Constellations
Sinéad Gleeson
2019 • Picador
There is something about pain, and groups of words are never going to capture exactly what it is … Pain is like a fingerprint; it is that unique, in the same way that art is unique and writing is unique. If you said to someone, ‘You have to write 14 essays about the body and you’re going to call it Constellations,’ they’re not going to write what I wrote. So even though we’re failing to communicate pain, we’re all still attempting to find a way through it and making it manifest.
— Sinéad Gleeson
Constellations
Sinéad Gleeson
2019 • Picador
There is something about pain, and groups of words are never going to capture exactly what it is … Pain is like a fingerprint; it is that unique, in the same way that art is unique and writing is unique. If you said to someone, ‘You have to write 14 essays about the body and you’re going to call it Constellations,’ they’re not going to write what I wrote. So even though we’re failing to communicate pain, we’re all still attempting to find a way through it and making it manifest.
— Sinéad Gleeson
Description
How do you tell the story of a life in a body, as it goes through sickness, health, motherhood? How do you tell that story when you are not just a woman but a woman in Ireland? In these powerful and daring essays Sinéad Gleeson does that very thing. All of life is within these pages, from birth to first love, pregnancy to motherhood, terrifying sickness, old age and loss to death itself. Throughout this wide-ranging collection she also turns her restless eye outwards delving into work, art and our very ways of seeing. In the tradition of some of our finest life writers, and yet still in her own spirited, generous voice, Sinéad takes us on a journey that is both uniquely personal and yet universal in its resonance. Here is the fierce joy and pain of being alive.
Excerpts
Interviews
- The London Magazine: ‘Sinéad Gleeson on Solidarity in Sickness, Isolation and Empathy’
- The Believer: An Interview with Sinéad Gleeson
- The Irish Times: Sinéad Gleeson: ‘I have a Mortality Complex. I Think I’m Going to Run out of Time’
- Entertainment Weekly: 'The Provocative Constellations Reframes the Way we Think about Bodies'
- Irish Examiner: ‘Author Sinéad Gleeson Offers a Masterclass in the Restrictions Suffered by Irish Women’
- NZ Herald: ‘Author Sinead Gleeson - Writing your Story is a Way to Control your Narrative’
- Lucy Writers: In Conversation with Award-Winning Writer, Sinéad Gleeson - ‘We need to Pay Homage to Those Women who Didn’t Have as Much Autonomy and Freedom as we Have Now’
- Fiction Advocate: ‘Non-Fiction by Non-Men - Sinéad Gleeson, Interviewed by Céillie Clark-Keane’
Prizes & Awards
- Winner of the Bookselling Ireland Non-Fiction Book of the Year, An Post Irish Book Awards 2019
- Winner of the Dalkey Literary Award for Emerging Writer, 2020
- The Big Issue Book of the Year, 2019
- Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, 2020
- Shortlisted for the Michel Déon Prize, 2020
- Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography, 2020
Reviews
- Lara Feigel, The Guardian
- Martina Evans, The Irish Times
- Stephanie Merritt, The Guardian
- Hilary A. White, Irish Independent
- Paulie Doyle, Totally Dublin
- Jesse Jones, RTÉ
- Lorraine Courtney, The Times
- Samantha Ellis, The Telegraph
- Melanie Thernstrom, The New York Times Book Review
- Harriet Baker, Times Literary Supplement
- Liam Harrison, Review 31
- Jennifer Kerslake, Litro Magazine
- Emmet James Driver, Writing.ie
- Susan McKay, Dublin Review of Books
- Catherine Kelly, The Cardiff Review
Audio
- Literary Friction: Pain with Sinéad Gleeson
- Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas: Sinéad Gleeson and Anne Enright
- You’re Booked: Sinéad Gleeson
- RNZ: Sinéad Gleeson - Sickness, Health, Motherhood & Writing
- RTÉ: Book on One – Sinéad Gleeson, in her own words
- The Irish Times Books Podcast: Sinéad Gleeson and Sarah Davis-Goff
- BBC: Beyond Borders – Sinéad Gleeson - Pain, Borders and Averting Our Gaze
- RNZ: Book review - Constellations by Sinéad Gleeson
Video
- Zurich Ireland: Dalkey Literary Awards 2020 - Emerging Writer Winner
- Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith: Sinéad Gleeson in conversation with Carlo Gébler - The ICC Digital Literary Festival
- West Cork Literary Festival: Sinéad Gleeson and Emilie Pine
- Limerick Literary Festival: Sinead Gleeson in Conversation with Vivienne McKechnie
- Politics and Prose: Sinead Gleeson, ‘Constellations’ (with Leslie Jamieson)
- Cúirt Festival: Sara Baume and Sinead Gleeson - in Conversation
- Clifden Arts Festival: Sinead Gleeson and Elaine Feeney with Tony Curtis Clifden Arts Festival 2020 Digital Events
- Rick O’Shea: Shelf Analysis - Episode 3 - Sinéad Gleeson
- dotMD Conference: Sinéad Gleeson
