Award-winning novelist Donal Ryan tells Fausto about perfectionism, persistence, finding your creative voice and his long-standing love of cycling.
Entering Donal Ryan’s office at the University of Limerick in the west of Ireland, there is a very visual reminder of his work. There are jumbles of books everywhere, with multiple piles on his office desk, more jammed in front of the windows and others stacked on shelves and against grey, brick walls. The authors include Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Alice Kinsella, Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, Roald Dahl and many, many more. There are hundreds of books packed into what is a modestly sized room. “People are always giving me books,” he tells Fausto.
Ryan looks a little torn by that; he loves reading, but his time is already so filled with teaching work and writing. People call to his office with books, people call to his home with books, and that pile keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Ryan is regarded as a leader in the latest wave of Irish writers, and all seven of his novels have been No. 1 bestsellers in his home country. He has won numerous literary prizes, including the European Union Prize for Literature, The Guardian First Book Award and the Prix Jean Monnet in France. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages.
So, I loved the solitary nature of cycling. For years, I just cycled alone.
Ryan divides his time between writing—mostly during the summer months—and teaching a masters course in creative writing. “It’s a lovely course,” he tells Fausto. “We’ve got a great crew, and our students tend to really enjoy it. We have a very intense focus on positivity…. We don’t believe in the ‘blood on the floor’ method that’s eulogized sometimes by others.”
Friendly, down-to-earth and passionate about his craft, Ryan is a blessing to his students. They speak about how giving he is and generous with his guidance. That sharing of wisdom is so important to those trying to break through. Ryan himself is a lesson in the requirement for persistence. The first book he finished, “The Thing About December,” was rejected dozens of times by publishers. “The Spinning Heart” was also turned down by many, yet ended up having a rapturous reception when it was published.
He knows what a slog it can be. And he and his colleagues are there to help their students. “We tend to give people the most positive space, really, to be creative in,” he tells us. “Because you can’t be prescriptive or proscriptive about creativity, it’s so different for everybody. So, we try to maximize people’s experience and their potential for the year or two that they’re here.”
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