To read The Juno Charm is to encounter a writer who is modern, female and Irish, whose work both charms and challenges. Nuala Ní Chonchúir reveals herself yet again as a witty and energetic purveyor of the happiness and pleasure that lie on the far side of the wall of common experience. The works here are edged with resistance, but there is also comedy: whether she is re-interpreting Adam and Eve on the loose in the modern world, or showing scorn at some of our best-known weekend newspaper columns.
“Nuala Ni Chonchúir’s poetry... has gathered momentum at this stage in an already garlanded career, and the result is something of a force in full spate, enriched with the poetics of self-discovery and of an experience that is Blakesean, and well beyond innocence.”
Mary O’Donnell
Nuala Ní Chonchúir was born in Dublin in 1970. Her bilingual poetry collection Tattoo:Tatú (2007) was shortlisted for the 2008 Rupert and Eithne Strong Award. A pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car won the 2009 Templar Poetry Pamphlet competition. Her debut novel You (2010) was critically acclaimed in the Irish Times and the Irish Examiner. Her literary prizes include RTÉ Radio’s Francis MacManus Award and the Cúirt New Writing Prize, and she has twice been nominated for a Hennessy Award. Her work has been published in Ireland, the UK, France, Canada, Australia and the USA. She lives in County Galway.