Irish Evening 2024: Darragh McKeon hosted by Cóilín Parsons

Описание: Novelist Darragh McKeon, author of "All That is Solid Melts into Air" and "Remembrance Sunday," visited HoCoPoLitSo for the 46th annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry on Feb. 3, 2024. A theater director, actor, avid reader, and painter, McKeon grew up in the Midlands of Ireland. Cóilín Parsons, associate professor in Georgetown's English department and director of the Global Irish Studies Initiative, spoke with McKeon for "The Writing Life." Parsons said he noticed that McKeon described the work of others -- scientists, doctors, gardeners--with precision and care. "The nice thing about being a writer, it does teach you perception," McKeon said. "It's my way of inhabiting the world in a much richer way. We like to talk about the grind of writing, and why do I write? It gives me the capacity to pay attention to things." Parsons and McKeon speak about New York, neuroscience, memory, Chernobyl, and the act of plotting out a novel. Which McKeon said he doesn't do; he never works out the plot of a novel ahead of time. "It doesn't work for me. It's organic. Plant a seed, give it a bit of heat and ibt of darkness and a bit of water and it becomes something." Recorded Feb. 2, 2024. For more information about HoCoPoLitSo's programs, visit www.hocopolitso.org.