April’s zalon with Irish author Helen Cullen transported us to the Mother Land to explore the complexities of ‘writing the mother’ in literary fiction.“The most important relationship, romantic relationships aside, we’ll ever have with anyone is with our own mothers,” said Helen. “Their voice is inside our head forever and has so much impact on what comes later in life.” It’s a role freighted with our own expectations, fears and cultural biases making it fertile territory the writer. From ‘good’ to ‘bad’ mothers to the missing or absent mother, the topic opened up many interesting points of discussion, including ways a writer might move beyond the symbols and stereotypes to develop a dynamic character-in-action with agency and drive.

Helen Cullen is an Irish writer living in London. Her second novel The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually reconfigures the cultural meaning of the iconic “Irish Mammy” while exploring societal changes experienced in Ireland in recent years through the lens of one family. Helen talked about the lengthy tradition in Ireland of the church and the state holding hands to restrict the role of women in society. A priority for Helen with her recent novel was to dismantle and interrogate some of these ideas by creating a protagonist with her own plot, agenda and interior life.

The conversation bought up as many questions as answers including what do we want our mothers to be, both in life and on the page? All kinds of women are mothers and behave in all sorts of ways. Stereotypes abound - there’s still nothing worse in society as being judged a ‘bad mother’. Helen talked about how as women we struggle for independence and choice for all but perhaps have difficulty reconciling this with our expectations of our own mothers or motherhood generally. Examining this gap, between the mother on the pedestal and a human being with her own motivation, forces you to look and see who this person really is.

Helen had some great suggestions for further reading (see below) as well as loads of craft and process tips too, like getting your character to keep a journal or write a letter as a way of revealing what they’re really thinking or feeling. I liked her advice for writers bock - follow the energy and if you’re not sure what’s happening with the story take your character for a walk or a visit somewhere, like the zoo. Most of all keep showing up! With thanks to Helen and everyone who came along!

Coming up next at Words Away:

• Monday 10th May at 6pm: Grow Your Own: motivation and inspiration for Creative Writers with Claire Fuller. Congratulations to Claire, on her novel Unsettled Ground being short listed for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction!

• Monday 14th June at 7.30pm: Writing Memoir with Nikesh Shukla. Nikesh is a novelist and the editor of The Good Immigrant. His latest book, Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home was published earlier this year.

Thank you for reading and hope to see you soon!

Kellie

Links & References:

Helen Cullen, The Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill, The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, What Have I Done by Laura Dockerill, Inferno by Catherine Cho, After The Storm by Emma Jane Unsworth, Making Babies & The Green Road by Anne Enright, Michèle Roberts, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes, As You Were by Elaine Feeney, Elizabeth Gilbert, Virginia Woolf, Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Lowland & Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, My Name is Lucy Barton & Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín, Man At The Helm series by Nina Stibbe, Small: On motherhoods by Claire Lynch, A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk