Daniel Gorman, director of English PEN, shares the memory of his father and Salzburg Global Fellow, Michael Gorman, who passed away in 2022.
We spoke to Daniel Gorman, Director of English PEN, during “On the Front Line: Artists at Risk, Artists Who Risk.” This program took place between March 25 and March 30, 2023. Daniel’s father, Michael Gorman, attended Salzburg Global programs in 1949 and 1950.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Christina DeNatale, Salzburg Global Communications Intern: How did your father (Michael Gorman) find out about Salzburg Global?
Daniel Gorman, Director, English PEN: He came here in 1949 and then again in 1950, which is really the early years of [Salzburg Global]. He was in university at that point, in Dublin. My understanding is that at that point, part of [Salzburg Global’s] aim was to bring together people from across a divided Europe or a postwar Europe. And although he was an engineering student in university, he was involved in the drama society, which was incredibly active at that point and really trying to push things forward. One of his friends from there was this guy called Otto Glaser, who had come to Salzburg the year before. He'd heard about it from him and decided to get an application and did, and succeeded and was accepted. He got his first passport in 1949 to come to Salzburg.
Christina: Did he reflect on his time here often?
Daniel: Definitely in later years, because he for years was trying to put together his memoir-ish from when he retired when he was 65 in Ireland, and he died last year aged 95. He had kind of a thirty-year stretch of trying to put [the memoir] together and I worked with him on doing that. And so, through that, we talked a lot about key moments in his life and one of those really formative moments, I think he would agree, was coming here to Salzburg and suddenly realizing this whole world outside of Ireland existed and the complexities of being somewhere like here. At that point just coming out of the war, coming from Ireland, which was neutral during World War II and coming into a space that I believe was in the American zone Salzburg. There was a lot of questions as to why it was happening and who was doing it and who was behind it, but I think coming here, then meeting all these incredible people and having this incredible experience, in some ways for the rest of his life, he was interested in looking at what’s outside. He left Ireland, traveled quite a lot, and went back to Ireland, but was involved in tourism, which was a kind of bringing people into Ireland and building that up. And so, I think it had a major influence on him.
Christina: Did hearing about your father’s time here while helping with his memoir inspire you to attend your first program here in 2014?
Daniel: I think that was probably when I first found out about it. It was probably around that time, and I was probably with him and [thought] “Oh, wow, that sounds pretty odd and interesting”. I looked to see if it still existed and saw that it did. I sent an email then to them because I was working broadly in the arts and human rights field and I sent an email saying that I was interested in this place and got a reply from Susie [Susanna Seidl-Fox, former program director at Salzburg Global], who said “I’ll keep you in mind”. I think quite soon after was the 2014 session, which I was invited to, which was completely amazing. And I was here again in 2017.
Christina: Why did you decide to come back a third time to attend this session?
Daniel: My work over the last 15 years has been in collaboration with artists in times of risk. This session is right at the nub of that. It's complex and it's brilliant, but it feels like having that space to really talk out some of these issues when we're constantly at the coalface having to deal with them or not having the space to step back and look at what we're dealing with and look at the power structures that are at play, etc. I wanted to have that moment and so I was really honored to be asked and really grateful to come and when I saw the participants’ list, it’s just phenomenal people here and many artists, which is really key. I suppose the double vote, having already accepted, but then having seen who's going to be here, I was even more excited.
Christina: Do you feel like you are carrying on your dad’s legacy in a way by being a Fellow here? Does it feel like a way to connect with him?
Daniel: Yeah, I suppose I do, which I hadn't necessarily realized. When I arrived, I really felt his presence and I felt a wave of grief that took a while to get through, but that's quite a powerful thing too. He's been in this space, and this is a very unusual space with a lot of heavy resonances. It's quite a special thing to have and to know that there are these shared overlaps in time and space.
Christina: Is there anything else you think we should know about your dad?
Daniel: He was always an internationalist. He was always open to new ideas, new thoughts, and new ways of thinking and being. Having his eyes open to other ways of thinking. I think being here played a role in that in some way. But the fact that he even wanted to come here shows that he was already primed for that, he had his eyes on the horizon. He was always open to having conversations with new people and other people. I think this would have been a major part of that… He always had a curiosity. I'm sure being here helped him to scratch that itch of being curious and meeting people from all over the place and spending time together.
