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Noelle McCarthy

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Noelle McCarthy
Born
Noelle Maria McCarthy

1978 or 1979 (age 45–46)[1]
Cork, Ireland
CitizenshipIrish and New Zealand[2]
Alma materUniversity College Cork
Occupations
  • Writer
  • radio broadcaster
Notable workGrand: Becoming my mother's daughter (2022)
Spouse
​
(m. 2018)​
Children1

Noelle Maria McCarthy (born 1978 or 1979) is an Irish-New Zealand writer and broadcaster. Having moved to New Zealand as a young woman, McCarthy became a radio broadcaster on Radio New Zealand and since 2017 has produced podcasts. Her memoir of her relationship with her mother, Grand: Becoming my mother's daughter, was published in 2022 and won the first book prize for general non-fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Early life and career

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McCarthy was born and grew up in Cork, Ireland,[3] where she attended St Angela's College and graduated from University College Cork with a degree in English and history.[4] She moved to New Zealand in 2003 in her early twenties after a year of travelling in Asia and Australia.[4][5]

From August 2004 to November 2006, McCarthy worked as news and editorial director at Auckland student radio station 95bFM,[4] and in January 2007 began hosting talkback segments on Newstalk ZB.[4] She spent eight years as a producer and presenter at Radio New Zealand, including running her own show, Summer Noelle, for several years on RNZ National.[3][6][7] In 2008, before starting Summer Noelle, she apologised for plagiarising the work of British journalists while working as a presenter on another Radio New Zealand programme.[1] In 2009 she quit drinking after identifying that she had become an alcoholic.[8]

McCarthy and her husband, John Daniell, had a daughter in 2017 and were married the following year.[9] Since 2017 they have made podcasts together as Birds of Paradise Productions.[10] Their podcast, Getting Better, produced by McCarthy and Emma Espiner, won an award at the 2021 Voyager Media Awards.[3]

Grand and later career

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In 2018 McCarthy began writing a memoir of her relationship with her mother, after moving with her family from Auckland to Featherston and after her mother was diagnosed with cancer.[9] In 2020, she won the Short Memoir section of the Fish Publishing International Writing competition for "Buck Rabbit", a story in part based on her memoir writings.[5][11] Following the award, she wrote a first draft of the full-length book in a memoir course led by Renée.[12]

Grand: Becoming my mother's daughter was published in 2022, a year after the death of McCarthy's mother.[13] The book's focus is McCarthy's relationship with her mother while growing up, including the latter's alcoholism and the influence that this had on McCarthy.[14] It was selected as the best non-fiction of 2022 by Newsroom; reviewer Linda Burgess described McCarthy's writing as similar to her radio persona: "impulsive, fast, fluent and frighteningly bright".[15][16] Steve Braunias called the work a "howl of anguish and love".[12]

Grand received the E H McCormick Best First Book Award for General Non-Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.[17] The award citation called it an "exquisite debut", with McCarthy's relationship with her mother "at times brutally detailed"; the book itself was termed "an uplifting memoir, delicate and self-aware, and a credit to McCarthy’s generosity and literary deftness".[18]

In 2023, McCarthy was the writer-in-residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters.[2][6] In the same year, Grand was published in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Irish Independent described it as "remarkably funny, honest and often sad",[19] and The Irish Times called McCarthy "a natural storyteller and an observant writer with a Sedaris-like eye for black humour".[20]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Noelle McCarthy apologises for using others' work". The New Zealand Herald. 27 November 2008. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b "'The happiest day of my life': Noelle McCarthy on getting her driver's licence at 40". Stuff. 30 April 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Kavanagh-Hall, Erin (19 March 2023). "Writer in line for a 'Grand' prize". Wairarapa Times-Age. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d Malcouronne, Peter (February 2007). "The First Noelle". North & South (251). Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Noelle McCarthy: being a daughter and dealing with demons". Radio New Zealand. 19 March 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Noelle McCarthy named as 2023 International Institute of Modern Letters Writer in Residence | News | Victoria University of Wellington". Victoria University of Wellington. 28 November 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  7. ^ King, Rachael (30 March 2022). "Noelle, the review". Newsroom. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  8. ^ Hewitson, Michele (25 July 2015). "Michele Hewitson interview: Noelle McCarthy". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  9. ^ a b Orr, Sue (13 April 2022). "Writer and broadcaster Noelle McCarthy unravels her family ties". Woman. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  10. ^ "Meet Bird of Paradise: Getting Better – A Year In the Life of a Māori Medical Student". Radio New Zealand. 24 August 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  11. ^ "Canvas books wrap". The New Zealand Herald. 28 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  12. ^ a b Braunias, Steve (29 March 2022). "Noelle, the interview". Newsroom. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  13. ^ Woulfe, Catherine (24 March 2022). "Crash and glitter: A review of Noelle McCarthy's new memoir". The Spinoff. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  14. ^ Spencer, Ruth (9 April 2022). "Book review: Grand, becoming my mother's daughter, by Noelle McCarthy". Stuff. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  15. ^ Burgess, Linda (20 December 2022). "Best book: Noelle". Newsroom. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  16. ^ Braunias, Steve (19 December 2022). "Ka pai: the 2022 ReadingRoom literary awards". Newsroom. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  17. ^ Teodoro, Sue (25 May 2023). "First book is a winner". Wairarapa Times-Age. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  18. ^ "2023 Awards". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  19. ^ "Noelle McCarthy's memoir is a darkly comic portrait of a complex mother-daughter relationship". The Irish Independent. 18 June 2023. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  20. ^ Coffey, Edel (17 June 2023). "Grand: Becoming My Mother's Daughter – A compelling search for identity". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 14 July 2023. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
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