Beginner’s Pluck.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in the Irish Examiner on 4th May.
Beginner’s Pluck. Dave Lordan.
Dave Lordan has always been a dreamer.
“As a child, I imagined my own world, because I didn’t like the world I was in.”
He discovered his ability to rhyme, and his love for literature in secondary school, where there were a couple of excellent teachers.
Dave teaches, he performs, and he is an MC for comedy nights. He’s currently participating in a writing workshop on radio; on RTE’s Arena. He writes poetry, plays and stories.
“I’m easily bored,” he says. “To keep myself interested, I have to change my own practise as often as I can.”
With two published poetry collections, Dave has won several awards: The Patrick Kavanagh Award in 2005; The Strong Award for Best first collection in 2008; and the Island Chair of Poetry Bursary Award, 2011.
Who is Dave Lordan?
Date of birth: 23rd July, 1975 in West Cork.
Education: Clonakilty Community College: UCC, BA and MA in English; Trinity College, Dublin, Creative Writing M Phil.
Home: Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Family: Wife, Catherine, and daughter, Rosa.
The Day Job: Full Time Writer; with all that involves.
Interests: Walking. Socialising, theatre TV art, and people and travel.
Favourite Writers: Joyce; Shakespeare; Roberto Bolano; Dostoyevsky; Emily Dickinson.
Next book: “It’s hard to know what’s next. I’ll decide when I have time to focus. I’m currently writing some very short poems.”
Top Writing Tip: “Don’t step over the bounds of convention; but smash straight through them instead.”
Web: davelordanwriter.com Twitter: @davelordanpoet
The Debut: The First Book of Frags. Wurm Press: €10.52. Kindle: €2.99
Taken from the idea of ‘Fragging,’ these dark, often devastating stories covey a sense of artistic and political mutiny, and things falling apart. They hold a cracked mirror to the complexities of our contemporary culture. They look at suicide, and at the insecurity of our troubled times.
“This is a book for people who like to discover something; rather than pretend to find out something they already know.”
The Verdict: Shocking, yet compulsive. Lordan has an extraordinary aptitude with language.
© Sue Leonard 2013
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