The Monthly talks to local poet, and Seamus Heaney Award winner, Michelle Dennehy – Part 1 – Finding Poetry

Were you always attracted to writing?

I was a voracious reader as a child. My mother would take us to the library on Saturday mornings before the big supermarket shop, and I would beg her to let me stay in the car to read my library books. There was never enough time for reading as far as I was concerned. All the characters seemed utterly, utterly real to me.

I loved making up stories using the characters I was reading about, and putting myself into the world of the books. While I wasn’t necessarily writing anything down, I was creating new narratives in my head, with myself very much in the centre – all very egocentric!

In Primary School, I had some success in creative writing through the WH Smith awards and my teachers were always so encouraging about my writing, so I suppose I always knew that words were friendly playthings. I loved working and experimenting with them. I was never scared of the page at that age.

You received a little bit of support at home and at school?

Absolutely. My grandmother and mother always encouraged me to read, and were great with words themselves. Another role-model in this regard was my aunt Patricia. Her living room was full of novels, and she was always so generous with them. She was very much the young, cool, bohemian aunt.

I can still picture those bookshelves and the feelings of abundance and excitement they would inspire in me. It was like an enchantment.

You also went on to study literature at Oxford?

I did, but I was very far from a model student. When I went to Oxford, I discovered theatre and all I wanted to do was write and direct plays. That was much more thrilling to me than anything I was learning in my tutorials.

After that, I did a Master’s in Novel Writing. I suppose I chose the novel form because that is what I had grown up reading and loving. I just assumed I would be a novelist.

How did you find working on a novel?

I started the MA while expecting my first child and working full-time as a Drama and English teacher. Oh, and renovating an old cottage. It was a very demanding period of my life. I chose the MA at Manchester Metropolitan because I really wanted the challenge of having to complete a full novel, which not all Creative Writing MA courses demand.

I still love the concept of my novel – it’s a coming-of-age story set in the aftermath of the Omagh bomb. The subplot is set in Hollywood during the blacklist era. At the end of the book, it is revealed how the two plots are connected. It’s a novel about addiction, intergenerational trauma and the restorative power of love. I still feel the draw and the power of it. I still hear the characters whispering to me. They don’t think I’m finished with them yet.

I got a Distinction in the Master’s course, and my tutors thought the book was marketable. Perhaps it was self-sabotage, but the perfectionist in me never found the time to re-edit the novel to a standard where I would be comfortable sending it out to publishers. Maybe one day the timing will be right.

You started writing poetry after that?

Yes. During Lockdown I joined Moyra Donaldson’s poetry group and I just loved the way I could fit poetry around my busy life. While writing a novel had felt like a huge boulder hanging around my neck, poetry made me feel free. Poetry felt like play. It reconnected me with the fun of writing, and reignited my passion for words. I felt like my voice and confidence were unlocked.