It took an sudden
illness to divert Danielle McLaughlin away from a career in the law and
toward creative writing and the short story. It was a change work making
however, as in a few short years she has become one of rising stars of
the short story - not just in Ireland but throughout the English
speaking world. Andrew Hamilton find out more.
Danielle
McLaughlin is the new It-Girl of the Irish short story. She has emerged
as if from nowhere, and in a relatively short period of time has
produced a body of work worthy of publications she has graced and the
many awards she has won.
Usually, behind every literary
rags-to-riches story, there lies an untold tale of a decades worth of
unseen labour. Danielle however, served her literary apprenticeship as a
solicitor, learning about the language from the surprisingly creative
vantage of the legal profession.
"Books were always part of
life, I was always a big reader. Books were always there but writing was
a more recent development. I'm not sure why this happened for me now
and not earlier. I would have tried, I attempted stories at different
times over the years but it never took off. I didn't have the same
obsession to write that I do now. I am totally in to writing these days -
it is a really big part of my life," she says.
"I think,
maybe, it has something to do with the fact that I was practicing as a
solicitor for a long time and I find the two jobs quite similar. I found
law to be a very creative profession - it was giving me the drama, it
was giving me the stories and it was giving me the working with language
In great detail.
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