I only made it along for the second half of Readers’ Day 2011 at the Maldron Hotel in Tallaght on Saturday, but I reckon I was there for the high light. Claire Keegan read wonderfully from her Davy Byrne Award winning story Foster. She read with feeling but without fuss or show, letting the words and the dialogue speak for itself. I would have been happy if she had read the whole thing, but alas she didn’t.
After the reading she was asked by Dermot Bolger about the manner in which she approached stories and how she knows when they are finished. She was a very thoughtful and honest interviewee, pausing to consider the questions before tentatively answering, wanting to be sure she was to the point and succinct. This attention to detail comes across in her work; no word is left as filler or padding that doesn’t need to be there. She had no difficulty admitting that the hardest part of her job as a writer was the weeding out of the extraneous. One other thing that struck me was her mention of the requirement for patience as a writer. The real work begins, she said, when the subject has to be returned to time and time again. This is the kind of thing I like to hear right now, up to my ears as I am in re-reading and editing a novel that’s been knocking around for a while. Bottom line is, I have my appetite back again for the work. Thanks Claire!
And thanks also to South Dublin Libraries who ran another brilliant Readers’ Day on Saturday!
She is a very special writer and Foster is my favourite story by her so this would have been a real treat – sorry I missed it.
She certainly is David. It was the first time I saw her read and she was brill. I think it’s v important that a great writer is also a great reader of their own work.