Lily-Ann Cunningham’s cultural highlights

Originally from Dublin, Lily-Ann is currently studying for a Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford University. Since graduating from her Bachelor’s degree, she has done work in film production as well as script development. She is currently working on her first novel.

Book: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones)

I read this book last January and haven’t been able to get it off my mind since. The narrator is unlike any I’ve ever read. She is as funny as she is odd, and her attempt to investigate the murder of her neighbour in rural Poland involves theories of divine animal uprisings and very practical astrological interpretation sessions. In fact, I credited this book with conquering my own scepticism of astrology, and then my chart immediately informed me that I am too easily persuaded. Now I don’t know what to believe.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/drive-your-plow-over-the-bones-of-the-dead/olga-tokarczuk/antonia-lloyd-jones/9781913097257

Video game: Undertale

Undertale’s premise is not unusual: a human falls down into an underground world of monsters and has to find their way out. However, what is unusual is the game’s erosion of the barrier between player and game. You have a choice while navigating the underground: you don’t have to kill anyone; you can puzzle through each interaction and find another way. The game will respond and change based on the choices you make – and will confront you directly about them. The ending you get can therefore be tear-jerkingly life-affirming or downright disturbing. One of the great tragedies of my life is the irrefutable link between this game (goofy though it may often be) and a certain brand of meme-ified online fan culture. Just play it, please – don’t Google it!

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/UNDERTALE-1347694.html?srsltid=AfmBOor-o2DPUZa_6D6vXY3gXzaInXD0gE_02IEd_mazA-rfyG1Nl_SI

Album: songs by Adrianne Lenker

I have had to travel on trains a lot over the past few years, mainly due to a long-distance relationship. Thankfully, I discovered this: the perfect album to listen to as you sit beside a train window, watching the green countryside flash by and thinking about the person you love who you just left behind. Adrianne’s imagery is mundane and vivid, flashing through your mind as if you were seeing your own memories: jeans hung on a clothesline, mango juice dripping, a dog bite, a ceiling fan. This album feels so present; I feel like I’m in the room when they’re recording, hearing mumbling in the background and the squeaks of a finger moving over a guitar string.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2Qt8Z1LB3Fsrf6nhBNsvUJ

Live music: Molly Donnery

Molly Donnery’s recorded music is wonderful, but if you ever have the privilege of seeing her live, I want you to jump on the chance. Molly is a folk singer, often accompanying herself on the harp or playing with The Haar, a band of talented traditional instrumentalists. Her voice is magical and the way she plays with the Irish sean-nós singing tradition means that every performance is ornamented differently: spontaneous and captivating. Molly’s shows are small and intimate in the most powerful sense – I feel I could market them like a drug. They are transporting, connecting you with another world, somewhere essential – older, more pure.

https://mollydonnery.com/home

Film: The Birdcage (1996) directed by Mike Nichols

The Birdcage is my favourite film: so much so that I refuse to watch the original – the French La Cage aux Folles – which I have heard is even better. I am simply too sentimentally attached to this version. The film tells the story of a gay couple whose son is marrying the daughter of a Republican senator, and for one night they must impress said senator by pretending to be a fellow ultra-conservative heterosexual couple. Everything about it delights me: it’s hilarious; Robin Williams is wearing some of the most fabulous outfits I have ever seen on screen or anywhere else; and South Beach Miami is painted as a liberated, sunny, pastel paradise. If Miami isn’t actually like that, do me a favour and don’t tell me.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115685/

Favourite WritersMosaic writer

I recently read Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks and found her writing fantastic in its evocativeness and immediacy. I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/445125/fire-rush-by-crooks-jacqueline/9781529925036

Lily-Ann Cunningham

Lily-Ann Cunningham is currently studying for a Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford University.