mundyewalsh Niamh Donnellan is a poet and writer living in Kilkenny. She won the Anthology Short Story Award 2020. She has contributed to Sunday Miscellany, Poetry Jukebox, Trasna and the Honest Ulsterman. She is the author of the Little Irish children’s picture book series.
Niamh collaborated in the spring second edition of Poetry in Motionwith the poem Spring Duet, which celebrates motherhood. Poetry in Motion is a project born from the idea of celebrating the words of a poet, alongside the handwritten words of the sender, to explore what connections such a combination could spark. Find out about this and all things handwritten on A C H A R A.
Have you always wanted to be a writer and poet?
I have always loved books and writing but chose a “sensible” career in communications. So I was writing website content and press releases for many years. I worked in arts communications for years and have built up over many years to focus more on my writing. It’s only in the last six years that I would call myself a professional writer.
Who or what inspires you?
My children inspire most of my poetry. For my other writing, ideas come from all around me. Overheard conversations, my travels, old memories, sometimes the smallest thing can spark a story or book idea.
What is your process from ideation to creation?
My first ideas tend to be scrawled on a piece of paper or jotted down on my phone. From there, I start writing it out on my laptop. I think through a new idea or tease out a knotty plotline on car journeys or long runs, when I have no other distractions. I enjoy editing. I find it much easier than facing a blank page. I tend to know when something is finished. At that stage, the words are knitted so tightly together I cannot remove even one of them.
Given that creative work is deeply personal and often an expression of our inner world, how do you keep positive if an idea or work doesn’t succeed the way you would have liked? How do you maintain resilience during difficult periods and what tools/practices do you return to help you overcome obstacles?
Being a writer, you need to get used to rejection! My way of coping is to have a lot of projects on the go at once. That way, if one isn’t working out or stalls for a while I have another, equally interesting, piece of writing to switch to. I also like reading books and listening to podcasts about writing, they inspire me to keep going.
These last few years have been my most productive and successful period of writing. Ironically, motherhood has inspired me to write more but also means I have very little time to write. This has been my biggest challenge as my days are so full and my children always take priority. It’s frustrating to rule out residencies or other opportunities while my children are small, but I have to accept that it’s the season of life I am in right now.
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