The Stinging Fly: This So-Called Writing Life
Belfast Telegraph: Eight new Irish fiction books from coming of age stories to a different look at
Belfast Telegraph: Eight new Irish fiction books from coming of age stories to a different look at
Introduction by Series Editor, Olivia Fitzsimons.
A series of essays reflecting on craft, process, and the pains and pleasures of writing and publishing. Kevin Doherty begins the series, with more essays to follow in the coming months.
https://stingingfly.org/2023/03/29/this-so-called-writing-life/
Belfast Telegraph: Eight new Irish fiction books from coming of age stories to a different look at
Belfast Telegraph: Eight new Irish fiction books from coming of age stories to a different look at
Belfast Telegraph: Eight new Irish fiction books from coming of age stories to a different look at
"A touching tale of a broken relationship of a mother, Nuala who wanted to escape Ireland and its troubles. After finding fleeting relief with a 17 year old boy Nuala gets her chance to leave Northern Ireland, abandoning her young daughter Sam and her brother. As Sam grows up she realised that she also wants to escape, but finds her escape through music, drugs and a questionable relationship with an older man. As Sam grows, she realises that she is more like her mother than she thought. Olivia Fitzsimmons’ characters resonate with their readers in this captivating coming of age story in the midst of claustrophobic conflict."
Kate O' Brien Award 2023
Belfast Telegraph: Eight new Irish fiction books from coming of age stories to a different look at
Books Ireland: The First Page
The Limerick Literary Festival is delighted to announce the shortlist for the 8th annual Kate O'Brien Award. This is an Award for the best novel or short story collection by an Irish female writer. The judges for this year's Award are committee member Marie Hackett, writer and critic Niall MacMonagle, poet and committee member Vivienne McKechnie, writer and Children's book buyer for O'Mahony's Bookshop Grainne O'Brien and novelist Donal Ryan. The 2023 shortlist is as follows:
- Ruth and Pen by Emilie Pine.
- The Quiet Whispers Never Stop by Olivia Fitzsimons.
- How to Gut a Fish by Sheila Armstrong.
Books Ireland: The First Page
Selection: Screen Ireland Mentorship Scheme
Books Ireland: The First Page
Olivia Fitzsimons reads the first page of her debut novel, The Quiet Whispers Never Stop (John Murray).
https://booksirelandmagazine.com/the-first-page-olivia-fitzsimons/
Selection: Screen Ireland Mentorship Scheme
Selection: Screen Ireland Mentorship Scheme
Selection: Screen Ireland Mentorship Scheme
Screen Ireland is delighted to announce that 25 mentorship pairings have been selected for the fourth iteration of the Screen Mentoring scheme following this year's competitive selection process.
The best books of 2022 from Irish writers
Selection: Screen Ireland Mentorship Scheme
Selection: Screen Ireland Mentorship Scheme
Irish Examiner Best Books of 2022 from Irish Writers
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-41030339.html
Totally Dublin Review
Totally Dublin Review
Totally Dublin Review
"Fitzsimons has exposed a fascinating divide in attitudes directed at men who quit families and the unthinkable and unnatural women who do the same"
Short Works: Un Hôtel Tranquille
Olivia Fitzsimons: Meet the artists showcasing at the Dean Art Studios
Olivia Fitzsimons: Meet the artists showcasing at the Dean Art Studios
An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the writer Olivia Fitzsimons. As read by Aoibhéann McCann.
Olivia Fitzsimons: Meet the artists showcasing at the Dean Art Studios
Olivia Fitzsimons: Meet the artists showcasing at the Dean Art Studios
Olivia Fitzsimons: Meet the artists showcasing at the Dean Art Studios
Olivia Fitzsimons is just one of many artists exhibiting her work at the newly-opened Dean Art Studios on Chatham Row in Dublin. Here she shares more about writing, the most invaluable thing she’s learned in her career and her debut novel.
DEAN ART STUDIOS: 1 yr Residency
Olivia Fitzsimons: Meet the artists showcasing at the Dean Art Studios
THE INDEPENDENT: Maeve Binchy and me: 16 well-known writers on her influence and legacy
The Dean Arts Studio is a new, multi-disciplinary artistic hub located on Chatham Row, in the heart of Dublin city centre.
Both established and emerging practitioners across visual arts, literature, photography, sound, music, art curation, comedy and more are in residency in what previously housed the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. Each residency runs for one year, and it is envisaged that more than 20 artists, cultural institutions and arts organisations will benefit from the Studio, which will be wholly funded by Press Up Hospitality Group for the benefit of the artistic community.
The Dean Arts Studios is a celebration of creativity. We strive to be an inclusive space representing the cultural, artistic, and social diversity that make up Ireland today.
THE INDEPENDENT: Maeve Binchy and me: 16 well-known writers on her influence and legacy
THE INDEPENDENT: Maeve Binchy and me: 16 well-known writers on her influence and legacy
Ten years ago this month, Irish fiction lost one of its most endearing, vivid characters. Credited for tackling the big issues, from abortion and depression to infidelity and divorce, with an impressively light touch, Binchy was one of the first big chroniclers of a quickly changing Ireland. Her successful career spanned 17 novels, three plays, countless collections of short stories and a treasure trove of journalism.
“Though her pages were rife with faithless lovers, alcoholism, unwanted pregnancies and even murder, Ms Binchy resisted being described as a romance novelist. For one thing, she pointed out, her heroines were less inclined to win the dashing hero than they were to learn to live, quite capably, without him,” The New York Times noted in its obituary of the writer.
IRISH TIMES: Irish writers and their dreams: ‘I take a lot of naps, and wake up with a missing link’
I often drift off into my imagination and my kids do too. We have sanctioned dream time in our house; everyone gets to go off and potter or daydream if they need it. My eldest son will say “I’m dreaming” and then no one interrupts him. Of course they interrupt me but after years of fragmented sleep I rarely dream. When I do, my dreams are very vivid, I wake from nightmares in tears, so I prefer daydreaming. My youngest experienced some night terrors when he was little – he appeared completely awake but was locked in a trancelike state – so I’m very aware of the power of dreams and nightmares.
IRISH TIMES: Seeking a summer read? Critics and authors pick the best books of 2022 so far
Kit de Waal
This is Not a Pity Memoir by Abi Morgan is a memoir by one of the country’s leading screenwriters on a terrible change in her family’s life and her own diagnosis of breast cancer. It’s exactly as the title says, not pitying nor maudlin but brutally honest and very, very funny. The Quiet Whispers Never Stop by Olivia Fitzsimons, a confident debut from a new voice, is a multi-voiced family drama set in Northern Ireland in the 1980s. Well worth a read. Homesickness by Colin Barrett is another majestic collection from one of the best short story writers around, a whole world contained in a few pages. Excellent.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2022/07/23/the-best-books-of-2022-so-far/
The Stinging Fly: Notes on resilience
The Irish Independent: ‘I wanted to upend expectations about Northern Ireland’
The Irish Independent: ‘I wanted to upend expectations about Northern Ireland’
The Irish Independent: ‘I wanted to upend expectations about Northern Ireland’
The Irish Independent: ‘I wanted to upend expectations about Northern Ireland’
The Irish Independent: ‘I wanted to upend expectations about Northern Ireland’
The Irish Independent: "Passion, troubles and war in 1994"
The Irish Independent: ‘I wanted to upend expectations about Northern Ireland’
The Irish Times: "Difficult women and the good little girl syndrome"
The Irish Times: "Difficult women and the good little girl syndrome"
The Irish Times: "Difficult women and the good little girl syndrome"
Essay by Olivia Fitzsimons
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/difficult-women-and-the-good-little-girl-syndrome-1.4851708
The Irish Times Review: "Powerful, uncompromising debut novel"
The Examiner: "Beginner's Pluck"
"Beginner's Pluck" interview by Sue Leonard (click image to enlarge).
Irish Examiner: 10 Books for April
Honourable Mention: The Writers' Lab NYC
Irish Examiner: 10 Books for April
CCI Residency Paris
Honourable Mention: The Writers' Lab NYC
Irish Examiner: 10 Books for April
The annual residency programme offers great opportunities for artists of all disciplines to tap into the resources of Paris and the CCI, as well as being an important means of showcasing Ireland's dynamic contemporary culture on an international stage. Since 2015, CCI have partnered numerous Irish cultural organisations so as to be able to appoint up to forty artist residents every year who form the heart of the Centre Culturel Irlandais’ creative community.
Honourable Mention: The Writers' Lab NYC
Honourable Mention: The Writers' Lab NYC
The Writers Lab UK & Ireland is produced by co-founders Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon, with UK partner Untamed Stories, helmed by producers Julia Berg and Ruth Spencer. It is presented with support from Dirty Films, in association with Birds’ Eye View, Screen Scotland, Northern Ireland Screen, Screen Skills Ireland, Ffilm Cymru Wales & BFI NETWORK with funding from the National Lottery, and New York Women in Film & Television.
Books to look out for in 2022: It’s going to be a bumper year
Books to look out for in 2022: It’s going to be a bumper year
In The Quiet Whispers Never Stop (John Murray, April) by Olivia Fitzsimons, a mother and, years later, her daughter plot to escape the stultifying, troubled North.
Irish fiction to look forward to in 2022
Books to look out for in 2022: It’s going to be a bumper year
Read all about it: the hottest books of the year ahead
The Quiet Whispers Never Stop by Olivia Fitzsimons
- John Murray, April
This novel is also set in Northern Ireland, in the 1980s and 1990s, and is written by a Co Down native. It’s about Nuala Malin, who is struggling with her life – and then finds unexpected refuge with a 17-year-old boy. When she’s subsequently given a chance to leave the north, she does. That was in 1982 – fast forward to 1994, and her daughter Sam Malin plans her own escape.
https://www.thejournal.ie/irish-books-coming-out-in-2022-5624648-Dec2021/
Read all about it: the hottest books of the year ahead
Books to look out for in 2022: It’s going to be a bumper year
Read all about it: the hottest books of the year ahead
The Quiet Whispers Never Stop by Olivia Fitzsimons (John Murray)
Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s is the setting for this story of a dysfunctional family by debut novelist Fitzsimons. Mother Nuala Malin struggles to connect to her husband, motherhood and the smallness of her life. She finds unexpected refuge in a 17-year-old boy. Years later, her daughter Sam plans escape and finds solace in an older man.
Request The Quiet Whispers Never Stop on Netgalley
Description
In 1982, Nuala Malin struggles to stay connected, to her husband, to motherhood, to the smallness of her life in the belly of a place that is built on hate and stagnation. Her daughter Sam and baby son PJ keep her tethered to this life she doesn't want. She finds unexpected refuge with a seventeen-year-old boy, but this relationship is only temporary, a sticking plaster on a festering wound. It cannot last and when her chance to leave Northern Ireland comes, Nuala takes it.
In 1994, Sam Malin plans escape. She longs for a life outside her dysfunctional family, far away from the North and all its troubles, free from her quiet brooding father Patsy, who never talks about her mother, Nuala; a woman Sam barely knew, who abandoned them twelve years ago. She finds solace in music, drugs and her best friend Becca, but most of all in an illicit relationship with a jagged, magnetic older man.
She is drawn to him, and he to her, in a way she can't yet comprehend.
Sam is more like her mother than she knows.
IWC Evolution Programme Awardees 2021
We’re delighted to announce the 12 awardees for the IWC Evolution Programme 2021; Arnold Thomas Fanning, Deirdre Cartmill, Kevin Curran, Maeve Galvin, Máire T. Robinson, Melatu-Uche Okorie, Michelle Gallen, Liz Quirke, Olivia Fitzsimons, Sheila Armstrong, Sue Divin and Helen Blackhurst. They were selected by our professional judging panel Maria McManus, John Kenny and Mike McCormack.
The Evolution Programme was established to mark the Irish Writers Centre 30th Anniversary, and is an opportunity for published writers resident on the island of Ireland to avail from a series of sustained supports, which are partly tailored to their specific needs. The suite of supports will include bespoke career development with professional editorial, practical or creative support by way of a mentor.
https://irishwriterscentre.ie/iwc-evolution-programme-awardees-2021/
NOVEL FAIR 2020
SKIN DEEP - MARY RUTH WALSH
"You have everything to gain. Be brave." Olivia Fitzsimons on her Novel Fair journey. September 11, 2020Irish Writers Centre - News https://irishwriterscentre.ie/blogs/news
SKIN DEEP - MARY RUTH WALSH
SKIN DEEP - MARY RUTH WALSH
SKIN DEEP - MARY RUTH WALSH
SKIN DEEP explores skin’s parallels to architecture and continues Walsh’s obsession with architecture.
Using Arnold Bocklin’s ‘The Isle of the Dead’ (1883) as a reference, SKIN DEEP brings us to an imaginary
island, a medical-tourism destination for the pursuit of the perfect skin.
Writer: Olivia Fitzsimons
Narrator: Shashi Rami
@maryruthwalsh @highlanesdrogheda @wexfordartscentre @artscouncilofireland