I have been based for this academic year at the National Humanities Center (NHC) in North Carolina where I am writing the biography of Irish fiction writer John McGahern (1934-2006).
The NHC is a private, nonprofit organization, and the only independent American institute dedicated exclusively to advanced study in all areas of the humanities. The Center is supported by the generosity of individual donors, grants from private and public foundations, corporate philanthropy, and institutional sponsors—universities and academic organizations whose partnership specifically supports the Center’s fellowship program and public outreach efforts.
Through its Residential Fellowship Program, of which I am part, the Center provides scholars with the resources necessary to generate new knowledge and to further understanding of all forms of cultural expression, social interaction, and human thought. In effect this means paying me a stipend, supplying me with an office to work in, feeding me Monday to Friday, affording me superb library facilities and encouraging me to mix with the other 30 resident fellows who are working on all sorts of interesting, disparate projects.
The months since I started here on 3 September have flown by and have been extremely productive — I am close to finishing a draft of the book. I have also managed to travel quite a bit in the US, giving presentations on my work at places as varied as Boston College, Notre Dame University, DePaul University, Chicago and Watauga County Library, high up in the Blueridge Mountains of Appalachia.
Read a report of Professor Shovlin's talk at the Watauga County Public Library in The Appalachian, Appalachian State University’s independent student-run news.
By far the most important elements of working here are the long periods of uninterrupted time, solitude and silence that it takes to write a book. My family stayed behind in Liverpool though recently visited for a fortnight over their Easter break from school and we had fun exploring North Carolina, Washington DC and Boston.
It has been an interesting time to be in the United States with the election last November of a second Trump presidency. North Carolina is a Republican state, though the area around where I live — the so-called Triangle of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill — is largely Democrat. The country feels hopelessly divided, with very little conversation or sympathy between supporters of the two main parties. Until such time as they find a way to understand each other, I think it will remain that way.
But the NHC remains a beacon of understanding and civilization that represents everything that's great about scholarship and intellectual endeavour — long may it stay that way!