Beginner’s pluck: Full-time writer Shane Tivenan

The compassionate stories in this collection examine outsiders — showing interactions between the ‘lost’ and the ‘normal’ world

Author Shane Tivenan has won the RTÉ Francis McManus Award and the John McGahern Award.

A quiet child who liked his own company, Shane was a reader until aged 10 when he acquired his first computer console.

“Then reading went out of the window,” he says.

As a teenager, Shane worked on building sites with his dad, but after college he worked in IT.

“I was a software engineer for close to 10 years. I started in London, then went back to Athlone, before working in Mullingar.”

In 2010 Shane returned to university, studying social anthropology.

“I did an Erasmus year in Tenerife.”

After graduating he gained a job in social research in Dublin.

But it wasn’t my thing. I lasted less than a year and moved to Madrid where I taught English.

Scheduling his classes in the evenings, left his days free for writing.

“I wrote and finished three novels. Lilliput considered one of them, and a year later, I sent them my short stories.”

Shane returned to Ireland last November.

He has won the RTÉ Francis McManus Award and the John McGahern Award.

Who is Shane Tivenan?

Date/ place of birth: 1978/ Athlone.

Education: St Aloysius college in Athlone; Athlone Institute of Technology, Software Engineering; Maynooth University, BA in Cultural Anthropology.

Home: Drum, outside Athlone.

Family: Wife, Bolorchimeg; Black Labrador, Susie.

The day job: Full-time writer.

In another life: “I can’t sing, but I’d love to be a Sean-nós singer. I love hanging around with musicians.”

Favourite writers: Flannery O’Connor; John Moriarty; JA Baker; M John Harrison; Jerry Mander; Timothy O’Grady.

Second book: “I have the outline of a novel. I always have a novel, and short stories on the go.”

Top tip: “Cultivate an awareness of everyday life; investigate your emotions and develop empathy for others — let that feed into your writing.”

The debut

To Avenge a Dead Glacier

The Lilliput Press, €15.95

A woman walks the roads feeling stalked by a thief, her mind flitting through muddled memories.

A plasterer is desperate to hear a corncrake’s cry. How responsible is he for their demise?

A daughter attends her father’s funeral. Can she forgive him for leaving the family for a man?

These compassionate stories examine outsiders — showing interactions between the ‘lost’ and the ‘normal’ world.

The verdict: The author shows such empathy, some stories moved me to tears.