Ireland, Le Grá Go Deo

Five years ago, I had the privilege and pleasure to explore Ireland with my MFA cohort. Imagine a gaggle of writers wistfully staring down cobbled streets in Dublin, chasing the footsteps of great writers such as Joyce and Heaney, hungrily devouring literature, poetry, and art. It was an unforgettable trip, my first residency with my MFA program, my first piece to be workshopped; I made lifelong heart friends over frothy pints of the black stuff.

Ireland was always a country that has been in my bones. It could be my Irish heritage (although Ancestry.com tells me I'm more Western European) or the storytelling and musical culture, but my imagination runs wild there. It's easy to believe in faeries and magic, to steep in lore. So many of my stories are set in Ireland with magical elements, and now a full-length work that will hopefully be finished sometime this year.

I have the fortune to find myself in the land of Eire once again this summer, five years later, on a writing excursion to soak up ideas, inspiration, and the magic of the countryside. I'm looking forward to conversations over pints, late nights full of tunes, stunning emerald landscapes, wild seascapes. As I travel, I'll post here, for anyone that would care to hear about my writing adventures. I know visiting once more will feel like coming home all over again. I cannot wait.