Beginner's pluck: Teacher and newspaper columnist Jennifer Horgan

Jennifer has been writing poetry since the age of 10 and now brings us her first collection of poems

Jennifer Horgan is now writing a second collection. Picture: Dan Linehan

A shy, sensitive child who worried what other people thought, Jennifer started writing poetry aged 10 or 11.

“I was interested in death — my mum’s parents had died when she was 12, and I wrote dark, dramatic poems,” she says. “I didn’t read much until I was a teenager.”

Considering journalism as a career, Jennifer started writing freelance for the Evening Echo in her early 20s: “But someone said I wasn’t tough enough for journalism, and I thought, I have an English degree, so I can teach.”

After training, she moved to London and worked in an all-boys’ Catholic comprehensive school in East London.

“It was a deep culture shock,” she says. “At first, I felt at sea and cried every day. I got lost on the tube, but after a year I loved it.”

Care, by Jennifer Horgan. 

After six years, married with two children, Jennifer moved to Abu Dhabi, working in an international school: “We had a third baby and came home in 2018. I now teach three days a week in an Educate Together Secondary school.”

Also, Jennifer does some freelance journalism: “I wrote ‘Secret Teacher’ for the Irish Examiner for some years, and in 2021 wrote a non-fiction book, O Captain, My Captain, on the education system. I now write features for The Echo and a column for the Irish Examiner.”

Who is Jennifer Horgan?

Date of birth: 1980 in Cork.

Education: Scoil Mhuire; University College Cork, English and philosophy; MA in English; H Dip.

Home: Cork.

Family: Husband Ciaran, children Sam, 14, Anna, 12, and May, 10.

The day job: Secondary school teacher, “and creative projects with the city council”.
In another life: “I’d love a nomadic life; travelling, journaling everything.”
Favourite writers: Seamus Heaney; Donal Ryan; Annie Ernaux; Doireann Ní Ghríofa; Nuala O’Faolain; Joan Didion.

Second book: “I’m writing a second collection.”

Top tip: Write. “It’s the only way to improve.”

Instagram:
@Horgan.jennifer

The debut:

Care. Doire Press: €16.

These arresting, sometimes stark poems concentrate on the vulnerability of people; of kindnesses and slights; of motherhood and daughterhood — and of the challenges caused by the pandemic.

The verdict

An original and perceptive examination of the frailty of living.

Jennifer Horgan will make an appearance at The West Cork Literary Festival on July 11 ( westcorkliteraryfestival.ie).