Latest news with #CreativeWriting
Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Donal Ryan: ‘I'm still learning about class in Ireland ... and the tribes that exist'
Donal Ryan had just been longlisted for the Booker Prize for his debut novel The Spinning Heart . So: he couldn't help himself. The jubilant author turned on his computer in 2013 and wrote an email pointing out this detail to the literary agent who had just issued him with a generic rejection to say she was not interested in representing him. 'She didn't reply. It was a pyrrhic victory for me,' Ryan laughs. Then a doubtful expression crosses his face. 'I shouldn't have bothered. I regret it.' Humble and unpretentious by nature, Ryan has a habit of worrying about things he has said or done, even and perhaps especially at moments of greatest glory. We're talking today because the Tipperary-born author has added another trophy to his crowded mantelpiece: the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction for his novel Heart, Be at Peace . But Ryan looks anxious when he joins me on a video call from his books-strewn office in the University of Limerick , where he serves as a lecturer in creative writing. It's partly because of the attention now coming his way. 'I find interviews so hard,' he says. 'After this interview is finished, I'll be worried and feel sick and find it hard to sleep.' Does a monologue play out in his head about what he's doing right or wrong? 'It never stops,' Ryan nods. 'Some days I look forward to being asleep so I can make it stop.' READ MORE If Ryan (49) is a fretter, so too are his remarkable, profound characters. Heavy emotions play out in the interior lives of Ryan's fictional creations: shame, grief, anger loom large, along with a desire to tell the truth. Whether it's lonely, bewildered Johnsey in The Thing About December or fragile, observant Lampy in From a Low and Quiet Sea, there's a ring of flinty authenticity to them and a captivating poetry. Ryan suffered through 47 rejections before he succeeded in getting The Spinning Heart published in 2012, but once it was in the world, readers recognised it for what it was: a book containing deep truths. Where other Irish authors had been setting their fiction back through the decades, perhaps to avoid the inchoate mess of the Celtic Tiger boom-to-bust, Ryan, based in Castletroy in Limerick, shone his torchlight directly on to the subject of what Irish banks did to Irish people. Narrated via 21 perspectives in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, characters offered insights about what it felt like to live on ghost estates; to buckle beneath the weight of crippling mortgages and uncertain futures. The book was longlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Guardian First Book Award. Its sequel, Heart, Be at Peace, which returns us to their lives a decade on, has already won Novel of the Year at the 2024 Irish Book Awards and now, in netting the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, has triumphed over books from authors including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Dream Count), Robert Harris (Precipice) and Elif Shafak (There are Rivers in the Sky). Until recently, you would have to look into dark corners to see drug dealing. Now it's very open. Close to my house there are dealers operating Ryan is grateful to win awards but he struggles with them too. 'They're weird, awards, because if you win, you feel a bit guilty for winning,' he says. 'If you win an award, it means other people on the shortlist have to not win it. Some of them are far more politically astute and engaged than I am. Elif Shafak is an amazing writer; she's been on trial in Turkey – she has suffered, she has been persecuted by her own government for her art. Elif is writing fiction at great personal risk. [ Donal Ryan: 'Stop apologising for yourself,' is one of the last things my mother said to me Opens in new window ] 'I'm lucky enough to live in this lovely free country where you can express yourself for the most part without fear of censure or arrest. I've never lived anywhere except north Tipp and east Limerick, Limerick city. So in one way, I'm the last person who should be writing fiction that has any kind of universal effect. But the thing is, I do believe that no matter how specific a demotic voice is, the way people think about themselves and the world around them doesn't vary much. What's generated from within us is similar for all human beings.' He adds: 'I suppose it's true that as Toni Morrison says, all art is political.' Sometimes the political act is to draw attention to invisibility. When Ryan began publishing, he tapped into a vein of Irish life that was both instantly recognisable and markedly different – these were characters so familiar you'd half-expect to step outside your house and spot them and yet they seemed to barely exist elsewhere in Irish fiction. 'When I first sat down to write The Spinning Heart, I just had Irish rural working people in mind. That's never gone away,' he says. 'They're the background and foreground of everything I do. That's who I am myself. I speak to my own people all the time, at the back of my head.' [ Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan: 'Companion' novel to The Spinning Heart is a welcome return Opens in new window ] Growing up in Tipperary, Ryan wasn't conscious of class divisions. He had an idyllic childhood with his parents and brother and sister in the village of Newtown. 'It was paradise,' he says. 'There was fun contained in every blade of grass. Everybody seemed to chat all the time. And everybody seemed to do the same kinds of jobs. All the dads were plumbers and labourers and carpenters. I wouldn't have known the word egalitarian, but it seemed to me that everybody where I grew up was the same. I think that's why class is portrayed starkly in my fiction, because I was shocked into such a keen awareness of it. I'm still learning as I go along about class in Ireland, the class system and the various tribes that exist.' Author Donal Ryan: 'They're weird, awards, because if you win, you feel a bit guilty for winning.' Photograph: Fred Tanneau/AFP via Getty Images Before he became a prize-winning novelist in his 30s, Ryan was a labour inspector for the National Employment Rights Authority, where he was tasked with investigating regulatory offences by employers. What he found made him deeply aware of the gaps and inequities in the system, and how people could so easily become trapped by their circumstances. 'We used to visit language schools [in Ireland] advertising in Bangladesh for people to come and pay €2,000 for stamping their visa and an enrolment in a college. There'd be a few PCs and empty rooms and a couple of people hanging around who were meant to be lecturers. It was incredible. But nobody was breaking the law. They'd say, 'Oh the students are on a day off today or it's a holiday week.'' It's a scene revisited in Heart, Be at Peace, when one of the characters, Pokey Burke, is involved in setting up a dubious language school in Limerick city. Pokey is also involved in the drug scene and as he rises, other characters falter, worn down from debts, poor decision-making or the whiplash of negative social bias. 'People think they know the worth of your soul because of your clothes or bearing, these sudden judgments. We all do it.' It's part of the hidden Ireland Ryan keeps lifting a stone to examine. 'Until recently, you would have to look into dark corners to see drug dealing. Now it's very open. Close to my house there are dealers operating,' he says. [ What do Irish writers read? Donal Ryan, Mark Tighe, Nuala O'Connor, Claire Hennessy and more give recommendations Opens in new window ] It was Ryan's mother Anne who inspired him to write the sequel to The Spinning Heart. She had worked in Tesco in Nenagh and would sit on the till fielding questions about The Spinning Heart to customers anxious to find out what happened to characters like Pokey Burke and Bobby Mahon. They'd even get her to autograph the book. She died in 2023, after a diagnosis of breast cancer, six years after the sudden death of his father. Their deaths have hit Ryan hard. 'You realise how much you need them,' he says. 'How much you need that beautiful anchor, that lovely, predictable heaviness at the backbone of your life. I expected them to be there until 100, to have these two people in my life. My mam was only 71. It didn't feel like it was her time to die. She had so much to say and she was so full of energy and love.' His new novel, his ninth book, which he is just finishing, deals with grief. 'It's about a young man who loses his parents. It centres on that young lad's emotions and how grief affects him. When you don't confront grief properly, it can have strange effects on your psyche and your being, sometimes in a literal way, like on your skin or that sudden sweaty panic. The so-called ordinary loss, the loss of your parents, still has this terrible effect on you. And sometimes a discovery about a person you love, something you didn't know about them, can have the most profound, earth-shattering effect, so I explore those elements in the novel.' Ryan has drawn immense comfort from his wife Anne Marie, his most dedicated reader, who has suffered serious health issues. How is she doing? 'She's great. She's been through so much. She's had cancer twice. She really got beaten down the second time. Chemo is so hard. She's come through it. She's so positive.' [ Donal Ryan short story: 'He turned away from the beast, but the smell of death remained' Opens in new window ] Ryan met Anne Marie on a picket line when he was 28, when both were trade union activists with the Civil Public and Services Union. She encouraged him to pursue his dream of writing fiction, she would chase him up the stairs to write. So much stems from Anne Marie; her faith, her encouragement, her ability to delicately critique his work. 'Everything is written with her in mind. She's my first reader.' Anne Marie may soon need to give their teenage children Thomas and Lucy important tips about Ryan's fiction. 'The Spinning Heart is back on the Leaving Cert syllabus just in time for Thomas to have to do it for the Leaving Cert,' the author says. 'The poor créatúr. I don't know whether or not that'll encourage him into a writing career.' If either of his children opt for that route, they may find one day themselves facing their father in the University of Limerick in his role as a creative writing lecturer, where he does his best to encourage his students, who are 'on thin emotional ice' to keep their faith in themselves. As spells-maker Lily puts it in Heart, Be at Peace: 'Belief itself is a kind of magic. You can do things that seem impossible if you believe truly and with your whole heart.' Ryan offers a smile when I quote the lines back at him. You get the impression it's a sentiment he has carried with him his whole life, and which nourishes him even during those times, like now, when he finds the sideshow of publicity or the fear of judgment by others stressful. 'There's no way of patrolling how people interpret what you say and how people receive your work,' he says. 'You issue a blank contract when you write something, and the terms can't be negotiated or dictated by you. All you can do is tell your story the best way you can.'
Telegraph
12-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘I'm a 72-year-old student. Labour shouldn't pull the plug on university loans'
Carole Taylor is preparing to start her second year of university in September. But she's not a typical student – she's 72. 'I've been retired. It's quite boring,' she says. 'You join things, I am an avid joiner of things, and nothing is very important because everybody is on the retirement wheel. It very quickly descends into talking about health problems.' The grandmother-of-two is studying English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. To fund her tuition fees, Taylor has taken out a student loan. Currently, a year's tuition for a student in England is £9,250, but this is set to rise in September to £9,535. But from 2027, students like her – those aged over 60 – will no longer be able to take out government-backed loans to cover their university fees. Taylor hopes that she will be able to finish her degree before that, but says she's frustrated for others who won't get the same opportunity. 'It's just very hard to think of them stopping it. Don't pull the plug on us! 'We're a learning, growing, thriving group of people who don't want to be consigned to the care system just yet.' 'I didn't enter into it thinking I have a freebie' Last year, more than 1,000 students over the state pension age of 66 borrowed from the Student Loans Company (SLC) to cover their fees, data provided to The Telegraph under Freedom of Information rules revealed. More than 3,800 students over the age of 60 took out loans, with 1,824 also taking out maintenance loans. Since 2020, 18,127 loans have been taken out by students over the age of 60. Around £20bn a year is loaned to 1.5 million students, according to a briefing by the House of Commons. The value of outstanding loans is forecast to hit £500bn by the late 2040s, government predictions show. They are only repaid once the graduate earns over a certain threshold, which is currently £25,000. The outstanding loan is then wiped out either 30 or 40 years after the degree is finished – depending on when the student started. For older students, this means that loans are often not repaid at all. The outstanding loan balance for those aged over 60 is close to £50m, according to the SLC. The 'Lifelong Learning Entitlement' will replace the existing higher-education funding system and will provide all new learners with a tuition fee loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education. But tuition fee loans for those aged over 60 will be specifically banned. Taylor left school at 16 and went to work for the gas board with her mother, before moving to Norwich and having her children. She did a foundation year before starting her degree because she didn't have A-levels, so she has already been studying for two years. She planned to do a master's degree, if she could afford it, once she had finished her undergraduate studies. But she won't get any government funding to do it because people aged over 60 are not eligible for student loans to fund postgraduate courses. She says: 'I never entered into it thinking, 'Oh great, I've got a freebie, I don't have to pay this back.'' Taylor says that she has a plan to repay her loans. Having lost her son Jonathan to addiction, she did a counselling course in 2009, and then did voluntary work in prisons. She wants to create a series of books for children of prisoners and addicts. Existing schemes allow prisoners to record video messages of themselves reading books for their children to play before bed, as she knows from her previous experience in the system. 'I started working in rehab just after he died,' she says. 'It was very, very difficult. It's something that hits you all the time.' Taylor says the work helps her feel close to her son. She's won some funding from the university to help develop her idea further, and she hopes to turn it into a viable business. Paying back loans from their will Currently, student loans are wiped at death. But Taylor suggests that older students might be happy to leave a contribution in their will to pay down their debt – a possibility she thinks hasn't been properly investigated. 'A lot of older students are happy to contemplate paying their tuition loans back in time. I think some people will factor it into their wills,' she says. The septuagenarian says that the studying keeps her active. She walks 45 minutes to campus each morning and she says being around younger students is very rewarding. 'The university has been terrific. They've been very welcoming. I find no problem with younger students, they're all very supportive, very friendly and very open. I feel that, as mature students, we provide an anchor for younger students who are coming into student life and leaving home for the first time,' she says. Professor Ian Pickup, interim deputy vice-chancellor at the Open University, said: 'The decision to end access to tuition fee loans for over 60s from January 2027 will work against the need to help support older adults, particularly those in work, to access education and training to upskill, retrain and update their skills. 'There needs to be further consideration about how to support this cohort in accessing the skills offered by higher education if they are to become unable to access funding via the student finance system at a time when the population is ageing and the country is striving for economic growth.' A Department for Education spokesman said: 'This Government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and boosting economic growth, ensuring we have a workforce with the skills for the 21st century. This includes supporting older students who want to go to university to reskill. 'However, we are also committed to maintaining a sustainable student finance system which is fair to students and to the taxpayer. 'University is not the only option for older learners. Despite the challenging fiscal environment we have inherited, we are spending over £1.4bn in the next financial year on the Adult Skills Fund.'
The Herald
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald
Youth Day Competition: Share Your Voice and Win with The Herald
Students and young creatives across Nelson Mandela Bay are invited to showcase their talent and win exciting prizes by entering The Herald's annual Youth Day Art and Creative Writing Competition. Winning entries will be featured in The Herald Youth Day supplement, available with The Herald newspaper on Youth Day, 15 June. The submission deadline has been extended, and students can now submit their entries until June 4th. Under the theme 'By the Youth, For the Youth,' the competition provides a platform for scholars and university students to express their views, share their stories, and highlight the issues they care about—through art, poetry, and prose. Selected winners will have their work published in The Herald supplement, reaching a wide audience across the region. Competition Categories and Themes Entries should align with one or more of the following themes: Challenges faced by youth (e.g. peer pressure, social media, stereotypes, substance abuse) Career choices and socio-economic influences Crime, unemployment, and poverty Environmental issues A letter from the youth Youth interests (e.g. sport, music, culture) Submission Guidelines Articles Open to students from Grade 8 to tertiary level 400 to 1,000 words Submit as a Word document Creative Writing / Poetry Open to students from Grade 3 to Grade 12 Maximum 400 words Submit as a Word document Drawings / Art Open to students from Grade 3 to Grade 12 Submit as a high-resolution, full-colour JPEG or PDF All entries must include the student's full name, grade, age, and school, and must be emailed to ecads@ by 4 June 2025. Terms and Conditions No foul language, derogatory statements, or inaccurate statistics will be accepted. The judges' decision is final. By entering, participants grant The Herald permission to publish their work in the Youth Day supplement. Don't miss this opportunity to inspire others and have your voice heard. Let your creativity shine—your story could be the one that makes a difference.
