‘It took me more than a decade of trying to write short stories before any of them worked. It was long and gruelling’ (from The Irish Times) I retype everything. It’s my most consistent, most abiding editorial practice – and it has good literary provenance; I got the idea from Joan Didion, who, in turn, got it from Ernest Hemingway. I edit as I’m writing, of course, within drafts, and my last [...]
