now but it will take a couple of more generations to effect change.  I think our multicultural society is a positive step in the right direction.  We are more outward looking.

15.   Do you think poets have a social role to play in contemporary Ireland or are they pure artists writing for themselves and a few peers?

 I think an artist writers out of contemporary culture.  The personal and the universal/global are connected and the artist recognizes this.  There's a difference between 'naval gazing' and 'gazing'.

16.   Do you think Irish Travelers should be granted the status of a distinct ethnic group and be given special rights to make up for past mistreatment?  are the Travelers to the Irish what the Irish were once to the English?  I became interested in this question partially through reading the short stories of Desmond Hogan.

 On the question of the Travelling Community. When I came to Tallaght, South Dublin in the late 1970's, there was a lot of travellers, living in a way which made it difficult for others, i.e. littering, roaming animals etc.  Nowadays, the travelling community are well looked after in terms of housing/education (if they chose to go into this avenue).  I often feel like going to the Council and saying 'I want to be treated like the travelling community' because I sometimes think so many allowances are made for them in order to accommodate their lifestyle.  I grew up in the Midlands and there were settled travellers in my street. They were among the nicest people I've ever met and they were able to keep animals/take off on trips around the country BUT they also respected us settled people and lived peacefully alongside us.

17.  Where is the best place in Dublin to get Fish and Chips or Irish Stew?

. Burdock's will provide real fish and chips. I'm not so sure about the stew!

18.  What is your favorite Dublin book store?

  I like 'Chapters' bookstore in Parnell Street.  It's the kind of place where you can buy old books, new books, expensive books, cheap books.....lovely stationary, it's the whole package.

19.  Do you see yourself primarily as a poet or short story writer?

 I see myself as a writer.  Sometimes I want to write poetry, other times fiction and other times prose.  I would really like to try writing a novel.  I feel it's the great adventure in writing terms.  It's a huge undertaking. I regret not starting the novel when I began writing all those years ago.  I feel I might be overly critical of my work now and I have visions of myself beginning and beginning, over and over instead of just jumping in and making a leap of faith as well.

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Writing.ie has an excellent article in which Casey talks about the stories in Snow Shoes as well as a wide range of other topics.

There is more information on Snow Shoes on the webpage of her American distributor Syracuse University Press

You can order it from Amazon also

Eileen Casey has also written an excellent essay on the short story which she has graciously allowed me to post.  Look for it soon.

Mel u