My life in books: When I am outside of my comfort zone, books eventually... get moved to a shelf

Novels by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker and the body of work by James Baldwin, all showed Rosaleen McDonagh that racism and great art is about people, not polemics

Rosaleen McDonagh's debut novel, 'Contentious Spaces', explores the inner lives of Traveller families on a site in Dublin over the course of one crucial week. Picture: Derek Speirs

Rosaleen McDonagh is an author, playwright, performer, and a member of Aosdána. 

Her debut novel, Contentious Spaces, explores the inner lives of Traveller families on a site in Dublin over the course of one crucial week.