Beginner’s Pluck: Rachel Connolly
Rachel Connolly: author of Lazy City
An imaginative child who read voraciously, Rachel always had a feeling that she should be writing, but she never did.
“I always had these imaginary worlds in my head,” she says.
She first wrote at university, doing a lot of student journalism.
“Afterwards I worked in insurance, but then got an unpaid internship with in London. I took holidays from work to do that.” In 2018, through a scheme, Rachel worked in RTÉ in the investigations department.
“I did three days a week for a while. I lived in Dublin for three months, and then worked remotely. It was a good base to do freelance journalism from.” Rachel’s features, essays and profiles were published in , magazine, , and in many other publications.
“There’s a specific style and voice in everything I do,” she says. “It’s now my career.”
She turned to fiction in 2018, experimenting with style.
“My first short story was published in .” She started writing the debut during the pandemic, and shortly afterwards, agent Tracy Bohan got in touch.
1993/ Belfast.
Methodist College; Manchester University, Maths and Physics.
London.
Boyfriend, Ross. “He’s a lawyer.” Cats, Lucien and Egon.
Freelance Journalist.
: “I’d be gardener and work with flowers.”
Uko Tsushima; William Faulkner; James Baldwin; César Aira.
“I’m working on a non-fiction book next.”
“Set a timer and write for 25 minutes. Then take a break for five minutes and set the timer again.”
@RachelConnoll14
- Lazy City
- Canongate, €16.99/ Kindle, €9.52
Dropping out of university after her best friend’s death, Erin goes home to Belfast, but nobody understands the grief she’s feeling. Not her mother — the two aren’t speaking; not the American academic she hooks up with, or her old flame Mikey; not even her childhood friend Declan. Working temporally as an au-pair, Erin meanders around the city, often hungover, as she tries to recover, and plan her future.
I was blown away by this beautiful book which brings contemporary Belfast alive. Rachel Connolly is a name to watch.
