By Philip Taylor
Since publishing her first novel ten years ago, Ballymena-born author Jan Carson has seen her reputation go from strength to strength.
Deservedly described by the Sunday Times as “one of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation”, Jan won the prestigious EU Prize for Literature in 2019, and last year was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Her work is also regularly heard on the radio these days – a major highlight was fellow Ballymena native Liam Neeson performing her one-man play UnRaveling on BBC Radio 3.
Following on from the success of her 2022 novel The Raptures, which was set in a small rural village in County Antrim and dealt with the experience of growing up in an evangelical family, comes Jan’s new collection of short stories, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses.
These sixteen tales continue her instantly recognisable style, blending down-to-earth Ulster realism with surreal and fantastical elements, and bringing a fresh and unexpected atmosphere to what at first appear to be familiar settings and characters.
With this latest book, Jan demonstrates a new maturity, while retaining her distinctive playfulness. And while this is a round-up of her short fiction from the last six or seven years, the collection still feels very consistent, with all the stories exploring aspects of life in contemporary Northern Ireland.
As Jan explains: “It’s an eclectic bunch of short stories, but I think the overarching theme is disappointment. For a lot of the characters, life hasn’t turned out the way they wanted it to, and there’s a bigger disappointment in terms of Northern Ireland since the peace process. They’re asking, is this really as far as we’ve got? Should things not be better than this?”
There’s lots of humour in these stories too, as well as plenty of affectionate references to the Ballymena area – Ahoghill gets one of its rare mentions in literary fiction, as do the Sky Blues. Jan has lived in Belfast for the last decade, but still gets back to Ballymena to visit her mother once a week or so, at least when not travelling much further afield.
The last time Jan spoke to the Ballymena Guardian, at the end of 2021, lockdown was ending and she was looking forward to getting back on the road, speaking at book launches and literary festivals, something she has always enjoyed. Thankfully, since then there have been no further interruptions to her busy schedule of engagements.
“I think I was in 25 countries last year,” says Jan, including Trinidad, Canada, the USA and Australia. In Europe, her work has been translated into a dozen languages, and she finds herself being asked to attend events all over the continent. France in particular has become a regular destination, as Jan observes:
“What’s amazing is the incredible interest that places across the world seem to have in Northern Ireland. The Raptures in particular went down incredibly well with Muslim women in France, which I was not expecting, but they really resonated with the theme of fundamentalism. I had so many great conversations in French schools and universities, and I just find that amazing, to think that these young women whose parents came from Morrocco or Algeria can really resonate with a story set outside Ballymena”.
Further promotional trips to America look likely too, as this collection of short stories will be Jan’s first book to be released in the USA, where she recently signed a two-book deal with leading publishers Scribner. “Yes,” says Jan, “all those Ballymena references are away off to the States now, and they didn’t change any of them, which is great!”
Jan worked for many years as an arts facilitator, specialising in events for the elderly and people living with dementia. As such, she is particularly concerned by the current lack of funding in this sector, and recently spoke at Stormont to express her views on the topic.
“There’s so much happening in the arts in Northern Ireland at the minute, it’s incredible, but it’s not being funded,” emphasises Jan. “There are book launches being held nearly every night, at places like No Alibis bookshop in Belfast, and what’s really encouraging is that there are lots of people turning up to these kind of events.”
“If only it would trickle through to Stormont, the idea that there are lots of writers and artists doing great things, and they should be properly funded and supported. And I think it’s up to people like me to say these things. Community arts in particular were vital to the peace and reconciliation process, and yet that’s all been cut.”
Jan reveals that she already has another novel almost finished, set in and around Lough Neagh. Proving that fact really can be stranger than fiction, this next book is based on a true story – Terence O’Neill’s bizarre plan, as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in the 1960s, to drain Lough Neagh and create a “seventh county”.
In this forthcoming novel, provisionally entitled Few and Far Between and scheduled for release in summer 2025, Jan takes O’Neill’s wisely abandoned plan and imagines what might have been had it become reality.
So there’s certainly plenty more to come from Jan Carson. For now though, the emphasis is on launching her new collection of short stories in the coming months, and Jan is embarking on a mini-tour of the UK and Ireland, promoting the book in Belfast, Dublin, Galway, Paisley, Edinburgh and London.
Closer to home, Jan is looking forward to giving a free author talk at Waterstones in Ballymena on Thursday 2 May at 7.00 pm.
Quickly, While They Still Have Horses is out now, published by Doubleday.
