Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of December 15th.
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It is the 349th day of the year, leaving 16 days in 2021.
O'Brien started writing at a time when church and state in Ireland was seen as one -- and that one was oppressive, particularly towards women. Her first novel, Country Girls, published in 1960, was banned by the Catholic Church for its frank discussion of sexual issues.
But O'Brien books remained centered around women and their lives. Because of her frank writings, she was sometimes accused of "corrupting the minds of young women." She told an interviewer with The Irish Times in 2015 that she "felt no fame. ... All I could hear out of Ireland from my mother and anonymous letters was bile and odium annd outrage."
But Ireland changed, and progressed, influenced in no small part by O'Brien's novels. Former Irish President Mary Robinson called her "one of the great creative writers of her generation." She was an inspiration for other women writers in Ireland, including the novelist Anne Einright.
Later in life, Ireland has embraced her. She won the Irish PEN Award in 2001. In 2006, University College Dublin awarded her its Ulysses medal. In 2015, Aosdána, the Irish association for artists, gave her its highest honor, the Saoi.
As she has for most of her life, O'Brien lives in London.
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