Nuala O'Connor: rediscovering hope

Nuala O’Connor lives in Galway, Ireland. Her fifth poetry collection Menagerie (Arlen House) was published in 2025. Her novel Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson’s friendship with an Irish maid, was published in 2015 by Penguin USA and Sandstone in the UK. She’s currently writing a memoir about late-diagnosed autism. She is a member of Aosdána.“Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops - at all -And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -And sore must be the storm -That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm -I’ve heard it in the chillest land -And on the strangest Sea -Yet - never - in Extremity,It asked a crumb - of me.Miss Emily Dickinson’s Coconut CakeNuala O’ConnorShe blends Virgin Island coconutwith butter and sugar; sieves flour – two cups –beats eggs with the milk of an Amherst cow,adds cream of tartar to make everything bloom.In her white wrapper she stands at the window,lowers a basket of cake to the children below.‘Love’s oven is warm’, Miss Dickinson says,watching them eat from her spinster’s room.Other Dickinson poems mentioned:A Bird, came down the WalkI felt a Funeral, in my Brain,A Narrow fellow in the Grass (the “snake poem”) The quote I mention by Dickinson that shows how unhappy she was at this poem being changed when it was published (without her permission) is: “Lest you meet my Snake and suppose that I deceive it was robbed of me - defeated too of the third line by the punctuation. The third and the fourth were one - I had told you that I did not print.” (from Letter 316, early 1866, to Thomas Wentworth Higginson)Other Dickinson references mentioned:Dickinson’s “terror since September” we mention comes from Letter 261, 25 April 1862 to T. W. Higginson: “…I had a terror-since September-I could tell to none-and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground-because I am afraid-…”Nuala references Dickinson saying to her niece Martha (Dickinson Bianchi), with a pantomimed turn of a key, “freedom.” From the book Emily Dickinson Face to Face, Martha writes, “She would stand, looking down, one hand raised, thumb and forefinger closed on an imaginary key, and say, with a quick turn of her wrist, ‘It’s just a turn—and freedom, Matty!’” (p. 58)Here’s an essay by Nuala called “The Hope Cure” –sharing its name with what will be the upcoming full memoir mentioned in the interview.People mentioned in the interview with Nuala:Emily Brontë and her poem “No Coward Soul is Mine” that Dickinson requested read at her funeral.“Higginson” is Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Union commander, radical abolishionist, Dickinson’s long-time correspondent, and one of her posthumous editors.Writers mentioned (influences of Nuala’s):Maria EdgeworthEdith NesbitNoel StreatfeildWalter Macken“The Brontës” refer to sisters Charlotte, Emily, & AnneJane AustenKate ChopinHélène Cixous (Nuala quotes from “The Laugh of the Medusa”)Anne EnrightMary MorrissyEilís Ní DhuibhnePaula MeehanSharon OldsI don’t think I’ve ever come across a food blog that quoted poetry before! Emily’s coconut cake recipe can be found here (the site includes a scan of the recipe written in Emily’s hand.)Emily’s recipe for gingerbread can be found here.Here’s a video demonstration of one version of Emily’s black cake recipe.Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images and regular notices of new episodes. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe