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Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Elaine Feeney on her new novel: ‘I was pushing a sort of Chekhov dinner party in the west of Ireland'
Fresh from submitting a batch of student grades, the novelist and poet Elaine Feeney bursts into the Oyster Bar accessorised with a Penguin-branded tote from her 'lovely publishers' and the exuberance of someone who thought she might be late thanks to a train delay but isn't. We're not in the Hardiman Hotel on Eyre Square in Galway for oysters or cocktails, yet it feels like a celebratory occasion: the publicity push for Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way, Feeney's third novel, is officially under way. 'You're my first interview,' she says, though she has only just reached 'the very end' of talking about her Booker Prize-longlisted second novel, How to Build a Boat , and is 'finally comfortable' with her understanding of it. She would like to have 'a nice coherent linear narrative' for me about the kernels that led to Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way – the title of which comes from Sophocles' Elektra – but she's never been one for straightforward hooks. READ MORE 'It would be good if I could just package this for marketing, but actually, no, it was a very sporadic, cacophonous journey, this book.' It started with a couple, Claire and Tom, and at first she thought it might be a love story, but realised it couldn't just be that. 'People come from long deep histories that they bring into their relationship, and it affects it. There's no such thing as a love story that doesn't have these layers of the past.' In the novel, Claire has moved from London back to her childhood home in Athenry to care for her dying father, only for English ex-boyfriend Tom to relocate nearby. As she wrote it, Feeney found herself sidelining 'poor Tom' to examine Claire's relationship with everyone from a ' tradwife ' influencer to her two brothers. 'This is my first Irish family saga,' she says. 'I have four siblings and, because we grew up in the countryside, they were my best friends. They might not think that, but they were. You're so close and it's a small space and I just loved them. And there's very little done about the transition from your family-of-origin to your partner and your own children and how much you can miss your siblings, weirdly.' But 'family saga' risks oversimplifying the novel, which, although mostly set in 2022, also slips back to Claire's childhood and the lives of her ancestors in Athenry during the War of Independence. Feeney had to concentrate hard on the final edits, because despite studying history and teaching it for many years, she's not good with time. 'I can't fathom it at all in my head. I have a very sort of shadowy idea of what time means.' She likes having 'muddy little avenues' in her novels, though what is clear is that Claire is 'at a bit of a loss', being back in a place that should be familiar to her yet somehow isn't. 'I don't know if you have ever experienced that. You're in a space that is intensely familiar and suddenly you start to look at it and you see other things, and it's not the shape you thought it was.' She knows not everyone has to 'constantly walk the same paths' they walked as a child, but she does this, having bought the Athenry house she grew up in. She lives there now with husband Ray Glasheen, a designer, and sons Jack (23) and Finn (17). Did that feed into this novel? 'It feeds into everything. It feeds into absolutely everything,' she says instantly. Claire is 'unsure what world she is meant to inhabit' – a confusion that comes to a deliciously dramatic head when Tom, unaware of the delicate alchemy of mixing friends, panics her by inviting her neighbours to a dinner intended for her university colleagues. 'All the worlds collide at the end. I was pushing a sort of Chekhov dinner party in the west of Ireland,' she says, laughing. 'I come out in a rash thinking about that, seriously.' [ Elaine Feeney: 'I was shocked at what boys were expected to do from a young age' Opens in new window ] The book explores the political dimensions of the domestic space – the power and value of which so often go unrecognised, she says – with Claire becoming obsessed with a Texan trad wife. Feeney researched this in a 'very Gen X' way: by watching TikTok videos through Instagram. 'I got really good recipes for cakes and stuff, and I'm a really bad baker. It may have pleased my husband momentarily. I didn't tell him for a little while, and he thought I was very pleasant for a week or so. He thought I was in really good form. Then I said, 'I'm doing a deep dive on tradwives,' and we laughed so much about it.' She doesn't have a big take on the 'movement', thinking it 'has to be about choice', but worries this is also 'the hackneyed response' to a phenomenon that is both 'another fiction on your screen' and a business that possibly gives the women some agency and economic reward. 'What it taught me is that people do dabble in this. But I think it's absolutely mind-blowing the idea of scrolling past tradwives, lemon tarts, meringues, unpasteurised milk, 'cottagecore'; on to war, on to dismembered bodies, then on to fertility sticks, or whatever. I get a lot of those ads. The brainf**kery – sorry – that it must be causing,' she says. The juxtaposition of banality and brutality, she notes, is also a facet of her novel. We talk about how hard it is to be shocked now, and I mention the sense of powerlessness that can result from online doomscrolls. 'Powerlessness! Powerlessness is something I would feel acutely, and I think a lot of people feel it,' she says. 'I feel powerless, but as a writer I also feel a certain creative weight of responsibility as well.' That responsibility includes interrogating Irishness and the complications of identity. 'Sorry to keep doing the sociological sort of stuff, but I am really interested in the cultural export that is Irish people now.' She fears countries are being branded as if they are material things. 'But who gets to brand them? I'm very proud of my Irish heritage, but I often wonder what that means, when I really interrogate it. It's complex, because of Ireland's treatment of women in particular, and also now with direct provision and the housing crisis, and I'm not just naming things. These are things that I would really consider.' Every human feels pressure to perform, and not just to perform their national identity, she thinks. She wouldn't like to enter a space with her 'whole unbridled self'. Still, she does tend to say what she wants to say most of the time. 'Sometimes I really wish I didn't, that I had some sort of polish.' [ Elaine Feeney: 'I write what I know, so the west of Ireland aesthetic permeates everything' Opens in new window ] Feeney is warm and engaging. Over the course of our two-hour chat, we touch upon alleged cures for shingles, the 1995 divorce referendum, terrible audio-transcription apps, the disappointing third season of The White Lotus, whether a magpie might hang out with a blackbird, both being born in the summer of 1979, our mutual love for Chris O'Donnell in the 1995 adaptation of Maeve Binchy's A Circle of Friends, and the 'fantastic' classroom scenes in Another Round. The reference to this Oscar-winning, teacher-centric Danish film in Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way is one of its 'Easter eggs', or clues to her own life: Feeney taught English and history at St Jarlath's College in Tuam for 20 years. She loved teaching and the 'incredible people' she worked with, she says, but she didn't love the hierarchical structure and religiosity of the diocesan educational system, and it was this that crystallised her decision to leave. After the Tuam mother-and-baby home scandal broke, she felt acutely that she was 'on the wrong side of history', though she also wrestled with concern she might be 'giving up' on the boys she taught. 'It did come down to an ethical question for me in the end.' She is now involved in both the Tuam Oral History Project and writing charity Fighting Words, while lecturing full-time on the University of Galway's undergrad creative writing and postgrad writing degrees. 'They're all such brilliant writers, and I want them all to have publishing deals,' she says of her students. Lately, she has seen 'big interest' in gaming narratives, political poetry and fantasy/romantasy stories that demand world-building of the kind she says she can't do. Why would I risk everything by committing my love to paper? But anyway, I wrote a love poem Feeney, who began her literary career as a poet, always had a strong imagination – 'as a child I was a bit, you know, out there' – though it was her 2014 hospitalisation with life-threatening sepsis that proved the catalyst for her first novel. 'I was like, 'You nearly died, you better write a book, you wanted to write a book, you better do it.' So that – my own mortality – put fire in me.' Last year she published All the Good Things You Deserve, her first poetry collection in seven years. Its powerful, devastating title poem deals with a sexual assault that happened to her while she was in college. 'That was very personal, and I've done very little media about it. I just brought that softly, softly into the world,' she says. 'It took a long time to write the title poem, and to come to terms with putting any sort of narrative arc on the violence that I experienced as a younger woman. Of course, it was cathartic in some ways, but I really feel that art has to be more than a 'non-fiction of Elaine'. I wanted to tell that particular event in a way that I felt I was now controlling that story, finally, and it was no longer in control of me.' The collection ends with a love poem for her husband, though she had always told herself she was too cautious to write love poetry. 'Why would I risk everything by committing my love to paper? But anyway, I wrote a love poem.' When she alludes early in our conversation to a fourth novel in the works, I say I normally wait until the end to venture that question. So, she's already thinking about the next one? 'Of course I'm thinking about it. I wish I could just relax,' she says, but she doesn't sound too unhappy about being unable to, nor does she want to 'do the whole 'oh my god'' about being busy. 'Choices, my mother would say.' Mainly she feels relief that she got Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way down on paper and delight about everything from the joy of being served lemon and honey tea every day while recording its audiobook to the loveliness of being Booker-longlisted in 2023 alongside three other Irish authors. Sebastian Barry sent her a 'very generous' email, she says, when neither of them made the shortlist cut. 'I have nothing but gratitude now. That is genuinely how I feel about it. The journey has been mind-blowing for the last six or seven years. I haven't really stopped and taken stock of it, but once or twice I have, and I've just gone, 'Oh yeah, I'm really lucky.'' Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way is published by Harvill Secker
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Is it just me, or is everyone rude now? (It's not just me)
The woman, seated a chair or two away at the Sydney Writers' Festival, leaned over to me when the session had finished. She said: 'Do you always fidget, or do you have a particular problem today?' What? I hadn't been aware that I'd been fidgeting. Perhaps I'd been moving my new knee a little, just to take pleasure in the fact that my leg now works. But the movement would have been minimal. And she was seated a half a metre away. I'm always discombobulated when someone is rude to me. I think most people are. Minutes later, I ran into the writer Sydney writer Charlotte Wood. I told her about the nasty comment and how I'd been lost for words. Well, worse than lost for words. Instead, I'd put on a plummy English accent – why the accent? – and said, 'Madam, if I disturbed you in any way, I do apologise', and then stomped off (to the extent that a man with a new knee can stomp anywhere.) I asked Charlotte 'how come I was unable to come up with something better?' 'That's nothing,' said Charlotte. 'Someone was having me sign their book, and just as they were leaving, they examined me closely and said: 'So, whose idea was the hair?'' Charlotte is a wordsmith of dazzling skill. Her most recent book was shortlisted for last year's Booker Prize. Reviewers praise her wit. Surely, Charlotte would have come up with a zinger, even if I'd failed to manage one. Not a bit of it. She reports responding with a nervous half-laugh, a strange surge of shame – maybe the reader is right! - before quickly turning to the next customer in the queue.
The Age
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Is it just me, or is everyone rude now? (It's not just me)
The woman, seated a chair or two away at the Sydney Writers' Festival, leaned over to me when the session had finished. She said: 'Do you always fidget, or do you have a particular problem today?' What? I hadn't been aware that I'd been fidgeting. Perhaps I'd been moving my new knee a little, just to take pleasure in the fact that my leg now works. But the movement would have been minimal. And she was seated a half a metre away. I'm always discombobulated when someone is rude to me. I think most people are. Minutes later, I ran into the writer Sydney writer Charlotte Wood. I told her about the nasty comment and how I'd been lost for words. Well, worse than lost for words. Instead, I'd put on a plummy English accent – why the accent? – and said, 'Madam, if I disturbed you in any way, I do apologise', and then stomped off (to the extent that a man with a new knee can stomp anywhere.) I asked Charlotte 'how come I was unable to come up with something better?' 'That's nothing,' said Charlotte. 'Someone was having me sign their book, and just as they were leaving, they examined me closely and said: 'So, whose idea was the hair?'' Charlotte is a wordsmith of dazzling skill. Her most recent book was shortlisted for last year's Booker Prize. Reviewers praise her wit. Surely, Charlotte would have come up with a zinger, even if I'd failed to manage one. Not a bit of it. She reports responding with a nervous half-laugh, a strange surge of shame – maybe the reader is right! - before quickly turning to the next customer in the queue.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
From India to Innovation: How the Royal College of Art is Shaping the Next Generation of Creative Leaders
By Dimple Bangalore, current student on the Writing MA at the Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) in London stands as the world's number 1 university for art and design for the 11th year in a row, according to the QS World University Subject Rankings. Founded in 1837, RCA is a postgraduate-only institution that is highly influential in the world of design, art, architecture, communication, and the humanities. The RCA is committed to fostering global talent, which has created a thriving space for Indian students to leverage opportunities available to them there and in London. RCA admits over 150 students from India annually, with a sharp increase year-on-year since the pandemic. To better understand the experience of Indian students, why they chose the RCA, and how it develops their practice, I sat down with four current students from various programmes. Aditi Agarwal, a graduate from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, and a current Communication MFA student at RCA says 'RCA, with its 180 year history, has been highly impactful in graduating people who have gone on to make a change in the real world, so RCA was my first choice because I wanted to be part of that clan making the change rather than experiencing it.' RCA's distinguished alumni have garnered international accolades in various artistic disciplines. Most recently, Jesleen Kaur ( Jewellery & Metal MA , 2010) won the Turner Prize in 2024, and Douglas Stuart ( Fashion MA , 2000) won the Booker Prize in 2020. Pleural, a company started by four Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc graduates, won the 2024 James Dyson Award. Aditi Agarwal and Rutuja Shelke RCA deeply values real-world application and collaboration for its students. Rutuja Shelke, a Communication MFA student and also a Srishti alum, has been most impacted by the opportunities for artistic engagement in the city of London, which has helped her engage a larger set of people while learning from professionals. 'RCA sent out an opportunity to participate in a mural competition. I was so new to London, and had never lived internationally before. I was a bit hesitant, but I decided to participate despite knowing all my peers are also super talented because it's the best school in the world! But when I applied, the project manager, Walter Paice, was so kind and facilitated my learning experience throughout. It led to a pivotal connection with Walter, who works in the arts and design sector and is dedicated to creating opportunities for emerging artists. He invited me to collaborate on a mural project commissioned by the Hammersmith and Fulham Council, for Fulham Cycles, a local cycling shop. This six-week project I completed in February was an intense but rewarding experience. This mural now stands there and interacts with the public, and it feels nice to have done that so soon.' Rutu in the digital print studio Similarly, Shubhangi Pandey from Service Design MA recounts that the opportunity for collaboration during her study at RCA has enabled significant professional and personal growth in a short period. 'My current project at RCA focuses on exploring the male partner's journey during miscarriage, which is a deeply sensitive and often overlooked aspect of healthcare. Studying here has provided me the invaluable opportunity to engage with the National Health Service UK, among other organisations. This platform not only enhances my learning but also empowers me to contribute to impactful, real-world outcomes.' Shubhangi Pandey (centre) and RCA teammates Alice Chapman, Olivia Cederquist, Lucia Perez and Saloni Sehgal, winning first prize at the Zlin Design Week awards Service Design category for their project 'Creative Currents' After graduating from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Shubhangi worked in Microsoft, India, before joining RCA. 'During my tenure at Microsoft, I had the privilege of working across both the Accessibility team and the Responsible AI and Machine Learning team. One of the most meaningful projects I contributed to was Voice Access, which aligned with my values around inclusive design, accessibility, and ethical innovation. This experience inspired me to expand my focus beyond individual design components and develop a broader, systems-oriented perspective. It was this shift that led me to pursue a Master's in Service Design at the Royal College of Art'. Shubhangi selling her book at the RCA Christmas Fair. While speaking about their experiences studying in London, the Indian students I spoke with unanimously felt that the artistic scene, vast number of galleries, and museums, and the openness of other artists and professionals to work alongside RCA students is a positively surprising part of the experience at RCA. Aditi recalls discussing with her parents about London before moving. 'London has much more openness. While working in Mumbai or in Jaipur, I always heard of exciting things happening in the London V&A Museum or in various other museums. London feels like the right space for artists & designers, and a place I could relate to.' While there is immense opportunity to learn and collaborate in London, there is also a large scope for opportunities after graduation. For Shubhangi who already had some work experience, this part of the experience of studying in London stood out: 'The sheer range of opportunities, events, and experiences it offers is remarkable, making it an ideal environment for those who thrive on energy, innovation, and action. From networking and career development to world-class design events, London is highly accessible and deeply connected to other global design hubs, offering unparalleled exposure. It's a city that rewards ambition and initiative' . Tanvi Sankhe at work on her Interior Design masters Coming from the Indian education system, which can sometimes be more focused on functionality and production, Indian students at RCA tend to cherish the interdisciplinary approach and RCA's world-class faculty's focus on critical thinking. Tanvi Sankhe, a current student of Interior Design MA particularly appreciates the opportunity to learn from her diverse and talented peers within and outside her program. 'One of the most varied and imaginatively stimulating groups I have ever dealt with is my cohort. Our varied professional and cultural backgrounds lead to incredibly fruitful conversations and cooperative moments. We encourage one another and offer constructive criticism of each other's work, producing a strong sense of community. Through tutorials that frequently resemble thought-provoking discussions, the faculty pushes us to stretch our limits while contributing both professional as well as academic insights. The emphasis is on process, critical thinking, and originality. Collaboration within programs is encouraged, and interior design frequently intersects with digital media, art, and performance, all of which have greatly broadened my viewpoint'. Tanvi receiving her certificate as a recipient of the GREAT Scholarship The RCA-India connection continues to develop and while each year brings a bigger influx of new students, it also results in more members added to the College's global alumni network. If you have bold creative ambitions and a desire to shape your future, the Royal College of Art might just be where your journey continues. You can explore the list of postgraduate programmes offered by the RCA here . Read about how Royal College of Art graduates shone at India Art Fair 2025 Find out about the Royal College of Art graduate exhibition, RCA 2025
Hans India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hans India
Was ‘500 pc' sure I will win Booker Prize: Banu Mushtaq
Bengaluru: Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq said on Wednesday that she believed she would win the prize '500 per cent' and she wrote the speech three days ahead of the award ceremony. Mushtaq was speaking at a felicitation event organised by the Karnataka Union of Working Journalists in Bengaluru. 'Initially, I did not think much of it, but then I saw the reactions of people in social media after I was longlisted. Only then I realised the importance of the Booker Prize. So, when my family was sleeping in the night, I sat and wrote the speech that I ended up giving after I won,' said Mushtaq. She said she actually practiced the speech every day from then on, picturing herself holding the Booker Prize. She also recalled how, when her publisher tried to temper her expectations by saying that never in the history of the Booker Prize, a short story collection has won the prize, Mushtaq told the publisher, 'Why won't you believe that we might win? I believe 500 per cent.' She also talked about how people had absolutely no clue about the Kannada language and ended up pronouncing it 'Canada'. 'I made them repeat Kan-na-da,' added Mushtaq. Mushtaq, who was invited to speak at a panel at the Hay Festival 2025 in Wales on May 24 along with Prize director Gaby Wood and judge Anton Hur, said she was impressed with the 'book culture' there. 'The four-hour journey from London itself was so beautiful and reminded me so much of our Sakleshpura and Kodagu (hill stations in Karnataka) or even Kerala. But once there, I realised that the village might be small but it is a mecca for writers and readers. Nearly 25,000 people visit every day and buy books from the 40-odd small bookshops there during the 11 days of the festival,' said Mushtaq. She also said she was impressed by the crowd that stood in line for an autographed 'Heart Lamp' at the festival. 'Think nearly 300 people were there. I signed all books in Kannada,' she added. She said, as per her calculations, she believes her English publisher did Rs 6 crore business after the win. 'My book is also getting translated in 35 global languages and 12 Indian languages,' she added. Mushtaq said after winning, her world, too, really opened up. She is being invited all around the world. 'On June 16, I will go to London. In August, I will visit the Edinburgh Festival. Till next August my schedule is booked. I will be visiting Australia, New York and Bali...,' said the Kannada writer. Noting that she could not wear the Mysore silk saree -- that she deliberately chose to represent Karnataka -- on the winning night because her suitcase was lost in transit, Mushtaq said there's always a next time. She said she finally got her daughter, who was joining her from Bahrain, to bring the saree she wore. 'Guess, I have to win another Booker Prize so that the pending wish of wearing a Mysore silk saree for the Booker Prize reception will come true,' said the award winning writer, as cheers erupted from the crowd.
