Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title "Midwives to Creativity": A Study of Salmon Publishing, 1981-2007 Author(s) Buckley, Megan Publication Date 2012-09-27 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3598 Downloaded 2021-09-29T01:12:35Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. “Midwives to Creativity:” A Study of Salmon Publishing, 1981-2007 Megan E. Buckley, M.A. Head of School: Professor Steven G. Ellis Head of Discipline: Professor Sean Ryder Supervisors: Dr. Riana O’Dwyer Dr. Patrick Lonergan School of Humanities: English Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies National University of Ireland, Galway September 2012 Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………1 Introduction……………………………………4 Chapter 1: Multiple authorship, collaboration and the literary coterie……………..13 Chapter 2: The Galway Writers’ Workshop and The Salmon, 1981-1991…………43 Chapter 3: Salmon Publishing 1985-2007…………………………………………..78 Chapter 4: “With courteous and careful eyes”: Eva Bourke’s ekphrases……….....119 Chapter 5: “Our phlegm talk/ must be convincing”: Language and the body in pain in the work of Rita Ann Higgins………………………………………………151 Chapter 6: “Feeling that the room had no walls”: Ecopoiesis and Moya Cannon’s dwelling spaces……………………………………………………………..188 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..213 Appendices………………………………………………………………………….217 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...250 For William C. Buckley, who started me on the journey and John Carrigy, who walks with me on it. Acknowledgments Profound thanks are due to Riana O’Dwyer, my supervisor. Without her endless patience, her generosity with her time, advice, and wisdom – not to mention her unflagging interest in my work over six years – this thesis simply would not be. I am terribly grateful, too, for Patrick Lonergan’s support over the years, and for his enthusiastic, astute readings of many versions of these chapters. Since 2004 I have been lucky to know Adrian Frazier, who has supported me in both my creative and academic work, and who first uttered the three magic words: “Galway women poets.” I am also grateful to all the faculty of the English Department at NUI, Galway, where I was a Doctoral Teaching Fellow between 2006 and 2009. Special thanks are due to Prof. Sean Ryder, Marie-Louise Coolahan, Sinéad Mooney, and John Kenny, who heard about the idea at the very beginning and assisted in its early stages; to Elizabeth Tilley, who read early draft chapters and gave helpful advice; and to Rebecca Barr, Kevin Barry, Dermot Burns, Julia Carlson, Cliodhna Carney, Frances McCormack, Hubert McDermott, Muireann Ó Cinnéide, and administrators Dearbhla Mooney and Irene O’Malley – all of whom helped in countless ways. At Salmon Poetry, managing director and dog lover Jessie Lendennie gave me dozens of books, donated hours of her time for a lengthy interview as well as countless informal chats, supplied me with ham sandwiches and tea at her home and office in Knockeven, and let me assist at Salmon book launches, while talented designer and webmistress Siobhán Hutson responded quickly to my queries with information about the design of Salmon books, and administrator Jean Kavanagh was eager to swap stories about bookselling. Rita Ann Higgins, Moya Cannon, and especially Eva Bourke and her husband, Eoin Bourke, all deserve much thanks. Salmon poet Joan McBreen was always interested in, and eager to help with, my research, and writer and artist Mary Dempsey happily discussed her involvement with the Galway Writers’ Workshop and The Salmon. Galway City Arts Officer James C. Harrold deserves much thanks for conversations about Galway in the 1980s, and especially for his extemporaneous ink drawing of the long-vanished U.C.G. Ladies’ Club, The Salmon’s first home. Writers Ken Bruen and Tom Mathews never failed to ask how my own creative work fared in the midst of academic research, and Michael O’Loughlin, Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars all provided me with 1 opportunities to read my own creative work to an audience. I am grateful to Dani Gill, programme director of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, and the Cúirt Advisory Committee members, especially Paraic Breathnach, Gerry Hanberry, and Michael Gorman, for inviting me to become more closely involved with Cúirt. Ronnie O’Gorman’s generous invitations to the Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering in Coole provided enlightening and entertaining ways to learn more about Gregory’s literary legacy, and John and Sally Coyle and the staff of the Renvyle House Hotel welcomed me during the Oliver St. John Gogarty Literary Weekends during my research. Hugh at Comma Print, Galway, answered my questions about typefaces frequently and patiently. Friends across the world contributed in numberless ways. Conversations over the years with Karen Hassey, longtime friend, patient listener, oenophile, accomplished artist and talented architect, have helped me to value the connections between poetry and painting. Erin Sullivan, formerly of Harvard University and the School of Business at Trinity College, Dublin, talked me through the ups and downs of six years of writing and research over email. Kari Longin sent dresses and did design work pro bono. Elizabeth Paulson’s Post-it notes made all the difference, and Laura Pecoraro brought me with her on her journey as she researched the work of Lady Augusta Gregory. Geraldine Keane supplied perspective, a sympathetic ear, and avocadoes. Julia Walther, collaborator extraordinaire, shared her own excellent research on feminist publishing in Ireland, and provided marzipan, moral support, and – crucially – lifts to the post office with two big orange bags, as did the resilient Veronica Johnson, who was and is a stalwart supporter, not least before and after teaching Tuesday-morning seminars. The wise Jennifer Buckley (sadly, no relation) was always available for day trips, swimming, and uisce, and conversations with Katrin Urschel over coffee, wine, or anchovies were always helpful and enjoyable. Peter D. T. Guy was eager to discuss “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg, as well as the work of Kristeva and Lacan. Raymond Keary’s assistance with graphics and formatting was superb, and Pat O’Farrell deserves a resounding go raibh mile maith agat, for his original translation of “Creimeadh” by poet Miceál Ó Conghaile, which appears in the third issue of The Salmon. Mark Stansbury deserves particular thanks for the many lengthy Saturday chats on thesis structure, discussions of ekphrasis, and his recommendation of Narrators of Barbarian History by Walter Goffart. 2 So much of the research for this dissertation was influenced by (if not conducted at) Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, my second workplace and spiritual home. Past and present staff have my everlasting love and gratitude, especially Charlie Byrne, whose generosity and flexibility over the last seven years made this dissertation possible; Vinny Browne, who inspired (among other things) my approach to Rita Ann Higgins’s work by asking, “Who’s in charge of speech and language?”; Carmel McCarthy, friend, artist, musician, Irish-language expert, Renaissance woman, and specialist in mushrooms and gender studies; Olivia Lally, for discussions of Heidegger, postmodernism, ethics, Judaism, and so much more; Diego Andreucci, for countless late-night and early-morning chats about the writing and teaching processes; Jo Greenfield, for her impeccable literary taste, her unflagging kindness and, most importantly, her sarcasm; the matchless Marie Robineau, whose stimulating questions about concepts of home and exile, travel and homecoming, national identity and, of course, the birds of Ireland, have inspired me so often; and particularly and absolutely Emily O’Flaherty, dear friend, tireless coworker, stellar academic, keen eye, and moral supporter, who reminded me that the truth is out there. Seán, Maureen, Marie, Catherine, Helen and James Carrigy and their extended family have welcomed me generously on many holiday visits. Most importantly, my parents, Pat and Karen, have my love and thanks; they patiently put up with my all- too-rare visits home, and even funded many of them, while my wonderful brother Dan, and my lovely sister-in-law, Mandy, have brought me into their new lives as newlyweds, which is a delight and an honour. All errors remain my own. M.B. 3 Introduction 24 October 1981. Chill, persistent autumn rain patters down on the roof of the Ladies’ Club, a small, grey two-storey building on the edge of University College Galway’s grounds. Snails cling to its wet garden wall. Passersby, heads bent against the weather, hurry past it towards the city centre, crossing the Salmon Weir Bridge that spans the river Corrib as they make for the outdoor Saturday market next to St. Nicholas’s church. Across University Road, between the canal and the Corrib, Galway’s “new” cathedral, the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed Into Heaven, dominates the landscape, as it has for just over sixteen years. Forty years earlier, the high, imposing walls of the old Galway jail would have been visible from the Club’s windows. Just before eleven o’clock, people begin to trickle into the Ladies’ Club in ones and twos. For the past few weeks, a writing workshop has been held here. Some participants saw the open invitation to the workshop in the weekly Galway Advertiser; others heard about it through word of mouth, perhaps over pints at the writerly Quays Bar in Quay Street. Some already consider themselves to be poets or fiction writers, and seek a friendly, critical atmosphere in which to air early drafts of their creative work. Others are unemployed, victims of the dismal economy of the early 1980s, and are trying to stay busy; they crave the structure of a weekly meeting. Rita Ann Higgins, a young woman in her late twenties, has finally decided to attend the writing workshop instead of the Saturday morning flower-arranging course that had first caught her eye.1 The men and women of the newly-formed Galway Writers Workshop are eager to share their work with a wider audience: using the UCG English Department’s mimeograph, they are compiling a broadsheet magazine.