Aine Ní Ghlinn is currently a na nÓg Laureate, a Winner of the Children’s Literature Prize.
he wrote 35 books (children’s and youth literature as well as poetry and plays). She has won awards including Gradam Reics Carló’s Children’s Book of the Year, LAI Book of the Year and the CBI Fiction Honor.
Her most recent publication is Daidí na Nollag (a children’s picture book with illustrator Andrew Whitson) and I Mo Chroí Istigh (a YA novel about creating a sentient robot).
The books on your bedside table?
My cupboards, shelves, and nightstands are filled with books for all ages. Right now, the closest to the bed is Alex Wheatle’s cane warrior (a powerful YA story about slavery and revolution), wonderful by Ethna McKiernan The Light Rolling Backwards: New & Selected PoetryEllen Ryan’s Monster slaying girls, by Elis Ni Dhuibhne Selected storiesMalachy Doyle’s Muireann agus na Deilfeanna and Louise Kennedy’s violate.
Your book of the year?
A Gloine Slipéaran illustrated verse recounting Cinderella by Fearghas Mac Lochlainn and Paddy Donnelly.
Your favorite literary character?
I love the complexity of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge. Judgment, frankly, downright rude at times – but totally believable. In teen fiction, I love Harry Potter and his group of friends. In the first place, you can’t ‘don’t believe’ in magic.
The first book you remember?
As a three-year-old, sent to school too early, I remember listening to fifth and sixth grade reading Jimin Mháire Thaidhg (An Seabhac) grow up. I was mesmerized by Jimín’s antics, and at that moment I decided that I wanted to read it myself.
The book that changed your life?
Read little woman, I knew that I wanted to be Jo March – a girl who would become a writer.
The book you can’t finish?
Video of the day
I rarely leave a book unfinished. However, by David Walliams he stinks will remain unfinished because calling a homeless person ‘stink’ is never funny.
Your Covid comfortable reading?
During Covid, I am working on the Laureate na nÓg, An Bosca Leabharlainne project (a project where we donate 2,200 boxes of specially curated Irish books to primary schools). above. To escape, I read poetry – Rita Ann Higgins, Paula Meehan, Celia de Fréine, Dennis O’Driscoll and many others.
The book you gave as a gift?
It depends on the recipient and on the date. Now it changes from Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin’s Mrs. Lazare to Louise Kennedy’s Doomsday is a Cul de Sac to random poetry anthologies. Children receive books by Muireann Ní Chiobháin, Myra Zepf and Sadhbh Devlin.
Writers who shaped you?
There is no one particular writer that defines me. However, many people have inspired me – Margaret Atwood, Ursula K Le Guin, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Gabriel García Márquez, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, John McGahern, James Joyce… the list is endless.
The book you want to be remembered for the most
I hope I won’t be remembered for just one book! Daily tells the complicated relationship between a runaway boy and an elderly man he meets on a train and is perhaps best known to teenage readers. However, I would like to think that Daidí na Nollag will be loved and remembered by young readers.
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/author-aine-ni-ghlinn-on-david-walliamss-book-mr-stink-calling-a-homeless-person-stinky-is-never-funny-42208155.html Author Áine Ní Ghlinn on David Walliams’ Mr Stink: ‘Calling a homeless person stinky is never funny’
