A new story from celebrated writer Louise Kennedy is likely to inimitably catch us off guard.
Her new story Information for Birth Mothers, read by actress Cathy Belton, is the latest release from RTÉ Radio 1's Spoken Stories project - listen above.
Since 2020, Spoken Stories has been commissioning and broadcasting new stories from some of the finest writers working today, associated with Ireland and short fiction.
Series 2 of Spoken Stories takes its theme, Creatures of the Earth, from a story and the title of a story collection by John McGahern.
Like the other contributors, Louise Kennedy wrote her story after considering this theme and where it might take her in a new story of her own.
Told in the form of a public information pamphlet, Information for Birth Mothers begins in 1980s Ireland before moving to the present day. It is an elemental, gut-wrenching account of the life changing nature of teenage pregnancy, motherhood, loss, longing and love.
Here Louise Kennedy gives the backdrop to her story she called Information for Birth Mothers:
"For a few years I worked as a librarian", says Louise. "I was mostly based in one branch, but sometimes I provided cover in a tiny library in a seaside town. In the summer the place teemed with people swimming, surfing, eating fish and chips or ice-cream. Many of them stayed in a huge caravan park that overlooked the beach. In the winter the place seemed deserted, and the wind was sharp with sand and salt.
"In the library we didn’t just lend books to people. We kept a stock of public information leaflets as well. Information for Birth Mothers takes its title from a pamphlet we kept. I read it and imagined a pregnant teenage girl sequestered in the caravan park one winter, and I tried to imagine how that might reverberate through her whole life."
All previously broadcast RTÉ Spoken Stories new fiction by writers including Anne Enright, Yan Ge, Lisa McInerney, Billy O'Callaghan, Colin Barrett and Neil Jordan are available to enjoy, read by readers including Daryl McCormack, Saoirse Ronan, Siobhan McSweeney, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Pat Shortt and more. Listen back here.
