Woman With Altitude is a poetry anthology by Bonnie Quinn Cotter and has just been published posthumously by Bradshaw Books. Here, her daughter Dorothy Cotter talks about Bonnie, the book, and growing up as a writer’s daughter.
Writing is a solitary thing, a quiet thing, a silent conversation between you and yourself. Or yourself and your creativity, your brain, your art, whatever you want to call it. Maybe you write out loud, maybe you speak into a dictaphone, maybe you roar your words into the sky. But usually you're by yourself. My mother was a writer, and she balanced the solitude of writing with the social aspects to it. For all the afternoons at the typewriter, there were evenings at poetry readings and book launches surrounded by friends, poets, peers. I have happy childhood memories of playing in our front garden in Cork with the friendly and constant clacking sound of my mother's typewriter streaming out of her open window. It was the norm, it was sunny, it was the Eighties. It was my mother's most active time as a writer. The sound of her typewriter going was often heard in our house and later, when technology evolved and Mum got her first computer, I missed the comforting clunky noise of the old writing machine.
Throughout the 1980's and 1990's my mother's poetry and short stories were published in various journals, newspapers, magazines and anthologies from the Poetry Ireland Review, Cork Literary Review and The Salmon to The Irish Times, Boston Irish, and U Magazine. She taught creative writing to adults for almost twenty years and was an inspiration to so many people. She was also a member of the Cork Women's Poetry Circle (which later became Tigh Filí) and she regularly participated in readings and other events. She founded and was editor of The Cork Yule Book which was an annual Christmas magazine. It included photography, poetry, short stories and interviews and it featured great Irish personalities such as Nell McCafferty, Paul Durcan, Molly Keane, Senator David Norris and many others. The Cork Yule Book ran every year from 1982 until 1989 and it was a big part of our lives, especially as it was produced from our home and we were all involved in the making and distribution of it. I think one of the reasons I love the smell of freshly printed glossy paper as an adult is from hanging around the printers place so much as a kid.
My mother was a born writer, it was in her bones. Throughout her life and the changes in jobs, countries and homes, writing was the throughline. The lifeline even. I imagine it was a very healing thing to do. A lot of her life was dedicated to healing. She was a social worker, a counsellor, a Reiki Master and a mother of four. So through the course of her life she looked after a lot of people. She had a brilliantly mischievous sense of humour and loved a good laugh! She was full of fun and her positivity was like a beacon. Sadly, she was taken from us too soon and after a long illness she passed away in January 2005.
Mum's poetry anthology Woman With Altitude has just been published by Bradshaw Books in Cork. My sister Lucy edited it and collaborated with Máire Bradshaw and Anna Barden over the past year or two. It is finished, it is here and I am thrilled with the result, we all are. The cover image is magical and represents Mum in many ways. The poet Thomas McCarthy wrote a very beautiful and touching foreword, he knew her well and has managed to capture the essence of her in his words. Theo Dorgan, Medbh McGuckian and Tess Gallagher all shared their impressions and insights on the collection which have been printed on the back cover. The book is such a special thing for us to have, a celebration, a legacy, a treasure chest that can be re-opened and re-discovered for many years to come.
And there you go. A real nice lady doing a real nice thing. Here's the link to the book and details on the launch - in Dublin and Cork.
Writing is a solitary thing, a quiet thing, a silent conversation between you and yourself. Or yourself and your creativity, your brain, your art, whatever you want to call it. Maybe you write out loud, maybe you speak into a dictaphone, maybe you roar your words into the sky. But usually you're by yourself. My mother was a writer, and she balanced the solitude of writing with the social aspects to it. For all the afternoons at the typewriter, there were evenings at poetry readings and book launches surrounded by friends, poets, peers. I have happy childhood memories of playing in our front garden in Cork with the friendly and constant clacking sound of my mother's typewriter streaming out of her open window. It was the norm, it was sunny, it was the Eighties. It was my mother's most active time as a writer. The sound of her typewriter going was often heard in our house and later, when technology evolved and Mum got her first computer, I missed the comforting clunky noise of the old writing machine.
Throughout the 1980's and 1990's my mother's poetry and short stories were published in various journals, newspapers, magazines and anthologies from the Poetry Ireland Review, Cork Literary Review and The Salmon to The Irish Times, Boston Irish, and U Magazine. She taught creative writing to adults for almost twenty years and was an inspiration to so many people. She was also a member of the Cork Women's Poetry Circle (which later became Tigh Filí) and she regularly participated in readings and other events. She founded and was editor of The Cork Yule Book which was an annual Christmas magazine. It included photography, poetry, short stories and interviews and it featured great Irish personalities such as Nell McCafferty, Paul Durcan, Molly Keane, Senator David Norris and many others. The Cork Yule Book ran every year from 1982 until 1989 and it was a big part of our lives, especially as it was produced from our home and we were all involved in the making and distribution of it. I think one of the reasons I love the smell of freshly printed glossy paper as an adult is from hanging around the printers place so much as a kid.
My mother was a born writer, it was in her bones. Throughout her life and the changes in jobs, countries and homes, writing was the throughline. The lifeline even. I imagine it was a very healing thing to do. A lot of her life was dedicated to healing. She was a social worker, a counsellor, a Reiki Master and a mother of four. So through the course of her life she looked after a lot of people. She had a brilliantly mischievous sense of humour and loved a good laugh! She was full of fun and her positivity was like a beacon. Sadly, she was taken from us too soon and after a long illness she passed away in January 2005.
Mum's poetry anthology Woman With Altitude has just been published by Bradshaw Books in Cork. My sister Lucy edited it and collaborated with Máire Bradshaw and Anna Barden over the past year or two. It is finished, it is here and I am thrilled with the result, we all are. The cover image is magical and represents Mum in many ways. The poet Thomas McCarthy wrote a very beautiful and touching foreword, he knew her well and has managed to capture the essence of her in his words. Theo Dorgan, Medbh McGuckian and Tess Gallagher all shared their impressions and insights on the collection which have been printed on the back cover. The book is such a special thing for us to have, a celebration, a legacy, a treasure chest that can be re-opened and re-discovered for many years to come.
And there you go. A real nice lady doing a real nice thing. Here's the link to the book and details on the launch - in Dublin and Cork.
Woman With Altitude by Bonnie Quinn Cotter will be launched by Thomas McCarthy on Saturday February 19th at 5.30pm in The Beckett Room at the Metropole Hotel, MacCurtain Street, Cork. Theo Dorgan will launch the book in Dublin at the Irish Writers Centre on Monday 21st February at 7pm.
2 comments:
Great title, fell for the obvious twice till it clicked!
Not sure... will have another browse.
I am sure about this blog, though. Absorbing.
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