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The home of Irish women writers on the web

Biography:

Born and brought up in County Mayo, Áine Greaney went to Carysfort College, Dublin, to train as a primary school teacher. In 1986, she left her teaching job in County Longford to go and see the States for three months. Seventeen years later, she lives and writes in Newburyport, 30 miles north of Boston on the Massachusetts seacoast. While living in upstate New York, she completed a master’s in English. She was also accepted to the New York State Writers Institute fiction-writing workshop.

She has published short stories, essays and features in American and Irish literary magazines and anthologies, including Books Ireland, The Sunday Irish Tribune, Cyphers, The Literary Review, Creative Nonfiction and IMAGE Magazine. Her awards include the 2000 Frank O’Connor Short Story Award, the Irish News International Short Fiction Award (judged by Maeve Binchy) and she was shortlisted for the Hennessy Award.

In 2003, her debut novel, “The Big House,” was published by TownHouse/Simon & Schuster. She is also one of the authors in “Irish Girls are Back in Town,” also by TownHouse/Simon & Schuster.

A frequent public speaker and creative writing teacher, she is currently completing her second novel.

Interview:

When did you move from Ireland to the U.S?

I was teaching primary school in the Irish midlands when I left and moved to upstate New York at the very end of 1986. Thousands of young Irish were coming to the U.S. during the 1980s; Boston alone saw over 30,000.

Where do you live and write now?

In Newburyport, 30 miles north of Boston.

When did you start writing?

As a kid on an isolated farm, I was a voracious reader and always wanted to write. But outside of my journal, I never really wrote until moving to the U.S. Even then, I was long published in the U.S. before I dared send my work back home to Ireland.

When were you first published?

My first piece of short fiction was published in a literary magazine, “Eclectic Literary Forum” in 1996. I had written a first draft during a creative writing class for my master’s degree, then abandoned. One hot summer’s evening, I sat on my front porch and re-worked that thing until it became a livelier story.

Is all of your work set in Ireland?

I’ve published about 10 short stories, some personal essays and I’m currently working on my second novel. One story veers between upstate New York and Ireland, and another is entirely set on Cape Cod. But the others are all set in Ireland or the U.K. or both.

Your own literary influences?

As a rural teenager, I used to enjoy reading John McGahern and Edna O’Brien—not just for their dexterity with language and story, but because on some level, these two rural writers conveyed that writing could be a subversive act, a route to escape. Nowadays I read quite a lot of British authors. Penelope Lively is my favourite. I also like Zoe Heller and Maggie O’Farrell. I’ve long been an admirer of Jennifer Johnston and William Trevor.

Are there differences between your short fiction and your novel?

Yes. One reader in France wrote to thank me for writing “a non-depressing Irish novel.” “The Big House” is a lighter, more heart-warming read. The short stories tend to be stark, often bleak.

Áine Greaney