On horror, objects, recurrences...
The problem with writing a newsletter is mentally bookmarking things to share and then not remembering them (something that happens with end-of-year round-ups too - more on that later). Or casually dropping a breadcrumb here and realising you could write a whole essay on it. This happened multiple times last weekend on a visit to London for the inaugural Irish Writers Weekend, a collaboration between the British Library and Cúirt. I took part in a panel about the essay (online here until Sunday December 4th). I often say that essays are rarely about one thing: even if you decide to write about hair or rivers or grief, it ends up being about more than that singular starting point. Secondly, an essay doesn't have to be big, as in it doesn’t have to be about life-altering events, or politics, or deep troughs of feeling. It can pivot around a small thought, object or observation, which acts as a kind sleight-of-hand, co…
