Despite an early interest in literature Mary Lavin never thought she could be a writer.
Short story writer and novelist Mary Lavin was born in East Walpole, Massachusetts in 1912 to Irish parents. The family moved to Athenry when she was a child before settling in Bective County Meath.
Mary Lavin never thought of writing as a career, but while at secondary school in Loreto College, Saint Stephen's Green, she had good teachers and classmates who loved books and reading.
Three wonderful nuns who had given us a great love of literature.
A degree in University College Dublin followed, where many of her fellow students were writing, but it never occurred to her to do so. Her doctoral thesis was never submitted as Mary Lavin chose to write her first short story instead.
I just thought, you know, why wouldn't I try to write?
Described as a master of the short story, Mary Lavin says writing in this form is a terribly long process. Many factors are involved, and the time for all the elements coming together has to be right.
A drop of water that has to gain some more mysterious weight before it drops.
She says it can be hard to find a time and a place to write but has found opportunities in a café or even on public transport.
I often do it in Bewley's…sometimes even in a bus.
This episode of 'Writer In Profile' was broadcast on 19 November 1968. The interviewer is Niall Sheridan.
‘Writer in Profile’ was a weekly television interview with a well-known Irish writer. First broadcast on 29 October 1968, it ran until 1976.
