Anne Enright: Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World

Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World — Anne Enright — W.W. Norton — Hardcover — 978-1-324-12413-9 — 288 pages — $29.99 — April 7, 2026 — ebook and audio book versions available, prices vary

Anne Enright has quickly become one of my favorite writers over the past several years. Her fiction is superb, her characters fully alive, and the complex stories of their lives are gripping. She has rightfully won just about every major award, including the Man Booker, a Whiting Campbell award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal, and in 2022 a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. We talked in person in 2020 just prior to the pandemic about her beautiful novel, Actress, a great honor for me.

Her newest book, Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World, collects nearly thirty years of her essays that cover a wide range of topics, always focusing with laser attention on what matters most about her subjects, mostly writers. Some you will know well, others, unless you are Irish or particularly well read in contemporary Irish lit will be new to you, as they were to me. You’ve probably read James Joyce, Alice Munro, Angela Carter, and Toni Morrison, for example, but you may be less familiar with John McGahern or Maeve Brennan. I think Enright’s personal approach to these writers and the stories of how they have affected her life bring her unique perspective to all of them.

But there is more, much more in this collection than writing about writers. The book is divided into three sections: “Voices,” “Bodies,” and “Time.” The first section collects her writing about writers and the second presents her essays about women, their bodies and who will control them, while the third section is broader (as time is, isn’t it?) and less specific, including essays about Canada (beautiful), where Enright spent time in her youth, Honduras for a visit, children and religion (challenging), and traveling with her husband, among others.

Enright’s writing is always spot on, simultaneously warm and tough. It’s a great read. And the essays always leave the reader thoughtful and engaged, which I like very much.

We had a great talk about a great many things, some not included in the book at all. Talking to Anne Enright is like being in a room where a brilliant salon is taking place. The conversation is always great, and like her essays, spur one to thought and reflection. What more could you ask for?

“…she is one of the best essayists alive.”—Megan Nolan, Observer

Anne Enright’s blog

Buy: Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World

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