Noelle McCarthy

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Noelle McCarthy

| honorific_suffix =

| image =

| alt =

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| birth_name = Noelle Maria McCarthy

| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date | 29 | 2008 | 11 | 27}}{{cite news |title=Noelle McCarthy apologises for using others' work |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/noelle-mccarthy-apologises-for-using-others-work/JG743DQ52QGFHYTVFPIRNYAYNM/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=27 November 2008 |language=en-NZ}}

| death_date =

| death_place =

| birth_place = Cork, Ireland

| occupation = {{Cslist|Writer|radio broadcaster}}

| citizenship = Irish and New Zealand{{cite news |title='The happiest day of my life': Noelle McCarthy on getting her driver's licence at 40 |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/300862270/the-happiest-day-of-my-life-noelle-mccarthy-on-getting-her-drivers-licence-at-40 |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Stuff |date=30 April 2023 |language=en}}

| alma_mater = University College Cork

| notable_works = Grand: Becoming my mother's daughter (2022)

| awards =

| spouse = {{Marriage|John Daniell|2018}}

| children = 1

}}

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

McCarthy was born and grew up in Cork, Ireland,{{cite news |last1=Kavanagh-Hall |first1=Erin |title=Writer in line for a 'Grand' prize |url=https://times-age.co.nz/writer-eyes-up-the-grand-prize/ |work=Wairarapa Times-Age |date=19 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330151129/https://times-age.co.nz/writer-eyes-up-the-grand-prize/ |archive-date=30 March 2023 |language=en-NZ}} where she attended St Angela's College and graduated from University College Cork with a degree in English and history.{{cite journal |last1=Malcouronne |first1=Peter |title=The First Noelle |journal=North & South |date=February 2007 |issue=251 |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=23999458&site=eds-live&scope=site |access-date=16 June 2024}} She moved to New Zealand in 2003 in her early twenties after a year of travelling in Asia and Australia.{{cite news |title=Noelle McCarthy: being a daughter and dealing with demons |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018834850/noelle-mccarthy-being-a-daughter-and-dealing-with-demons |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Radio New Zealand |date=19 March 2022 |language=en-nz}}

From August 2004 to November 2006, McCarthy worked as news and editorial director at Auckland student radio station 95bFM, and in January 2007 began hosting talkback segments on Newstalk ZB. 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.{{cite web |title=Noelle McCarthy named as 2023 International Institute of Modern Letters Writer in Residence {{!}} News {{!}} Victoria University of Wellington |url=https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/2022/11/noelle-mccarthy-named-as-2023-international-institute-of-modern-letters-writer-in-residence |website=Victoria University of Wellington |access-date=28 May 2023 |language=en |date=28 November 2022}}{{cite news |last1=King |first1=Rachael |title=Noelle, the review |url=https://www.newsroom.co.nz/noelle-the-review |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Newsroom |date=30 March 2022 |language=en-AU}} 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.{{cite news |title=Noelle McCarthy apologises for using others' work |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/noelle-mccarthy-apologises-for-using-others-work/JG743DQ52QGFHYTVFPIRNYAYNM/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=27 November 2008 |language=en-NZ}} In 2009 she quit drinking after identifying that she had become an alcoholic.{{cite news |last1=Hewitson |first1=Michele |title=Michele Hewitson interview: Noelle McCarthy |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/michele-hewitson-interview-noelle-mccarthy/TOMFEBGBQUXDWWKWO43UKLBV64/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=25 July 2015 |language=en-NZ}}

McCarthy and her husband, John Daniell, had a daughter in 2017 and were married the following year. Since 2017 they have made podcasts together as Birds of Paradise Productions.{{cite news |title=Meet Bird of Paradise: Getting Better – A Year In the Life of a Māori Medical Student |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/getting-better/story/2018760868/meet-bird-of-paradise-getting-better-a-year-in-the-life-of-a-maori-medical-student |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Radio New Zealand |date=24 August 2020 |language=en-nz}} Their podcast, Getting Better, produced by McCarthy and Emma Espiner, won an award at the 2021 Voyager Media Awards.

''Grand'' and later career

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.{{cite news |last1=Orr |first1=Sue |title=Writer and broadcaster Noelle McCarthy unravels her family ties |url=https://womanmagazine.co.nz/writer-and-broadcaster-noelle-mccarthy-unravels-her-family-ties/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Woman |date=13 April 2022}} 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.{{cite news |title=Canvas books wrap |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/canvas-books-wrap-grand-becoming-my-mothers-daughter-by-noelle-mccarthy-wild-souls-freedom-and-flourishing-in-the-non-human-world-by-emma-marris-and-more/BSGE5KP6OSVIY2XDWQTQSK2CNY/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=28 May 2023 |language=en-NZ}} Following the award, she wrote a first draft of the full-length book in a memoir course led by Renée.{{cite news |last1=Braunias |first1=Steve |title=Noelle, the interview |url=https://www.newsroom.co.nz/noelle-the-interview |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Newsroom |date=29 March 2022 |language=en-AU}}

Grand: Becoming my mother's daughter was published in 2022, a year after the death of McCarthy's mother.{{cite news |last1=Woulfe |first1=Catherine |title=Crash and glitter: A review of Noelle McCarthy's new memoir |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/24-03-2022/crash-and-glitter-a-review-of-noelle-mccarthys-new-memoir |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=The Spinoff |date=24 March 2022 |language=en}} 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.{{cite news |last1=Spencer |first1=Ruth |title=Book review: Grand, becoming my mother's daughter, by Noelle McCarthy |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/300556690/book-review-grand-becoming-my-mothers-daughter-by-noelle-mccarthy |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Stuff |date=9 April 2022 |language=en}} 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".{{cite news |last1=Burgess |first1=Linda |title=Best book: Noelle |url=https://www.newsroom.co.nz/readingroom/best-non-fiction-noelle |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Newsroom |date=20 December 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Braunias |first1=Steve |title=Ka pai: the 2022 ReadingRoom literary awards |url=https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ka-pai-the-2022-readingroom-literary-awards |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Newsroom |date=19 December 2022 |language=en-AU}} Steve Braunias called the work a "howl of anguish and love".

Grand received the E H McCormick Best First Book Award for General Non-Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.{{cite news |last1=Teodoro |first1=Sue |title=First book is a winner |url=https://times-age.co.nz/a-grand-literary-award/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |work=Wairarapa Times-Age |date=25 May 2023 |language=en-NZ}} 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".{{cite web |title=2023 Awards |url=https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/2023-awards/winners/ |website=New Zealand Book Awards Trust |access-date=29 May 2023}}

In 2023, McCarthy was the writer-in-residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters. 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",{{cite news |title=Noelle McCarthy's memoir is a darkly comic portrait of a complex mother-daughter relationship |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-reviews/noelle-mccarthys-memoir-is-a-darkly-comic-portrait-of-a-complex-mother-daughter-relationship/a1816732779.html |access-date=16 June 2024 |work=The Irish Independent |date=18 June 2023 |language=en}} and The Irish Times called McCarthy "a natural storyteller and an observant writer with a Sedaris-like eye for black humour".{{cite news |last1=Coffey |first1=Edel |title=Grand: Becoming My Mother's Daughter – A compelling search for identity |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2023/06/17/grand-becoming-my-mothers-daughter-a-compelling-search-for-identity/ |access-date=16 June 2024 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=17 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230714063744/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2023/06/17/grand-becoming-my-mothers-daughter-a-compelling-search-for-identity/ |archive-date=14 July 2023}}

References

External links

[https://thespinoff.co.nz/summer-2022/30-12-2022/take-another-one-noelle-mccarthy-on-the-photos-behind-her-memoir-grand "'Take another one': Noelle McCarthy on the photos behind her memoir, Grand"], in The Spinoff, 30 December 2022.
[https://www.newsroom.co.nz/mammy-eve-and-jesus-by-noelle-mccarthy "Mammy, Eve, and Jesus"], essay by McCarthy; won the Fish Publishing Short Memoir prize under the title "Buck Rabbit" in 2020.

Category:1970s births

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth uncertain

Category:Writers from Cork (city)

Category:Alumni of University College Cork

Category:Irish emigrants to New Zealand

Category:New Zealand radio presenters

Category:New Zealand women radio presenters

Category:Irish radio presenters

Category:Irish women radio presenters

Category:New Zealand radio journalists

Category:New Zealand women radio journalists