Q. Do you consider yourself an Irish author? Or are you a New England author? A Massachusetts author or writer?

A. I’ve never been one for those hyphenated writer labels. Still, if I were to wear any of them, it would be “immigrant writer.” There’s a conflicted duality about living out your life in a country that’s not your own—and this lends itself well to writing. Also, moving alone across the Atlantic to a new country has largely made me who I’ve become—including becoming a writer.

Q. When did you move from Ireland to the U.S?

A. I was teaching primary (elementary) school in the Irish midlands when I left and moved to upstate New York at the very end of 1986. From 1981 to 1990, an estimated 200,000 people left Ireland. Many of us left for a better or more merciful job--or any job at all. But others left for what the British author and journalist John Walsh called, "existential reasons." My job was an unhappy one and, back then, Ireland still treated us women as unworthy of making our own career, educational or reproductive health decisions. Frankly, by the time I landed at JFK Airport on a freezing December night, I felt worn out and old. So in some ways, I came to America not to get rich or get published, but to get young.

Q. Writers, typically, make less than $11,000 per year. So why bother?

A. I don’t know how to not write. Plus, if I stopped writing, I think many people would cross the street to avoid cranky old me. On this issue, I love the quote from the poet Mary Ruefle’s 2022 commencement address to the graduates of the Bennington College Writing Seminars: “Writing is who you are, not what you do.”

Q. You also teach writing and speak on the wellness benefits of writing. Why? Isn’t it enough to just write?

A. Well, for starters, I’ve never figured out that “just write” thing. I’ve always had a day job (or two), and it’s this dual life that inspired me to write the instructional book, “Writer with a Day Job (Penguin/Random House).” In one published essay—part of a multi-media art exhibit on mental health— I wrote that “writing has been a rescue mission to find and save myself.”

Now, if or when we discover a way to save ourselves, why would we not want to share that with others? As an author and a trained teacher, I love leading both creative and expressive (well-being) writing workshops.

Q. Your own literary tastes and influences?

A. As a rural teenager, I loved reading Walter Macken and the late John McGahern and Edna O’Brien — not just because you weren’t supposed to (which you weren’t)--but also for these writers’ dexterity with language and story.

I’ve always loved Thomas Hardy--especially his poetry. At my Dublin college, I was lucky enough to have the late Séamus Heaney as our English Department chair. I still remember and share some of Mr. Heaney’s writing advice here.

I’ve read everything that Booker-prize winner Penelope Lively has ever written. I admire most of Ian McEwan’s writings.  I enjoy the British authors Margaret Drabble, Maggie O'Farrell, Zadie Smith, Tessa Hadley and Rose Tremain. I’m also a fan of the Canadian author Carol Shields and the Indian-born authors Jhumpa Lahiri and the late and wonderful Bharati Mukherjee. I also love the works of Jamaican-born author Nicole Dennis-Benn and Nigerian-born Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. As you can see, my tastes are allover the place, and I love to read other immigrant writers.

For non-fiction, I enjoy the works of Karen Armstrong, Jill Ker Conway, Andrew Solomon and Rebecca Skloot. Currently, I’m reading “Here We Are,” Aarti Namdev Shahani’s brilliant and heartbreaking memoir.

As a writer, what brings you joy?

It’s always exciting to hear from a reader who felt “heard” or “seen” while reading one of my essays or books. It’s a huge, huge delight to hear from a former student who has kept on writing—either for publication or for their own daily wellness. The daily joy happens in that hour when it’s just me and a notebook sitting inside the window.