Local author Katie draws inspiration from childhood in Milford, Carlow for ‘Cowboy’
Katie Curran: 'I get a lot of inspiration from rural Ireland'
“I THINK there’s creative potential for a country town to go weird and be surreal and be darker,” says Carlow writer Katie Curran as she discusses her unsettling, yet brilliantly amusing, short story .
An event was held at the Anseo venue on Camden Street in Dublin in March to launch the short story and Katie was in good spirits when she recently spoke to .
Katie is from Milford and lives in Dublin. She attended Ballinabranna National School and Gaelcholáiste Cheatharlach before going on to study English at Trinity College Dublin. She has had a number of works published, with being printed by Snake Press, an independent publisher based in Paris.
The short story tells the tale of Vincent, a lonely, older man in the rural midlands – a theme of frequent intrigue to the Carlow writer, who has also spent time living in Westmeath. Vincent’s regimented way of life changes when two young women move into the house next to him. Strange goings on dominate the rest of the story, making for gripping and thought-provoking reading.
Katie says that came into her imagination several years ago when she was living in London and watched John Wayne films with her flatmates. The character of Vincent came about when she began to wonder about the people who watch Western films.
Although the story was written in London, for the writer, her background in Carlow was crucial to the formation of the main character.
“Being from Carlow and growing up in the countryside, I get a lot of inspiration from rural Ireland. I’ve always been really intrigued by the idea of people existing in a place that is, like for Vincent, so isolated and removed that it becomes almost otherworldly. It’s like he lives in his own creation of this world, like a fantasy world, which we all do to a certain extent.”
The 29-year-old writer says that her early days in Milford and Ballinabranna NS were formative from a writing perspective, having begun to write stories in primary school. She credits her parents, who encouraged her and her siblings to engage with the arts through visits to Carlow library and the Éigse/Carlow Arts Festival, with helping to develop her creativity.
Work experience with in secondary school was another formative experience for the writer – “it was my first time seeing people writing for a living, first of all, which was big for me,” she recalls.
She speaks vividly of the inspiration that she takes from the local surroundings in Milford. “It’s so beautiful in Milford and that’s inspiring as well, because it makes me want to make something, to create something.”
The author says that on leaving Carlow, her time in college opened her up to “writers I’d never read, books I’d never heard of”.
During her time at third level, she crossed paths with actor Éanna Hardwicke, who attended the Lir Academy at Trinity and whom she describes as a “lovely guy”. She has enjoyed the star’s recent success. “I saw him on the side of the bus for the Roy Keane movie and I was, like, ‘that’s brilliant’.”
The success of other Irish artists energises her. “Everyone says it almost to the point where it’s kind of a cliché, but Irish actors, writers, musicians … it’s just wild, the presence Ireland has. It’s crazy. I find it really inspiring, when you see someone like Éanna doing well, even though it’s a different discipline. It gives me a boost of energy,” she says.
Being a writer from outside of the capital informs much of the Milford woman’s work, and when asked about the rural focus of her writing, she describes the self-consciousness she experienced starting out in the literary world in her early 20s.
“I was really, really worried about that, and it was something that preoccupied me. As I’ve gone on with other work, especially with , and getting responses from people who grew up in a city and have had much different experiences than me growing up, I find that no matter what kind of character you create, there’s elements in the character that everyone can, if not relate to, at least be intrigued by and want to know more about and connect to.”
Alongside her writing, Katie also works in the café at the Abbey Theatre and she enjoys the artistic nature of her surroundings at the iconic Dublin venue. She is no stranger to hospitality work, having also worked in the Green Barn restaurant at Burtown House outside of Athy for a summer following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Up next for the Milford writer is the completion of a short story collection. She also intends writing a novel, and the prospect of a screenplay also appeals to her.
She is intent on continuing to draw upon Carlow and rural Ireland in her work. “I think when I’m drawing on my resources, like memories or dreams or conversations or things I’ve seen, things I’ve overheard, a huge amount of them are in Carlow or around the countryside or midlands. I think I’m just drawn to that world because it’s where I’m from.”
is available on the Snake Press website https://ssnakepress.com/cowboy.
