Donoghue, Emma 1969–

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Donoghue, Emma 1969–

PERSONAL: Born October 24, 1969, in Dublin, Ireland; daughter of Denis (a literary critic) and Frances (a teacher; maiden name, Rutledge) Donoghue; children: one son. Education: University College, Dublin, B.A. (first class honors), 1990; University of Cambridge, Ph.D. Politics: "Left-wing liberal feminist." Religion: "Prayer without a church."

ADDRESSES: Home—London, Ontario, Canada. Agent—Caroline Davidson, Caroline Davidson Literary Agency, 5 Queen Anne's Gardens, London W4 1TU, England; Kathleen Anderson, Anderson/Grinberg Literary Management, 244 5th Ave., 11th Fl., New York, NY 10001. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Host of Irish television series about books, 1994; judge for Irish Times literary prize, 1997; occasional creative writing instructor at Cheltenham Literary Festival and Arvon Foundation; writer-in-residence, University of Western Ontario and University of York, 1999–2000.

MEMBER: Society of Authors, Writers Union of Canada.

AWARDS, HONORS: Robert Gardner Memorial Studentship, University of Cambridge, 1990–93; Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Book Award, American Library Association, 1997, for Hood; Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction, 2002, for Slammerkin.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Stir-Fry, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

Hood, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1995, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

(With others) Ladies Night at Finbar's Hotel, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1999.

Slammerkin, Virago (London, England), 2000, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2001.

Life Mask, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2004.

PLAYS

I Know My Own Heart: A Lesbian Regency Romance, produced by Glasshouse Theatre, Dublin, Ireland, 1994.

Ladies and Gentleman (produced by Glass House Theatre, Dublin, Ireland, 1996), New Island (Dublin, Ireland), 1998.

Don't Die Wondering (one-act play), produced at the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, 2005.

OTHER

Passions between Women: British Lesbian Culture, 1668–1801 (nonfiction), Scarlet Press (London, England), 1993, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins (stories), Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 1997.

(Editor) Poems between Women, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1997, published as What Sappho Would Have Said: Four Centuries of Love Poems between Women, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1997.

(Editor) The Mammoth Book of Modern Lesbian Short Stories, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 1999.

We Are Michael Field (biography), Stuart, Tabori and Chang (New York, NY), 1999.

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2002.

Touchy Subjects: Stories, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2006.

Also the author of the radio plays Trespasses, produced in 1996; Don't Die Wondering, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio 4, 2000; Exes, BBC, Radio 4, 2001; Humans and Other Animals, BBC, Radio 4, 2003; and Mix, BBC, Radio 3; writer of screenplay for the short film Pluck. Work represented in anthologies, including Seen and Heard: Six New Plays by Irish Women, edited by Cathy Leeney.

ADAPTATIONS: Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins was adapted by Donoghue as a stage play titled Kissing the Witch, produced by Magic Theatre, San Francisco, CA, 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Emma Donoghue has written and edited several books that explore the lesbian experience; a lesbian herself, she has been open to the media about her orientation. Hailing from a literary family, Donoghue had several books completed by the time she was in her mid-twenties.

In Passions between Women: British Lesbian Culture, 1668–1801, Donoghue explores the role of lesbianism in early society, a trend difficult to uncover because of the fact that the word "lesbian" was used infrequently before the twentieth century. Her rereading of history, which used words like "Sapphic" and "hermaphroditical" to define lesbianism, reveals much more information on the subject. R.L. Widmann, writing in Washington Post Book World, praised the book for its depth and contended that many readers "may find much in this book to delight and inform them."

Donoghue's first work of fiction, Stir-Fry, is a semi-autobiographical novel about three young women going to college in Dublin. Maria takes a room with two other women during her first year in college. Unbeknownst to her, her roommates are lesbian lovers. Maria searches for a boyfriend, but is thwarted at every turn. She finally realizes that she is in love with her roommate, Ruth, but the situation is awkward because Ruth's lover, Jael, is still living there.

Natasha Walter, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, commented that Stir-Fry is "competent, compact and occasionally funny." However, she took exception to the neatness of the plot: "You can judge how sloppily the love story has been executed if you transpose it to a heterosexual model, where its sweetie-pie easiness becomes more obvious." Mary Scott in New Statesman and Society contended that Maria's naïveté in not knowing that her roommates are lesbians and her overreaction to finding out is surprising. "I found this so hard to believe that it ruined my appreciation of an accomplished book," she stated.

Donoghue's second novel, Hood, tells the story of a thirty-year-old teacher in Dublin named Pen O'Grady, who has just lost her lesbian lover of thirteen years, Cara Wall, in a violent car crash. The story is told in Pen's diary excerpts, written over the course of seven days, while she is deep in grief. Pen must deal with many issues other than her own grief—such as whether she should reveal the nature of their relationship to Cara's family or to the nuns at the academy where she works. Sheena Joughin, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, complained of what she saw as the novel's exclusively lesbian setting. "By setting her work so squarely in an exclusive milieu," she wrote, Donoghue "does risk alienating the general reader—particularly in a novel that is reflective, rather than action-packed." With this in mind, Joughin contended that "Donoghue's narrative becomes wearingly formulaic." Catherine Lockerbie commented in the New York Times Book Review that the book is "utterly charming … Ms. Donoghue displays her confidence by avoiding the grandiose and showy, and dipping into the ordinary with control and the occasional sustaining descriptive flashes of a born writer." Lockerbie felt that this novel shows only a portion of the talent that Donoghue is capable of, claiming that the author "might produce something rather more out of the ordinary altogether" in the years to come.

In Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins, Donoghue retells traditional fairy tales for children from a lesbian perspective. In her version of "Cinderella," for example, the princess falls in love with the fairy godmother instead of the prince, while Gretel teams up with the witch of the gingerbread house to punish Hansel for trying to rape her. "Sophisticated teenagers (and adults too) will be mesmerized by the powerful voices and intricate structure, while the lesbian endings promise controversy," wrote a critic for Publishers Weekly. Debbie Carton in Booklist found Kissing the Witch to be written in a "distinctive, powerful, finely honed voice."

Donoghue turned to literary biography with We Are Michael Field, the story of two nineteenth-century women who used the pseudonym Michael Field for the many plays and poems they wrote. Katherine Bradley and her niece Edith Cooper were not only literary collaborators but lovers as well. The name Michael Field was only gradually revealed to the public as a pseudonym for the two women, a fact that led to some controversy. Donoghue's account of their lives and careers is "an engaging, informal overview of their history," according to Kimberly L. Clarke in the Library Journal. A critic for Publishers Weekly described the biography as "brief but absorbing."

For the novel Slammerkin, published in 2001, Donoghue drew inspiration from the true story of the short, tragic life of Mary Saunders, an eighteenth-century English prostitute and servant. The title of the book, which is taken from a period term meaning both "loose gown" and "loose woman," alludes to the fetish and the profession of the protagonist. As rendered by Donoghue, Mary emerges as a fiercely determined, aspiring clotheshorse, who turns to prostitution in an effort to satisfy her sartorial desires and avoid the poverty and squalor in which she was raised by her seamstress mother. Mary is introduced to her new trade by Doll Higgins, a prostitute with eye-catching fashion sense. Of their friendship New York Times Book Review contributor Laura Jamison observed that "[Mary] and Doll could be any modern-day bad girls, getting wasted and cracking bawdy jokes. But of course they're not, and that accounts for the real fun in reading about them." Upon Doll's death, Mary retreats to her mother's hometown of Monmouth, where she finds work as an apprentice to a seamstress, and, according to Washington Post Book World critic Zofia Smardz, "for the first time in her life, begins to feel truly loved." Eventually, however, Mary begins to chafe at her lowly social position, and longs for the finery she wore as a London prostitute. When her past intersects with her present life, disaster results. While Jamison felt that "Mary's tragic flaw"—a lust for fine clothing—"is perhaps a bit overdetermined," she nevertheless concluded that Donoghue's characterization of her protagonist is one of "the reasons that many will find Slammerkin a more accessible and boisterous read than its classic forebears." Smardz noted that while the novel "is pulpy at heart … Donoghue is a real writer, and she's elevated her racy story … close to art and laced it with impressive but lightly presented erudition." Alev Adil, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, called Slammerkin "an exhilarating dialogue with the literature of the period and an imaginative attempt to capture the climate of change in the 1760s." He concluded that "Donoghue has produced an absorbing, moving and intelligent work of fiction."

Donoghue followed with her collection The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories and her novel, Life Mask. The main characters in this story are patterned after real historical figures, including Eliza Farren, a London actress who, although born a commoner, is pursued by the unhappily wed Edward Earl of Derby toward the end of the eighteenth century. Derby, wealthy but ugly, and who resembles a "Velazquez dwarf," is fond of betting on the horses; in fact his surname is the origin of the term derbies. Secondary characters include writer Horace Walpole, theater owner and politician Richard Sheridan, and actress Mrs. Siddons.

The member of the House of Lords introduces Eliza to London's gentile society, members of which refer to themselves as "the World." Susan Stinson noted in Lambda Book Report that in this novel, "the World is far removed from the impoverished Eighteenth Century prostitutes that Donoghue brought to such vivid life in Slammerkin, although that distance can be bridged by a hurled brick or the gentlemen's interest in an evening's entertainment." Sculptor Anne Damer, a widow, is an admirer of Eliza, whose performances she has seen for years. The two form a friendship that ends when rumors of Anne's lesbianism reach Eliza. They reconcile, but part again when the rumors resurface. Advocate reviewer Regina Marler concluded by writing that Donoghue separates them and then brings them together, "skillfully teasing out the possibilities between Damer and Farren," drawing from only subdued references in the historical record.

Donoghue once told CA: "I have been writing since early childhood, but only in the past few years have I taken it seriously enough, and determined to make a living from it.

"I grew up in a house full of books in a country full of writers—Ireland; it was an ideal environment. Discovery at the age of fourteen that I was a lesbian certainly gave me plenty to write about, and researching lesbian history has left me with a feeling of having so many unknown stories to tell, but sexuality is not a motive exactly; I write because I need and love to. All writing has a political impact, and I am aware that doing interviews, etc., is my form of lesbian activism, but the motive for writing is not propaganda: I just want to tell stories in a language as powerful as I can make it.

"I work on many different projects at once—too many! Perhaps on a typical day I might answer letters in the morning, do some research for an essay in the afternoon, make notes for a short story while on a train, edit a scene of a play in the evening…. I have not needed a routine so far, because my passion for the work spurs me on. A laptop computer makes all this much easier—the best investment an aspiring writer can make. I would also advise new writers not to limit themselves to any one genre, but to let the material dictate the form it will appear in. I want to try new genres myself, including adapting my work for the screen."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Advocate, March 2, 1999, Robert Plunket, review of We Are Michael Field, p. 65; November 23, 2004, Regina Marler, review of Life Mask, p. 95.

American Book Review, November, 1997, review of Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins, p. 6.

Booklist, May 15, 1994, review of Stir-Fry, p. 1663; March 1, 1996, review of Hood, p. 1120; June 1, 1997, Debbie Carton, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 1684; June 1, 1999, Whitney Scott, review of The Mammoth Book of Modern Lesbian Short Stories, p. 1786; April 1, 2001, Michelle Kaske, review of Slammerkin, p. 1451; September 1, 2004, Carolyn Kubisz, review of Life Mask, p. 60.

Choice, December, 1997, review of Poems between Women, p. 639.

Eighteenth-Century Studies, spring, 1997, review of Passions between Women: British Lesbian Culture, 1668–1801, p. 321.

Elle, July, 2001, Vince Passaro, "For Want of a Few Fine Things."

Essays and Studies, 2004, Paulina Palmer, "Lesbian Transformations of Gothic and Fairy Tale," p. 139.

Financial Times, July 22, 2000, Fiona Shaw, "The Sinful Price of a Dress Called Skin."

Guardian, March 26, 1995, review of Hood, p. 34.

Irish Times, July 29, 2000, Eve Patten, "Tart with an Exotic Flavour."

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 1995, review of Passions between Women, p. 354; January 15, 1996, review of Hood, p. 85; February 1, 1997, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 354; July 1, 2004, review of Life Mask, p. 592.

Kliatt, July, 1999, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 22.

Lambda Book Report, July, 1994, review of Stir-Fry, p. 28; July, 1995, review of Passions between Women, p. 47; November-December, 2004, Susan Stinson, review of Life Mask, p. 36.

Library Journal, October 21, 1996, review of Hood, p. 156; April 1, 1999, Kimberly L. Clarke, review of We Are Michael Field, p. 94; June 1, 2001, Karen T. Bilton, review of Slammerkin, p. 212; September 15, 2004, Karen T. Bilton, review of Life Mask, p. 48.

London Review of Books, March 24, 1994, review of Stir-Fry, p. 23.

Maclean's, September 11, 2000, "Two Dublins for Donoghue," p. 58.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August, 1998, Charles de Lint, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 27.

Ms., May, 1994, review of Stir-Fry, p. 76.

New Statesman and Society, February 4, 1994, Mary Scott, review of Stir-Fry, p. 48.

New York Times Book Review, February 25, 1996, review of Passions between Women, p. 27; March 24, 1996, Catherine Lockerbie, review of Hood, p. 12; September 28, 1997, Jen Nessel, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 28; July 8, 2001, Laura Jamison, review of Slammerkin, p. 23.

Publishers Weekly, April 11, 1994, review of Stir-Fry, p. 56; January 22, 1996, review of Hood, p. 59; April 28, 1997, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 76; January 18, 1999, review of We Are Michael Field, p. 320; April 5, 1999, review of The Mammoth Book of Modern Lesbian Short Stories, p. 69; May 21, 2001, review of Slammerkin, p. 80; October 4, 2004, Charlotte Abbot, "Protean Talent: Emma Donoghue," p. 54.

School Library Journal, June, 1997, Patricia A. Dollisch, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 117.

Scotland on Sunday, August 6, 2000, Vicky Allan, "Messy Business."

Times Literary Supplement, February 4, 1994, Natasha Walter, review of Stir-Fry, p. 20; April 21, 1995, Sheena Joughin, review of Hood, p. 22; June 27, 1997, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 23; July 21, 2000, Alev Adil, review of Slammerkin, p. 24.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1997, review of Kissing the Witch, p. 192.

Washington Post Book World, September 24, 1995, R.L. Widmann, review of Passions between Women, p. 12; June 17, 2001, Zofia Smardz, review of Slammerkin, p. 10.

Writer, January, 2005, "How I Write" (interview), p. 66.