Imprint: Writers in Profile

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Gore Vidal – Imprint: Writer in Profile

2nd April 2019

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This episode of Writers in Profile features the novelist, playwright, screenwriter and essayist, Gore Vidal. We gain a glimpse of Vidal’s early childhood, the controversy around his novel The City and the Pillar, and his experience writing scripts for films such as Ben Hur (1959). A desire to dissect the roots of American society has […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Eavan Boland – Imprint: Writer in Profile

2nd April 2019

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Irish poet Eavan Boland was born in Dublin, Ireland, but moved to London at the age of six. where she had her first experience of anti-Irish sentiment. She returned to Ireland to study at Trinity College, Dublin, and was also educated in New York. In this episode, Dorgan and Boland delve into her self-consciousness about […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Bernard MacLaverty – Imprint: Writer in Profile

2nd April 2019

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Novelist Bernard MacLaverty recalls his beginnings as a Medical Lab Technician and compares writing to ‘a science of feelings’. This interview explores topics around his early poetry, moving to Scotland after the Ulster Worker’s Strike and  being inspired by Brian Moore and the short stories of Michael MacLaverty. He explores the political underpinning of his […]

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Doris Lessing – Imprint: Writer in Profile

2nd April 2019

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Doris Lessing was a British-Zimbabwean novelist who spent her childhood in South Africa in the 1920s. In this programme she talks about writing radically on social issues, how children with traumatic childhoods become good writers, and on publishing her first writing at seven years old. She expresses the importance of having a thick skin as […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Hugh Leonard – Imprint: Writer in Profile

2nd April 2019

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Hugh Leonard was a prolific Irish dramatist, television writer and essayist. In this episode, Leonard takes us through his childhood in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, writing his early plays and his influences from Lennox Robinson and Sean O’Casey, to ‘the greatest’ Samuel Beckett. He offers an in-depth look at his creative process, how ideas arise and […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Nuala Ní Dhomnaill – Imprint: Writer in Profile

1st April 2019

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In this Writer in Profile interview, Irish-language poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill discusses her early childhood in England where she grew up speaking both English and Irish. At the age of five, she went to live with her aunt in Co Kerry and was spurred to write Irish-language poetry after her first visit to the Gaeltacht. […]

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Brendan Kennelly – Imprint: Writer in Profile

20th March 2019

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Irish poet and novelist Brendan Kennelly is a prolific author of over 20 poetry collections as well as plays, novels and criticism. In this episode, his work including My Dark Fathers and four plays – Antigone, Medea, The Trojan Women and Blood Wedding is explored. Theo Dorgan and Kennelly then delve into the role of […]

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Jennifer Johnston – Imprint: Writer in Profile

28th February 2019

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Irish novelist Jennifer Johnston was born in Dublin, the daughter of actor and director Shelah Richards and writer Denis Johnston. In this episode, she explains how she avoided their influence by delaying the start of her writing career  until  her thirties. Johnston then explores themes in her writing, discusses how her first play and novel […]

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