“My views of kinship, community, one-anotherness and love extend beyond simply the human”: An Interview with Kerri ní Dochartaigh

Kerri ní Dochartaigh is a remarkably perceptive Irish nature writer whose work, exploring ideas of emergency, interconnectedness and ecologies of care, is sharply truthful, courageous and compassionate. The following interview was conducted online in November 2024. She kindly talked about her two books, Thin Places (2021) and Cacophony of Bone (2023), and about herself as mother, writer and vegetable grower, covering issues such as violence in war, mental health and motherhood. Aspects of her work such as the human, the non-human, the COVID-19 pandemic and her ethics of ecology were discussed as well. The writer offers an array of insightful responses and shares her views on her motivations to write.