“I want an anchor. I want somewhere I can actually work from.” Writer Colm Tóibín shares the significance that his hometown, Enniscorthy in Ireland, has had on his novels.
“The reason I use it so much is almost simple. I wish it were metaphysical or sacred, but I don’t have anywhere else.” Most of Tóibín’s novels are set in the small Irish town he grew up in. To him, the city functions as an anchor in his writing. “I have an actual locus, but not just that, an anchor, meaning no matter what I do, I can have the person turn into the market square.”
However, using the specific place also has another function for him: “I suppose it’s also a way of resisting the notion of Ireland, that I would use particular places without any reference to the nation.” He continues to explain: “In other words, it’s not Ireland I’m writing about. It’s very specifically one town in County Wexford.”
Colm Tóibín (b. 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. His notable works include The Heather Blazing (1992), The Story of the Night (1996), The Blackwater Lightship (1999), The Master (2004), Mothers and Sons (2006), Brooklyn (2009), The Empty Family (2010), Nora Webster (2014), and Long Island (2024). Tóibín has received numerous prestigious awards, including the 2004 Lambda Literary Award and the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for The Master, as well as the 2009 Costa Novel Award for Brooklyn. He was awarded the Irish PEN Award in 2011 for his contribution to Irish literature and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize multiple times. Currently, Tóibín is a professor at Columbia University in the U.S.
Colm Tóibín was interviewed by Eleanor Wachtel at the Louisiana Literature Festival in August 2024 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
Camera: Simon Wehye
Edited and produced by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
Subscribe to our channel for more videos on literature: https://www.youtube.com/thelouisianachannel
FOLLOW US HERE:
Website: http://channel.louisiana.dk
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/louisianachannel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LouisianaChannel
source
UCY2mhw-XNZSxrUynsI5K8Zw
