My life in books: We need to amplify voices and make writing resources more accessible
Edie May Hand has just had her debut novel, 'Dirtpickers', published by Manilla Press. Picture: Ger Holland
Edie May Hand is a writer from Navan, Meath. Her debut novel , published by Manilla Press, is out now.
I’m reading by Doireann Ní Ghríofa. I’ve also got by Mikhail Bulgakov and by Ursula K Le Guin by my bed, both of which I’ve partially read, but Ní Ghríofa has captured all of my attention.
There is a series I read in my teens called by Maggie Stiefvater.
It follows a group of teenagers from rural Virginia in their search for the dead Welsh king, Owain Glynd(ˆw)r (Glendower), in hope that he will grant them a wish.
There are psychics, street racers, dream creatures, and evil millionaires. Something for everyone.
Me not finishing a book is rarely a reflection of the book itself, and is more to do with my attention span.
by Virginia Woolf was challenging for me, but I’d love to return to it some day.
I bought by Mary Karr in my early teens because I liked the cover — a black and white photo of a young girl on a horse.
Once I read how brutally honest, yet tender, the author was in her recollection of an “apocalyptic childhood”, I wanted to be able to write that way about life too.
by Dearbhla Mescal. Quite literally in that it has helped me recontextualise a lot of day-to-day things that I often feel bogged down by or anxious about.
It’s poetry that is very grounded in reality, like a toolkit that I can carry around in my bag.
I wouldn’t ever cry at a book, usually. But for by James McBride, I wept.
Prior to reading by Shirley Jackson, I avoided horror as a genre.
But it got me out of a reading slump, and it made me realise that I was missing out on the subtleties of horror — how the jump scare frightens you for a moment, but it passes, and sometimes the quieter things are worse.
by Claire Keegan. I’m certain everyone feels the same way about this book, and with good reason.
It has taught me so much about the quiet, and about what is not said.
A lot of what needs to be written has already been written or is being written.
We just need to support and amplify those voices (of disabled and transgender people, in particular) and make writing resources more accessible for all.
by Joan Didion.
Grief is inevitable in life, and this memoir explores the effects it has that we often don’t appreciate; for both ourselves and others.
by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I think it helps that the author was a writer for the film, that the characters were so well cast.
There are some beautiful bookshops in Ireland, but I always think of Chapters in Dublin.
For such a large bookshop, it’s so cosy. You could spend hours there and not realise it.
They’re arranged by colour — not matching colours, ones that look nice together — but normally I just put the books wherever they fit.
I usually fall asleep when I’m reading, so coffee. Something sweet.
Samuel Hamilton from . I’ve become so fond of him. We all know a Samuel Hamilton, and we’re all the better for it.
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