2 minutes with… Maggie Armstrong

Through sharp and funny linked stories, in Old Romantics we follow the life of Margaret as she shows us love at its messiest and most real. The characters lie to themselves and others as they stumble from teenage crushes to the complications of parenthood, making for a read that’s impossible to put down. In this ‘2 minutes with’ we delve into the mind of Maggie Armstrong as she tells us about her debut short story collection. 

This book is a collection of linked short stories. What did you want the reader to take away from these works read as a collection? 

If a reader got to the end of Old Romantics, I am eternally in their debt. I am so flattered. If they took anything away from it, any thoughts, good, or bad, or indifferent, I am steeled for pain. I have had strong opinions about every book I’ve ever read, and as a reviewer before I wrote my own fiction I was not always kind, or even fair; I was a conceited nitpicker. I had no right to criticise other people’s books. When I published this I knew I had it coming for me. But what might a reader take away from this collection? I hope they will be surprised by love, and revolted by romance, as a general take-home gift. No offence to romantics.

Did you have any stories that you left out of the collection? 

Ah yes, since you ask! We had a short story in which Margaret (the hapless protagonist, no relation) attends a Marxist conference and hears all her friends bitching about her in the toilets while she is changing a tampon. At the 11th hour my editor kindly suggested we take it out. ‘The Frankfurt School’ remains in a folder of unpublished works of art. 

Who is your second favorite character in the work? Why are they second?

Could the creatures in my book be considered characters? I’d be thrilled if they had earned that accolade. I have really just provided outlines of shadows of ghosts. If I have a favourite that would be the ghost of my father. If I have a second favourite that would be Dublin, where most of the book is set. I’ve lived here since forever and the whole phantasmagoria of my fiction is based here. I do get really tired of the awful traffic that blocks up the whole city and the heavy drinking culture and the price of a coffee but I have family ties here and I’ll probably never leave. We have mountains and rivers and sea and books are everywhere. I’m stuck in Dublin and I’ve grown fond of the old bird. 

Is there another event you are looking forward to at DBF24?

The truth is, I find it hard to go to anything. I am a single parent and when I leave my children, all hell breaks loose. I guess we could take an excursion into the festival! But my three year old is happiest out of doors. In a parallel life of glamour, I’d be attending The Dublin Review Conversations, and the events with Róisín Ingle and Roddy Doyle, two powerful forces in Irish books. I will always remember some writing advice Roddy wrote in the Irish Times, which I would love to quote here: ‘Fill pages as quickly as possible.  See every filled page as a small achievement. …  Give whatever you’re writing a title, as quickly as possible. Trust your own language, your own collection of words … Chances are the words that come into your head will do fine, eg “horse”, “ran”, “said”.’

Make sure to join us at the Short Stories in Focus event on Saturday, 9th November at 6pm in the James Joyce lounge at Bewley’s Grafton Street to hear Maggie Armstrong and Lucy Sweeney Byrne in conversation with author Jan Carson about short stories. Book Here.

Old Romantics is published by Tramp Press and available here.

Let’s Dance by Lucy Sweeney Byrne is available to buy here.

Quickly, While They Still Have Horses by Jan Carson is available to buy here.

This event is part of our DBF After Dark strand, supported by The Night-Time Economy Advisor: Dublin City Council.