In this episode of Bookable Space, we’re joined by Maura Casey. Maura reads to us from Saving Ellen: A Memoir of Hope and Recovery and answers three questions about writing, research, and more.
Over a 35-year journalism career, Maura Casey worked as a reporter and opinion writer for four newspapers, including as a member of The New York Times editorial board. She has won 45 national and regional journalism awards. She writes a weekly Substack column called Casey’s Catch with 3,900 subscribers.
Maura began to keep journals at the age of 12 and never stopped. She also never re-read them. When she did, during the Covid-19 lockdown, she was surprised to see they contained pages of scenes at home about her big Irish family, her alcoholic father, wise-cracking mother and her sister Ellen struggling with kidney disease and its aftermath. The result is her first book, “Saving Ellen: A Memoir of Hope and Recovery.” It was published last year by Skyhorse Publishing. She welcomes reader comments at authormcasey@gmail.com.
Luanne Rice, author of “Last Day” and “The Shadow Box”
“Saving Ellen” is a shimmering memoir of childhood, tender and honest, full of tumult and complicated love. It's a stunning portrait of an Irish Catholic family, but the heart of the story, and the beauty of how the Caseys love each other through it all, is universal. It's a brilliant book.”
About the Host:
Yvonne Battle-Felton is an author, academic, and podcaster. Her debut, Remembered, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Not the Booker, and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize. Winner of The Shirley Jackson Award, Curdle Creek is her second novel. Yvonne was a finalist in the Hurston Wright Foundation Legacy Zora Award for Fiction, has been awarded the RSL Scriptorium Award, and lives in West Yorkshire. She is the Academic Director of Creative Writing at Cambridge University.
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