AnthologyAppropriately, Facing White begins with a quotation from Oscar Wilde: "I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world . . . His punishment . . . And his reward".
Trinity College's M. Phil in Creative Writing is currently in its 10th year, and the college's pedigree ensures that only the best in national and international talent apply for the course. The 14 students whose work makes up this volume have spent the last three terms studying in Wilde's birthplace on Westland Row - now the Oscar Wilde Centre - and have clearly taken Wilde's words to heart.
From the tale of a mother who gave away her child at birth, to a highly lyrical evocation of interracial love in Africa, each work in Facing White is a testament to its author's capacity to dream - and to convey those dreams to a wider audience. The result is a series of voices that tell of experiences in places as diverse as Zimbabwe, Paris, Antrim and inner city Dublin, and that reflect both the opportunities for education and travel afforded by the prosperity of the Celtic Tiger, and the vibrancy and confidence of an Ireland that has, in recent years, traded emigration for immigration.
Given the diverse backgrounds of the volume's contributors, it is unsurprising that - to quote Gerald Dawe's foreword - their "dream" is a "kaleidoscopic" one. Location, tone and perspective shift with each voice, creating a volume which can encompass Kathryn Peters's violently angry poems, Ross Skelton's evocative portrayal of alienation in a bygone era in The Sea Wall and Ainín Ní Bhroin's subtly-constructed parallel reality in Twenty-Seven. The stark, almost clashing contrast between each work could easily overpower the collection, but the authors' collective awareness of hope and despair - and the vast swathe of human experience in between - brings cohesiveness to a volume that might otherwise have failed to live up to the sum of its many different parts.
Death and loss, the relationship between parents and children, and the instants that can change lives, are all addressed with a lyrical quality that manages to remain firmly grounded in reality. Though still at the beginning of their prospective literary careers, these are writers unafraid to tackle subjects as challenging as teenage suicide and abortion - Elske Rahill's Cords - and child abuse - Jamie Walsh's The Family Connection - and to do so in a manner that is both sensitive and refreshing. The volume's collective take on contemporary society is often a bleak one, with harrowing tales - such as an account of a hit-and-run on a lonely road or a story of shoes and murder written in Doyle-esque Dublinese - far outweighing those, like Bethany Morrison's Izulu, that have a more positive conclusion.
Taken together, the pieces that make up Facing White offer a variety of insights into modern Ireland - and into the lives of its inhabitants and its expats - that are both relevant and revelatory. Colette Connor asks in her poem, The Garden, "What are we if not ourselves?" and in this collection, 14 aspiring writers have confidently asserted their creative identities. In doing so, they have provided a fascinating glimpse into the heart of emerging talent.
Freya McClements is a writer and journalist
Facing White: A Collection of New Writing from the Oscar Wilde Centre M Phil in Creative Writing, Trinity College, Dublin Foreword by Gerald Dawe Lemon Soap Press, 120pp. €9.99
