WRITING AND THE BODY - ABEI PLENARY TEXT & A REVIEW

I went to Natal in Brazil last August to deliver a plenary lecture and read from my fiction and poetry at an Irish Studies Conference, run by ABEI. The paper I gave concerned writing about the body and it has been published in the ABEI Journal - The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies. It's here and starts at page 71.

There is also a thoughtful review of Mother America by Viviane Carvalho da Annunciação on page 143. Thanks once again to Laura Izarra, and all the crew in Brazil, for having me over. I look forward to returning sometime and seeing more of beautiful Brazil.

BRAZIL - SOME PICS

Gate to the beach from hotel

Today is my last day in Natal, Brazil. The symposium was wonderful - so much food for thought afterwards on Irish writing and women's place in it. My reading went well and I thoroughly enjoyed all the papers and panels I heard.

Today was my first day to have a chance to walk on the beach so I thought I'd share a few pics. I'm not a sit-on-the-beach kind of gal, but I do love to walk it and I always enjoy beachcombing. It's the nicest beach I've ever been to and I pretty much had it to myself this morning.

The beach at our hotel

Beachcombing

Beachcombed finds

As a non meat eater, Brazil has proved a tad challenging food-wise but there has been excellent cake. They even eat cake for breakfast here. When in Brazil...

Cake at Imira Plaza Hotel

Madonna and child

I got to a market in a converted prison where I saw the above Mary and Jesus and these gorgeous girls below. Brazilian art is nothing if not colourful, exuberantly so.

Statues at Centro do Turismo

We were priveleged to attend the opening of an art exhibition at the university, a retrospective of local artist's Erasmo Andrade.

A portrait of Erasmo Andrade's mother Maria at 18

Ladies loo door at Casa de Taipa (restaurant)

Caipirinha - the national cocktail of cachaça (sugar cane rum) and lime - mmmmmmm!

Of course we also went to several lovely restaurants the quirkiest of which was Casa de Taipa where the floor was covered in sand, and dolls and beads hung from everything. Gorgeous.

Coconut shell on the hotel beach

Apart from the lovely people I met from Brazil, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Argentina, I've no doubt that my abiding memory of Natal will be the roar of the sea at night and the coconut trees swaying below my window.

All my thanks goes to the organisers, especially Ana, Laura and Béatriz, and to the Embassy of Ireland in Brazil, and its ambassador Frank Sheridan, for funding my trip. Obrigada - thank you.

BRAZIL BOUND

I am going to a place called Christmas later this week. And it's winter there. Albeit a 26°C kind of winter, with sand, sun and sea. I am off to Natal, in Rio Grande do Norte, in north eastern Brazil. And I can't quite believe my luck :)

I've been invited by the Brazilian Association of Irish Studies to give the plenary lecture at their Irish Studies Symposium, and to read from my work. The theme this year is 'Representations of Women in Contemporary Irish Culture' and my trip is being funded, for the most part, by the Embassy of Ireland in Brazil. I look forward to meeting Frank Sheridan, Ambassador of Ireland to Brazil, who is hosting a reception for all the symposium participants.

I've never been to South America before so this is very exciting. And, as usual, it is my writing that affords me another lovely opportunity. Thanks to all those who have made this possible, especially my family who are my greatest support.