Catherine Prasifka is a Dublin-based novelist and the author of This Is How You Remember It and None of This Is Serious, which was an Irish Times bestseller. Prasifka graduated from Trinity in 2018, having studied English. Prasifka is also a regular contributor to the Irish Independent.
Parts of this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.
What was the highlight of your time at Trinity?
“I was heavily involved in the Hist. I did a lot of competitive debating, and that allowed me to travel a good bit. It comes up very frequently now in interviews and stories; people ask, have you ever been to this place? I’m like, yeah, I’ve been to the arts block of that university. I think that really helped broaden my horizons and get me interested in things I wasn’t sure I’d be interested in before or I didn’t have the confidence for.”
“I studied English, and I thought that I would join Lit Soc, but then I stumbled into the GMB accidentally. I was like, oh, no, I’m way, way, way too shy. And then the Hist just didn’t take no for an answer. I ended up spending four years of my life there, which had ups and downs. But I think it really pushed me out of my comfort zone and unexpectedly has had a payoff for my career now; for example, I write opinion articles for the Irish Independent. Having done debate speeches really helps me structure them.”
What have you taken from your Trinity experience that you still use today?
“I’m not a completely different person now than I was when I started college. The seeds were there. There were things that I wanted to do, but never thought I could do. And then I suppose going through college and coming out the other side again with that kind of confidence. Now my career is essentially: I love writing. How can I do that in as many ways as possible, and also make money? I write books, I teach creative writing, and I write articles, and I do a few other bits and pieces. I think the freedom to follow my own interests within the English degree, and build those kinds of foundational skills, has left me with that.”
“When you study English, you’re actually not really studying English; you’re studying loads of other different things: philosophy, history, and sociology. I think Trinity is good at equipping you with those foundational skills across disciplines, and you can choose how to apply them.”
“I felt safe in that. Whatever it was, I was going to make it work, and I think you can do that in Trinity.”
Is there anything you’d say to your fresher self?
“When I was getting my student card photo taken, right, I was like, look, this doesn’t matter, I’m just going to show up. But for some reason, the camera was set really far back, and for some reason, I was wearing a Game of Thrones t-shirt, so you could just see the top of a direwolf on my student card. I think about this all the time. If I could go back, I would say, wear slightly different outfits; it’ll haunt you. That’s the joke. But it’s true.”
“The deep answer is when I was around 17, 18, I was quite shy and anxious and quite regretful; I was like ‘I don’t want to do that.’ ‘What if it goes wrong?’ I got in my own way to make sure that I didn’t have to be put into an uncomfortable position. Now I’d say none of that matters. You make decisions that you make with all the information that you have and then, then you’re like, oh, no, I should have done something completely different. But you couldn’t have possibly known that at the time. You have to be kind to yourself and trust yourself — you know best right now, even if later, you might know more.”
Did student politics ever get to be too much?
“When I was involved in the Hist, the student politics of it all at times became quite a lot. Things felt almost like life or death, and none of that matters. Literally none of it. It feels like your world is ending, because in the moment it is. But in the grand scheme of things, I have forgotten everything that ever happened. But it’s not forever, so you have to kind of make the most of it while you’re there.”
Do you have any advice for Freshers in 2026?
“I also did a semester abroad in Tokyo, and that was really, really scary to do. I’d never lived abroad before, and I’d never been to Japan. At times, it was very lonely, and it wasn’t always easy, but it was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Put yourself out of your comfort zone, because you have so many opportunities in university to do things.
