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.
Click HERE to read this interview in full.
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