https://rachelconnolly.xyz RachelMConnolly Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:49:28 +0000 https://rachelconnolly.xyz en https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Home-Image-Scroll Fri, 17 Jul 2020 13:16:34 +0000 RachelMConnolly https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Home-Image-Scroll https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Essays Fri, 17 Jul 2020 13:16:36 +0000 RachelMConnolly https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Essays These are some of my favourite things I have written. They are ordered depending on what I think you should read first, not totally chronologically.&nbsp; An essay on “ratings culture” and what it means to chase the best of things. This was on the front page of The New York Times.A profile of the extraordinary Gwendoline Riley, for New York Magazine.An essay on my (very positive) experience of psychoanalysis for The Financial Times Magazine.An essay on my ‘year in gossip’ for Hazlitt’s Year in Review series.An essay on tailoring, fast fashion and Belfast in the Letter of Recommendation for The New York Times Magazine.An essay on a weekend I spent on a silent retreat for The Financial Times Magazine.&nbsp;An essay about the proliferation of those essays that are like ‘this thing is late capitalism’ for The Baffler.A profile of Jemima Kirke. This was a hype cover story for GQ. An essay on vulnerability and strange parasocial dynamics for Granta.&nbsp;An essay about what it was like growing up under an abortion ban in Belfast, and the pervasive extent of misogyny for New York Magazine.An essay on my life in haircuts for The Financial Times Magazine.&nbsp;An essay defending the “performative male” for The Guardian.&nbsp;An essay on the problem with millennial commentary that frames ~us all~ as financially precarious for The Guardian. A profile of Blindboy. This was on the front cover of The New York Times. Half a profile, half an essay on the exceptional Hannah Starkey and her portraits of women who worked to build peace in the North of Ireland for the British Journal of Photography. An essay on a category of person I think of as “life’s losers”. Those who are incredibly status obsessed at the cost of basically everything else for Slate. An essay on the dubious nature of narratives that universalise the female experience, in a review of The Crane Wife, for The New Republic.An essay on wanting narratives of female behaviour which afford us more complexity, and the currency female abjection is awarded in a patriarchal society (I see this as a companion piece to my abortion essay) for Slate.An essay on my hero, Maradona, for The Paris Review. An essay on social media and fame, in a review of Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery for The New Republic. An essay on fake tan and loving trash for Elle.An essay on being the villain in an old relationship, and re-evaluating circumstances in hindsight in general for New York Magazine.An interview with the one of a kind genius writer Nicole Flattery for Interview Magazine.An essay on humour and what we lose when people are guarded with each other, for Liberties Journal. An essay on the sorry state of the personal essay and the tendency to write in a register I think of as “Pity Me, Pity Me” for Gawker (RIP).An essay on the conflict between trauma and personality in contemporary fiction, in a review of Shy by Max Porter for The New Republic.&nbsp; A profile of Michael Cera linked to his role in Barbie. This was a hype cover for GQ. An essay on why Irish literature is so brilliant for GQ. An interview with the one and only Eliza Clarke for Interview Magazine.An essay on one of my key enemies, another Belfast novelist named Michael Magee, and the misogyny still levelled at young female novelists for The Guardian. &nbsp;An essay on the contradictory reaction to the Queen’s death, from “progressive” brands for New York Magazine.An essay on a decade of online dating and ghosting and conflict aversion for New York Magazine.A sort of profile of the iconic FaveTikToks420 Instagram account for The New York Times.An essay on how dating apps have made everyone act loopy for The Guardian. An essay on Gilles Peress’ extraordinary documentation of The Troubles for Elephant Magazine.An essay on mainstream influencers as the vanguard of cultural banality, how very dubious social justice posturing is used to sell the banality, the regular social media smear campaigns etc etc etc for The Guardian.An essay on what facial recognition means for our privacy in the context of private companies for The Baffler.An essay for the “My fantasy home” series: The hotel from Lost in Translation, for The Financial Times. An essay on the flattening online trend for saying “this thing is just like that thing which is just like this other thing” on and on until nothing seems serious (also known as: stop calling America a failed state) for The Guardian.An essay on where the photos used in facial recognition software actually come from (i.e. all over the internet) for The London Review of Books (online).An essay on the abortion access issues currently forcing people to travel for basic healthcare in the North of Ireland and Scotland for The Guardian. An essay on an exhibition interrogating how the changing role of the bedroom has impacted on making art for The Financial Times.An essay on the life lessons to be learned in a cemetery for The Guardian. An essay on why I think privacy is a good thing because it lets us get away with doing bad things sometimes for Rolling Stone. An essay on the value of substance in a world where everything feels transient, in a piece unpacking the furor around Joan Didion’s estate sale for The Guardian. An essay on the psychedelic brilliance of the Dreamachine for ArtReview.&nbsp; A feature on the trend for podcasts based on a friendship, which speak to millennial alienation for The Financial Times.An essay on the ‘lolll rich people’ shows and why Succession is the best of these, and my boyfriend: Logan Roy for The Guardian. An essay on receipts culture and how the aura of scandal rarely leads to anything more for Gawker (RIP). An essay on trying to keep things in perspective for Novara Media. An essay on the way laughter operates on the internet (and one of my favourite emojis:🤣) for Art Review. An essay on a certain kind of front-facing comedy video (that I call the ‘funny voice videos’) and British people’s perception of satire for The London Review of Books (online).An essay on Cat Person and the limits of power dynamic analysis for The NewStatesman.An essay on the moral panic over increased ‘workplace surveillance’ during the pandemic, and the long history of monitoring employees for The Guardian.The trend for art exhibitions celebrating the hedonism of rave culture, while raving irl becomes more corporate and sanitised for The TLS.How a change in working habits during the pandemic could fix the ‘London bubble’ and make it a more livable city for The Guardian.An essay on the weirdness of Elon Musk launching a rocket in the middle of a pandemic for The Baffler. &nbsp;&nbsp; An essay on the hysterical discourse around AI, and its many limitations, for The London Review of Books (online).Why I don’t think we should go back to work in offices anytime soon for The Guardian.An essay on the inherent racism of cutting age genetic research, which is mostly based on European genetic data for The Baffler.&nbsp;An essay on how social media has changed grieving for The London Review of Books (online). https://rachelconnolly.xyz/ShortFiction Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:49:28 +0000 RachelMConnolly https://rachelconnolly.xyz/ShortFiction I love writing short stories. One day this list will be as long as the one on my essays page.&nbsp; My short story “And of the Son” was in Granta.&nbsp;My short story “When We’re Older” was in the Washington Square Review.&nbsp;My short story “In The End” was in the Summer 2021 issue of The Stinging Fly.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Media Fri, 26 Mar 2021 10:04:32 +0000 RachelMConnolly https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Media Some media appearances (with links to clips): I was on an episode of This American Life talking about my Hazlitt piece on gossip and why I think we love discussing what other people get up to.Had a really fun chat on the Deep Read podcast about modern morality.&nbsp;The Stinging Fly podcast with Nicole Flattery (one of the best interviewers).&nbsp;The time I became a football commentator, and went on Off the Ball to talk about Maradona.&nbsp; https://rachelconnolly.xyz/LazyCity Fri, 17 Jul 2020 13:16:37 +0000 RachelMConnolly https://rachelconnolly.xyz/LazyCity <img width="2736" height="3648" width_o="2736" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fe42f8f98c39cee3927e4a0fca5ad474e1a032f8d29ad355b9fe9897b5e9d6a5/PXL_20230310_181829736.MP-1.jpg" data-mid="209888565" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fe42f8f98c39cee3927e4a0fca5ad474e1a032f8d29ad355b9fe9897b5e9d6a5/PXL_20230310_181829736.MP-1.jpg" /> My first novel Lazy City was out in 2023 and won a Betty Trask Award. You can buy it here.&nbsp; Here are some nice reviews it got:&nbsp; John Self in The Telegraph: "To group them together is unfair to the best examples of the form, of which Lazy City is one… It's also a novel about trauma and its aftermath: again, a common theme today, but done sophisticatedly here, with a quality of thinking rare in a debut . . . Connolly gives Erin a dry, wry voice, and one that's frequently very funny . . . I felt better after reading this book. Connolly is a writer in whom I have faith". BookForum: “The same way that a virtuosic artist can conjure the shape of a human face in one stroke, every one of Erin’s half thoughts is masterfully rendered. Connolly’s hand never shakes… Connolly’s strength is her capacity to be serious and light simultaneously…In this gentle way, Connolly instructs that trauma’s deepest scar is the banality of its afterlife. Lazy City is a testament to that insight. It is not a story for our time. It is a story for all time.” Daunt books (ok not exactly a review but I was really pleased they treated the book on its own terms): “Every so often a truly distinctive new voice in fiction comes along and has us all excited.”The Irish Independent: "A compelling exploration of grief, uncertainty and disappointment, and a convincing portrait of Belfast's normalisation, such as it is. Indeed, where a Troubles novel might have foregrounded trauma, Connolly focuses instead on the impact of more ordinary, but still devastating, loss."The Observer: "Connolly's incisive debut novel conveys the quiet desperation of a generation facing economic instability and career uncertainty, compounded by the climate crisis . . . a nuanced portrait of her home city."The Big Issue: “However, the novel is about much more. Being a novel set in Belfast, there are many opportunities for it to reveal itself as a Troubles narrative in disguise, but Connolly steers clear of the pitfalls that so many other Northern Irish writers get trapped in... Exploring a theme that rarely makes an appearance in contemporary novels by younger writers, Erin often takes solace in the churches in her area...&nbsp;It’s a genius little move on Connolly’s part which suggests that, though she made her name as a non-fiction writer, her future as a novelist is incredibly exciting.”The Guardian: “On Erin drifts, a lost soul, but as she ponders the cosmic mystery of Kate’s demise, there’s one place she can go to ask questions: the Catholic churches, where the statues and symbols, for all their shabby kitsch, wrest a kind of accommodation with the human condition. “Does she get the guy?” indeed, but this time with a profound extra dimension.”The Daily Mail: "A timely coming-of-age novel." Here are some interviews I did about it:&nbsp; Interview MagazineAnother MagazineThe Irish TimesLitHub <img width="3072" height="4080" width_o="3072" height_o="4080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7cb101fe6957cae04dd105c0ea603722b6915c82ae3409aed2253021f3c25b73/PXL_20240423_204836475.jpg" data-mid="209888527" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7cb101fe6957cae04dd105c0ea603722b6915c82ae3409aed2253021f3c25b73/PXL_20240423_204836475.jpg" />&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Contact Fri, 17 Jul 2020 13:16:37 +0000 RachelMConnolly https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Contact Email: rachelmaconnolly@gmail.com Substack: WhoKnows?&nbsp; Twitter: @RachelConnoll14 Instagram: @rachel___connolly If you want to get in touch with me about writing a piece the best way is by email. If you are a publisher interested in prospective books the best person to get in touch with is my agent (Tracy Bohan at The Wylie Agency).&nbsp; <img width="1204" height="1600" width_o="1204" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/51ab9b8e93c90e70c781ac10ea8c0a437fa6b986a5d5aaa96959b9743e1d8a2c/IMG-20230715-WA0015.jpg" data-mid="209888560" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/51ab9b8e93c90e70c781ac10ea8c0a437fa6b986a5d5aaa96959b9743e1d8a2c/IMG-20230715-WA0015.jpg" /> https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Info-Instagram-links Fri, 17 Jul 2020 13:16:39 +0000 RachelMConnolly https://rachelconnolly.xyz/Info-Instagram-links