Book interview: Why William Wall wrote a poetry journal about the pandemic

Wall says survivors of awful events like pandemics tend to want to forget about them which might explain the paucity of plague literature

William Wall, author of Smugglers in the Underground Hug Trade. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

Prolific author of novels, short stories, and poetry and also Cork’s Poet Laureate, William Wall joins the relatively sparse number of writers focusing on plagues through the ages. Wall, originally from Whitegate and a former teacher of English at Presentation Brothers’ College, says that while it might sound strange, he and his wife, Liz Kirwan were looking for books to do with pandemics in the early stages of Covid-19.

“That sounds like a counterintuitive thing to do at the beginning at a plague but it was interesting and comforting to read that plagues come and go,” says Wall.”Ours will come to an end eventually.”