This week’s guest is one of Ireland’s greatest writers: Donal Ryan. In 2016, Sebastien Barry described Donal as “the king of the new wave of Irish writers”, and after persevering through almost 50 rejections of his opening novel, has since been laden with acclaim and awards.
He has twice been longlisted for the Booker Prize, has won four Irish book awards along with the European Union Prize for Literature and the Guardian First Book Award. His novel The Spinning Heart was voted as Ireland’s Book of the Decade in 2016.
He continues to write novels, alongside his job teaching creative writing at the University of Limerick.
We talk about overcoming rejection as a writer, and how he deals with reviews and online criticism. Donal also discusses his writing process and his tips on how to overcome writers’ block.
There’s also plenty of talk about sport. Why is it so difficult to weave sport into fiction? How was it to grow up in Tipperary while being “no use” at hurling? And does Paul McGrath better embody the Irish national story than any other sportsperson?
Donal’s picks were:
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