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Doris Lessing - Imprint: Writer in Profile

Year1999 Duration30m 00s
Doris Lessing was a British-Zimbabwean novelist who spent her childhood in South Africa in the 1920s. In this programme she talks about writing radically on social issues, how children with traumatic childhoods become good writers, and on publishing her first writing at seven years old. She expresses the importance of having a thick skin as a writer and the delicacy of memory in her autobiography Under My Skin. Imprint, a literature review programme, and its sister show Imprint: Writer in Profile screened on RTÉ1 for three seasons. Both were presented by Irish poet, writer and lecturer Theo Dorgan. Over the course of the Writer in Profile series Dorgan conducted extended, in-depth interviews with a wide range of Irish and international writers including Colm Tóibín, Bernard MacLaverty, Jennifer Johnston, Joseph O’Connor, Michael Longley, Doris Lessing, John Montague, Eavan Boland, Gore Vidal, Richard Ford and Margaret Atwood.

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Leland Bardwell - Imprint: Writer in Profile

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Margaret Atwood - Imprint: Writer in Profile

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood is perhaps best known for The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel that was recently adapted into a gripping TV series. This episode was filmed in 2001 and delves into, what Atwood describes as, her ‘precocious’ childhood, her early writer’s block and her desire to be a painter. She discusses how she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale quickly but that it required extensive research into totalitarianism and the suppression of women. The role of politics in her writing is analysed and Atwood expresses the responsibility and pressure that result from being known as Canada’s leading writer. Imprint, a literature review programme, and its sister show Imprint: Writer in Profile screened on RTÉ1 for three seasons. Both were presented by Irish poet, writer and lecturer Theo Dorgan. Over the course of the Writer in Profile series Dorgan conducted extended, in-depth interviews with a wide range of Irish and international writers including Colm Tóibín, Bernard MacLaverty, Jennifer Johnston, Joseph O’Connor, Michael Longley, Doris Lessing, John Montague, Eavan Boland, Gore Vidal, Richard Ford and Margaret Atwood.

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Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill - Imprint: Writer in Profile

In this Writer in Profile interview, Irish-language poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill discusses her early childhood in England where she grew up speaking both English and Irish. At the age of five, she went to live with her aunt in Co Kerry and was spurred to write Irish-language poetry after her first visit to the Gaeltacht. Ní Dhomhnaill believes that writing in Irish can be a liberating experience and she discusses her position as a female poet in relation to the limited readership of Irish-language writing. The interview ends with an amusing story about Ní Dhomhnaill being recognised by people on the street who are familiar with her poems. Imprint, a literature review programme, and its sister show Imprint: Writer in Profile screened on RTÉ1 for three seasons. Both were presented by Irish poet, writer and lecturer Theo Dorgan. Over the course of the Writer in Profile series Dorgan conducted extended, in-depth interviews with a wide range of Irish and international writers including Colm Tóibín, Bernard MacLaverty, Jennifer Johnston, Joseph O’Connor, Michael Longley, Doris Lessing, John Montague, Eavan Boland, Gore Vidal, Richard Ford and Margaret Atwood.

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Paul Durcan - Imprint: Writer in Profile

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Eavan Boland - Imprint: Writer in Profile

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30m 00s

Colm Tóibín - Imprint: Writer in Profile

Irish novelist, short story writer and journalist Colm Tóibín talks to Theo Dorgan about his early childhood in Enniscorthy, his early poetry writing and studying at University College Dublin. Tóibín lived in Barcelona between 1975 and 1978 and explains how this experience of Spanish life, gothic architecture, and the death of Franco shaped his work. When he returned to Ireland, he worked as a journalist and editor of Magill recalling the immense drive of Irish journalism at the time and his experience working with Vincent Browne, Mary Rafferty and Fintan O’Toole. He describes the act of writing as a pleasant ‘ordeal’ and Dorgan asks about the political undertones and autobiographical nature of his work. Imprint, a literature review programme, and its sister show Imprint: Writer in Profile screened on RTÉ1 for three seasons. Both were presented by Irish poet, writer and lecturer Theo Dorgan. Over the course of the Writer in Profile series Dorgan conducted extended, in-depth interviews with a wide range of Irish and international writers including Colm Tóibín, Bernard MacLaverty, Jennifer Johnston, Joseph O’Connor, Michael Longley, Doris Lessing, John Montague, Eavan Boland, Gore Vidal, Richard Ford and Margaret Atwood.