The newspaper The Iristh Times has recently published a selection of modern works that best capture the essence of Ireland. A Minister, a historian and 13 Irish writers have selected the works.
Martina Evans, novelist and poet, chooses Telling, Selected Stories by Evelyn Conlon. Conlon will be a plenary speaker in the XVI International Conference of the Spanish Association for Irish Studies (AEDEI) “Fe/male Challenges in Irish Studies from the 19th to the 21st Centuries” at the University of La Rioja (Spain), 25-27 May, 2017.
Evans describes Conlon’s work as follows:
“No one has a voice like Evelyn Conlon. You never know what she is going to say next. She comes from an odd angle that suddenly seems like the only angle worthwhile.
With stories ranging from the intensely lyrical memory of a flashlamp playing on a ditch the night Kennedy was shot to the contraceptive wars of the 1980s, rebellious women in a writing workshop and millennium hype, Conlon is truly modern yet rooted in the history of Irish women.
Once you’ve experienced her grip, you won’t want to stop, like the narrator of Taking Scarlet as a Real Colour: “I’ll tell you what it says in books, Susan. I never wanted to read and I wish I’d never started, but that’s like an alcoholic moaning about Christmas pudding, it’s too late now.”“
More information here.