Latest news with #OrlaineMcDonald
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Writer Orlaine McDonald: ‘I felt a strong need to transcend that little working-class girl who had got herself up the duff'
Orlaine McDonald and I meet at her home in southeast London on an outrageously gorgeous May morning. McDonald, who is 55 but looks not a day above 40, greets me with a big smile and a resonant voice that belies her petite five-foot stature. We sit in her sun-drenched livingroom, packed with plants, to chat about her debut novel, No Small Thing . Now out in paperback, it won the Kate O'Brien Award and was shortlisted for the 2024 Nero Book Award for debut fiction and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Its setting, based on the estate where McDonald lives – 'extremely beautiful' in both spring and autumn – features as 'almost a fifth character', she tells me. No Small Thing opens with a woman climbing to the top of a water tower and 'taking flight'. We only find out which of the characters it is at the end – a narrative tension that keeps us turning the pages. The arresting image, which seeded the idea of the novel, was based on a news story McDonald cut out years ago – 'a tragic case of two young French girls who had a suicide pact', she says, adding that her cousin took his own life when she was a teenager. 'I just kept thinking, why? What led them to do that thing?' READ MORE The novel covers the year before the suicide. Michaela ('Mickey'), a young mother, has left her abusive partner, taking her 11-year-old daughter, Summer. With nowhere else to go, she returns to her own mother Livia's home. Estranged for years, as Livia took off when Mickey was a child, the tensions between the three generations are beautifully rendered. Livia is also visited by her own mother, Meriem, in the form of a ghostly voice. It's an element that 'draws deeply' on McDonald's grief after losing her mother to ovarian cancer 'far too young'. 'It's no small thing … to be a mother,' Meriem's spirit tells her. 'Or to lose one.' Young motherhood is familiar terrain for McDonald. She had her first son at 19, and her daughter, the DJ Jamz Supernova , at 21; a third child followed with her second husband in her late 20s. 'There's a lot of teenage parenthood in my family,' says McDonald; her mother and sister were both 17 when they had their first babies. While it wasn't always easy, she credits early motherhood for her ambition. 'I felt a really strong need to prove everybody wrong … always wanting to transcend that little working-class girl who had got herself up the duff.' The women in the novel – with 'skin tones from deepest cinnamon to buttermilk' – struggle with their identity, as McDonald did growing up. Among only a handful of kids of colour at school in England's West Midlands region, she and her siblings 'experienced quite a lot of racism'. With an Irish mother and a Jamaican father, both proud of their heritage, 'it was very much instilled in me that we're here but we're not from here, and that was a bit confusing,' she says. [ Aunts fictional and real matter more to us than they may know Opens in new window ] 'The English were the baddies in my family history – the queen was bad, the empire was bad … But then here is where I live, and here is all I know.' McDonald finally found a sense of belonging in youth theatre. Her father first sent her to drama to bring her out of her shell. 'I was extremely shy … undersized … with big, thick glasses and a big afro. And I really struggled with my identity so just wanted to not be seen. And my dad rightly recognised that this isn't going to pan out well for this kid.' While they 'weren't a book-buying family', her father 'was kind of this aspirational figure that would turn up every now and then and bring us books that he wanted us to read about black history and bring us food that we might not have tasted before. I remember him bringing avocados. No one on my estate had ever eaten avocado, [or even] knew what an avocado was.' After drama school, where McDonald met her ex-husband, the two founded a small theatre company together. They wrote 'bits for that' and a play for young people that got commissioned by Half Moon Theatre in London. But it wasn't until her 40s that she began writing in earnest – first as part of a writers' group 'just for the fun at our local bookshop, kind of dilly-dallying with short stories and poetry' and then more seriously in an MA in creative writing at Goldsmiths , University of London. As a black writer, whether we do it to ourselves or whether or whether society asks it of us because of that underrepresentation, we do have that question that white writers wouldn't have, which is, how am I portraying these characters? — Orlaine McDonald The MA, she says, was 'an absolute game changer. It just blew my mind. Two years, one day a week, of being immersed in literature, writing, process, having access to writers who would come and talk to us, one-to-one tutorials, sharing work on a weekly basis. It was just everything I could've dreamed of.' McDonald got divorced shortly after the MA, and writing was backburnered until she had the time and space to pick up the pen again. This is the 'first time I've ever lived on my own and not been a carer,' she notes, 'because I had caring duties from when I was very young.' Alongside the theatre company, she worked in education, bringing drama to vulnerable kids and working as a learning mentor. She started writing No Small Thing in the mornings before her day job at the end of 2018, although 'some of the characters were making themselves known' earlier. Then, when lockdown hit, with no social commitments outside of work, 'it gave me this unadulterated time that I'd never had before'. The chapters of No Small Thing alternate between the perspectives of Livia, Mickey, Summer and their upstairs neighbour, Earl. Earl watches the household with interest and befriends Summer. He's drawn to them because he too has experienced what McDonald refers to as an 'interruption to his mothering': we flash back to a tragic police intervention in which he watches his mother die at the hands of the police after a false accusation of drug possession. Despite wanting to do better by Summer, Mickey's own lack of mothering bears its scars, and she develops an alcohol problem. In a literary landscape where black protagonists are woefully underrepresented, and working-class black women especially, I'm curious if McDonald was worried about portraying them as flawed characters. 'I asked myself the question a couple of times,' she says, 'but I then just ignored it. I think, by then, these women were just so alive to me. As a black writer, whether we do it to ourselves or whether or whether society asks it of us because of that underrepresentation, we do have that question that white writers wouldn't have, which is, how am I portraying these characters? I hate those best-under-30 lists. I couldn't have written this in my early 20s. I didn't have the life experience 'And it annoys me that I had that question. It annoys me that I questioned it myself. But it very quickly became something [about which] I just thought, well, actually I'm not going to go down that road, I'm going to write very truthful characters.' The book, I tell her, is all the stronger for it. 'A lot of that is the people in my family, the people that I know, people in my friendship group,' McDonald says. 'None of us are perfect, and that's what makes us interesting and human, isn't it, the contradictions?' I ask if publishers' diversity initiatives are succeeding at all. 'It can always be better,' McDonald says. The attention it was given 'after George Floyd and Black Lives Matter has tailed off, and I think that's a real shame. It's got to be in publishing that that changes because publishing is the gatekeeper of what people read.' As with education, while there are people of colour in junior and support-staff roles, 'the people in charge are white, middle-class people. So until it changes right up there … ' And while McDonald says she hasn't experienced any ageism as a midlife debut novelist, 'I hate those best-under-30 lists,' she admits. 'I couldn't have written [this] in my early 20s. I didn't have the life experience.' Before I head back out into the sunshine and McDonald goes to spend time with her three-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, Forest ('the light of my life'), she lets me peek into her office. Like the rest of her home, the decor is cheery and colourful, with a turquoise wall, yellow couch and an orange-potted Chinese monkey plant. 'I feel extremely lucky to have a room to write in,' she says. A yellow shelf above her desk holds talismanic works, including books about writing, such as Mason Currey's Daily Rituals and Jami Attenberg's 1000 Words . I also spot Feel Free by Zadie Smith, whom McDonald counts as an inspiration along with writers including Diana Evans, Kit de Waal, Bernardine Evaristo and Anne Enright . Claire Killroy's Soldier Sailor, her current read, which she's finding 'fantastic', is on her desk. [ Claire Kilroy: 'I haven't met one mother who didn't talk about failure' Opens in new window ] 'I like short, punchy novels,' she says, citing Niamh Campbell's This Happy and Natasha Brown's Assembly as other examples. McDonald is working on a new novel – 'first draft vibes' – which is in the precious incubation stage, so too early to share the details for fear of jinxing it. A tiny cutting of the Chinese monkey plant sits on her desk in a little turquoise pot, like the seedling of her work-in-progress. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the acclaim that's greeted No Small Thing, writing a second novel 'feels a lot scarier,' she says. '[I'm] working very hard to try to take away the editing voice and just concentrate on the story.' Above her desk are Post-it notes with quotations cheering her on. One, from the critic Maris Kreizman, reads: 'So write the thing that you want to see in the world. You're the only one who can.' It's no small thing. No Small Thing is published in paperback by Serpent's Tail
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Siobhán Flynn and Sarah Davy win Mairtín Crawford Awards
In The Irish Times tomorrow, Orlaine McDonald tells Mia Levitin about her award-winning debut novel. Anna Carey has researched and compiled the perfect summer reading list for you. And there is a Q&A with Sarah Maria Griffin about her new YA novel. Reviews are: Sally Hayden on We Came by Sea: Stories of a Greater Britain by Horatio Clare; Kevin Power on The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong; Claire Hennessy on the best new YA fiction; Naoise Dolan on Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid; Malachi O'Doherty on Death in Derry by Jonathan Trigg; Paul D'Alton on The Sleep Room by Jon Stock; Henrietta McKervey on Our Song by Anna Carey; Eilís Ní Dhuibhne on Best Friends by Andrew Meehan; Val Nolan on Walking Ghosts by Mary O'Donnell; Laura Slattery on The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay by Christopher Clarey; Jessica Traynor on This Interim Time by Oona Frawley; and Rachel Ashcroft on Inside the Stargazer's Palace: The Transformation of Science in 16th-Century Northern Europe by Violet Moller. This weekend's Irish Times Eason offer is The Coast Road by Alan Murrin, just €5.99, a €6 saving. Eason offer Siobhán Flynn from Dublin and Northumberland-based Sarah Davy have won this year's Mairtín Crawford Awards for Poetry and Short Stories respectively at an award ceremony in the Crescent Arts Centre last night as part of the Belfast Book Festival. READ MORE The winners each receive £500 cash, plus a 'time to write' package which includes a three-night stay at a hotel in Belfast and four days of dedicated writing space at The Crescent Arts Centre. Flynn, who began writing quite late in life, won the 2022 Cúirt New Writing Prize for Poetry and a John Hewitt Bursary in 2023. Davy, who works for Hexham Book Festival, won the Finchale Prize for Short Fiction at the Northern Writers Awards in 2023. Short Story judges were Belfast authors Lucy Caldwell and Wendy Erskine. The Poetry Award was judged by Kathleen McCracken and Dawn Watson. * 'Men must endure / Their going hence, even as their coming hither' – King Lear. Have we no more active rights over life, birth and death? The attitude of passive acceptance of birth and death, preached by Edgar to his father in King Lear, has been variously challenged in the modern period. The nature of human rights in the matter have been hotly contested: the right to life of the unborn child as against women's reproductive rights, the principle of the sanctity of all human life clashing with the right to a chosen, dignified death. The title for this year's Hubert Butler Essay Prize invites reflection on the ethical questions raised by such debates. First prize is €1,500. The closing date is July 4th. * The Irish Writers Centre is packing its literary bags once more, embarking on a nationwide roadshow that will see it travel to five festivals across the island in 2025 – from Belfast to Bantry, Wexford to Waterford, before returning to Dublin in November for the Dublin Book Festival. Fresh from appearances at Galway's Cúirt and the University of Limerick's Creative Writing Festival, the Centre continues its mission to support writers of all backgrounds and at all stages of their careers. Events will include masterclasses, writing seminars, panel discussions, spoken word showcases and zine workshops. In Belfast, the Centre will showcase its Young Writer Delegates and host an information session featuring Novel Fair winner Andrew Cunning. West Cork welcomes seminars, spoken word, and panels on diversity and queer literature. Wexford offers conversations with John Banville and Victoria Kennefick, while Waterford sees a Writers in the Regions masterclass from Danielle McLoughlin. 'It's about making space for writers everywhere, not just in the capital,' said CEO Mags McLoughlin. 'We want to build a national community of storytellers.' Further details and programme links can be found at . * Bernardine Evaristo is the recipient of the Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award, a one-off literary honour marking the 30th anniversary year of the Women's Prize for Fiction. This prestigious accolade, funded by Bukhman Philanthropies, celebrates Evaristo's body of work, her transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting underrepresented voices across the cultural landscape. As the recipient of the Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award, Evaristo will receive £100,000 prize money and a special sculpture named 'Thoughtful' by Caroline Russell MRSS, both of which will be presented on June 12th at the Women's Prize Trust's summer party in London, alongside the winners of the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction and the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. * Sandycove is to publish Miriam O'Callaghan's memoir, Miriam: Life, Work, Everything, on October 30th. O'Callaghan is one of Ireland's best-known broadcasters, covering every election, referendum, big controversy and important public event for RTÉ, and hosting an award-winning radio show, Sunday With Miriam on RTÉ Radio 1. She has presented RTÉ's Prime Time since 1996. O'Callaghan said: 'It's 20 years since Sandycove first sent me a contract – let's just say, it's taken a while! I thank them for their patience, persistence and belief in my story. I have always lived my life in fast forward, so I never thought I would have the time to look back and reflect. I also wondered if anyone would be interested. Then one day not that long ago – with a prompt from Patricia Deevy – I decided I would write it, because if I didn't write it now, I might never do so. 'At first I thought it would just be about my work as a journalist, but then when I began writing I realised how impossible it was to separate my professional and personal lives. I don't know if that's because I'm a woman or a mother or both or none of those things, but I just knew that for my story to be authentic and truthful, I couldn't simply focus on the work side of my life.' * The Irish Writers Centre launches the first in a new series of Writers Showcase events spotlighting newly published writers from across the island. The inaugural showcase, titled The Out of Towners, takes place on Wednesday, June 18th, at 6.30pm at the centre, 19 Parnell Square North, Dublin 1. Curated to celebrate Ireland's rich poetic diversity, The Out of Towners features five poets whose compelling work captures a range of regional and personal perspectives: Afric McGlinchey is an award-winning poet based in West Cork. Her latest collection À la belle étoile – the odyssey of Jeanne Baré (Salmon Poetry) continues her internationally recognised body of work. Afric has received multiple Arts Council bursaries and her poetry has been translated into several languages. Lauren O'Donovan is a rising star from Cork whose recent accolades include the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award and the Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition. Her debut Taxidermy Heart and new chapbook Superposition were both published in 2025. D'Or Seifer is a Limerick-based poet whose debut collection On Being Un/Able to Walk Through Walls was published earlier this year by Revival Press. She is the founder of Lime Square Poets and co-hosts the First Wednesday Series in Limerick, as well as co-editing Skylight 47 magazine. Luke Morgan , based in Galway, is the 2025 recipient of the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry. His third collection, Blood Atlas (Arlen House), was supported by The Arts Council and follows his acclaimed work as both a poet and film-maker. S.C. Flynn recently relocated from Australia to Dublin and brings an international voice to the evening. His debut collection The Colour of Extinction (Renard Press, 2024) was The Observer 's Poetry Book of the Month. His work has appeared in over 100 literary journals worldwide. Each writer will read from their newly published collections and chapbooks, which will be available to purchase after the event. The evening will be hosted by Damien B. Donnelly , creative projects co-ordinator at the centre. 'Ireland is bursting with poetic diversity and to gather these talented poets in one room reading from new collections is a privilege for the Centre. We are hopeful that the Writers Showcases will become a regular series, celebrating all forms of writing from all corners of the country,' said Donnelly. * The Eavan Boland Award returns for 2025, inviting applications from early-career poets based in the UK and mid-career poets based in Ireland. The Eavan Boland Award 2025 will support two cross-residency opportunities at Trinity College Dublin School of English and the University of Manchester Centre for New Writing, supported by Poetry Ireland, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Manchester and the British Council. This award honours Boland's dedication to fostering new voices and diverse perspectives in poetry and celebrates her legacy by supporting emerging and mid-career poets through residencies and mentorship. For full details and application, please visit here . * Sixteen young writers from Ballinrobe Community School, Gaza and Cairo have published A Spinning Tyre, an anthology of poems and short stories born from cross-Border writing workshops led by Liam Horan through the University of Limerick's Creative Writers in the Community programme. Developed with the Hands Up Project, the collection explores themes such as war, identity and belonging. Featured are Ben Egan, Caoimhe Macken, Dominic Brennan, Donal Lenihan, Jessica McMurray, Nathan Loughrey, Stephen John Feerick (Ballinrobe); Alaa Kamal, Hala Aqel, Islam Kamal, Jaber Hammam Basal, Lama Ehab Sadi Kuhail, Leen Ehab Sadi Kuhail, Malak Basal, Marah Kamel Abu Shamla and Wadee Nasser Ahmed Shabat (Gaza and Cairo). It is available for €10 at Martin Murphy's Newsagents, Ballinrobe. * Little Island Books have signed multi-book deals for the first time in the company's history, agreeing three-book contracts with two Cork-based Irish authors: Kel Menton and Jen Wallace. Menton, whose debut A Fix of Light was published by Little Island in February, has signed on for three more novels for young readers: a mix of YA and middle-grade titles with an emphasis on speculative fiction and magic realism. Wallace, whose debut chapter-book Dinosaur Pie won the junior category at the 2025 Great Reads Awards, has plans to publish three more works of fiction with neurodiverse protagonists. Illustrator Alan O'Rourke has also signed on to illustrate two sequels to Dinosaur Pie , while Wallace's fourth publication will be a picture book about an autistic girl's relationship with her grandmother. * The Week Junior Book Awards have unveiled their 2025 shortlists, celebrating the best in children's literature across 13 categories, including Irish authors Chris Haughton, Sheena Dempsey, Eilish Fisher and Dermot Flynn. Author and singer Geri Halliwell Horner, CBeebies' George Webster, presenter and actor Rhys Stephenson, and lexicographer Susie Dent are among the judges who will select the winning titles. Winners will be announced at an award ceremony in central London on September 29th. * An intense portrait of obsessive desire set in the rural Netherlands and a lushly illustrated elegy for the lost histories and identity of the Arab world have won the UK's longest-running literary awards, the James Tait Black Prizes. Lucas Rijneveld's My Heavenly Favourite won the fiction prize and the biography prize was won by Lamia Ziadé for My Great Arab Melancholy . Each prize is shared with the writers' respective translators, Michele Hutchison and Emma Ramadan. This is the first time that both prizes have been awarded to translated works and only the second time a writer and translator have been awarded a prize together in the history of the awards. The prizes were opened to translations in 2021, with authors and translators honoured equally.
