Some Drivel Is Best Left Unpublished

An interesting meditation on writers, their memoirs and their scandalized parents appears in a recent issue of the Irish Independent. Though short, the piece mentions four of our past visitors: Colm Toibin, Edna O'Brien, Toni Morrison (who was in residence at UAlbany at the Institute's inception) and Anne Enright (who visits a second time, this coming April 18th at RPI).

"Upset by the domestic revelations in her son's novels, Colm Toibin's mother threatened to write a book of her own. Nora Joyce got round the problem through the simple expedient of not reading her husband's work, but Edna O'Brien's family were so scandalised by her early books that they burnt them."

More.

Picture: Edna O'Brien in The Guardian in 2011.

Read an interview with O'Brien by former Institute Director Tom Smith here.