Mary O'Donnell

WEB was the brainchild of Arlen House founder Catherine Rose, who appointed poet Eavan Boland as Creative Director. As an editor at Arlen House from 1978, Boland did much extraordinary work to develop, mentor and promote Irish women writers. The founders of WEB writers’ group initially met at these empowering, transformative workshops hosted by Boland, and they have been meeting continuously for almost forty years, making WEB one of the longest-running writing groups in Ireland. Over the decades, WEB writers and alumni have established highly-successful literary careers, publishing books, having plays and film scripts produced, and winning prestigious literary prizes. This anthology of new poetry, prose and drama, edited by Nessa O’Mahony, is dedicated to the memory of Eavan Boland.

Mapping the changes that have occurred in Irish literature over the past fifty years, this volume includes twenty-one writers, poets, and playwrights from the North and South of Ireland, who tell their own stories. They are funny, tragic, angry, philosophical, but all are vivid personal accounts of their experiences as women writing during a pivotal period in the history of Ireland. With a foreword by Martina Devlin, and an introduction by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, the anthology includes essays by Cherry Smyth, Mary Morrissy, Lia Mills, Moya Cannon, Aine Ní Ghlinn, Catherine Dunne, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Mary O’Donnell, Mary O’Malley, Ruth Carr, Evelyn Conlon, Anne Devlin, Ivy Bannister, Sophia Hillan, Medbh McGuckian, Mary Dorcey, Celia de Fréine, Máiríde Woods, Liz McManus, Mary Rose Callaghan, and Phyl Herbert.

Set in a turbulent British empire, these historical stories brim with energy and emotion, taking readers to the remote reaches of early twentieth century Burma to an Ireland in flux. These interconnected stories are filled with humor, insight, and unexpected moments of revelation.

This vibrant collection, building on the rich strengths of The Ark Builders, also serves as a generous introduction to Mary ODonnells work to those yet to discover her expansive visions and powerful voice.

Transition from past to present and beyond lies at the heart of Mary O'Donnell's sixth collection, with its images of women in art, in the grip of cosmetic obsession, in old age and in love. The redemptive ark of the title is capable of carrying all comers on board, both animal and human, from the modern city in its night turmoil, to the rural and ancestral, all undergoing change. O'Donnell attends to the nature of love, loss and continuity, and provides an insight into the complex energies of a struggling global ecology. The rhythms of her own country, Ireland, are keenly observed as it lives out its modern role, partly in flux, partly still aware of ancient connections to land and language. This is a collection from a poet at the height of her powers.

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