9 May 2019
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
‘What Stefanie Preissner captures so beautifully is that our value and worth are not tied to being agreeable and saying yes to everything that’s asked of us. As she shows, we’ll be much more likely to succeed on our own terms when we set boundaries and clear priorities.’ –Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive Global
Book title: Can I Say No? One Woman’s Battle with a small word
Publisher: Hachette Ireland
‘No’ is the first thing I ever said. It was actually the only thing I said in my first speaking months. Like most children, I was born with an innate ability to set boundaries for myself. ‘No.’ ‘Mine.’ I intuitively knew how to practise self-care and self-preservation. Then, at some point, just like my ability to shuffle across the floor on my butt, I forgot how to say no…
Above: Preissner was Cork Person of the Month in August 2017
Traumatic childhood sleepovers, stressful social occasions, unrealistic demands at work, unwanted second dates and endless offers of cake, in her memoir, award-winning writer Stefanie Preissner leaves no NO unexplored. From the issue of consent, and what happens when a whole country comes together to say Yes, Can I Say NO? is one woman’s honest and hilarious take on how re-learning one small word can pave the way to saying YES to who you really are.
Stefanie Preissner, Munich-born but Mallow-raised, is the creator of hit comedy-drama series Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope. The show was originally commissioned by RTÉ but since then both seasons have been broadcast on BBC and on Netflix.
Why Can’t Everything Just Stay the Same?, her first book (published in 2017), was an Irish bestseller and nominated for an Irish Book Award. Stefanie has also produced a series of short documentaries, How To Adult, with RTÉ Player.
Her one-woman theatre show, Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend, enjoyed sell-out runs in Dublin before touring internationally to Bucharest, Edinburgh and Australia, and – as a radio play – it became RTÉ’s most downloaded podcast.
Stefanie graduated from University College Cork with a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies and Spanish. Alongside her career as a screenwriter and playwright, she has won several awards as an actor. She is a regular contributor to Ireland’s Sunday Independent newspaper and her voice is well-recognised from her prolific voiceover career.
She is currently working more projects than she can cope with due to her ongoing battle with people pleasing. She lives in Dublin and on Instagram @stefaniepreissner
