Anne Enright, "Maeve Brennan Goes Mad In America" (Laureate For Irish Fiction Annual Lecture 2016)

The Arts Council Podcast

Anne Enright delivered her first US lecture as Laureate for Irish Fiction at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House as part of the Laureate programme in April 2016. Speaking prior to the lecture, Enright said, “When I flew to New York in February 2000 I thought my life could not get better: I was pregnant, I was bringing the proofs for my first New Yorker story in my bag, and I met Seamus Heaney on the plane. The next day I went to the offices of the magazine and paused in the ladies room to remember Maeve Brennan, and to consider the rumour that she lived for a while in the washroom of the old offices on West 43rd St. I have always been interested in what drives a writer mad. It was natural for me to think about Brennan while I was living in the city this year. I wanted to put her on the streets of New York, to write about place - but of course I wrote about madness instead. What is the difference between imagination and psychosis? And what made it impossible for Maeve Brennan, an Irish woman abroad, to be herself?” Anne Enright was the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. The Laureate for Irish Fiction promotes Irish literature nationally and internationally and encourage the public to engage with high quality Irish fiction. The Laureate for Irish Fiction has been developed by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and is supported by University College Dublin (UCD) and New York University (NYU).