‘The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices’ hits the USA and is a ‘striking anthology’ according to Publishers Weekly. You can read the full review here.
Thanks to Arts Council Northern Ireland for funding this anthology.
The Writing Life: Friendship, Travel & Creativity Across Continents
The Crescent is delighted to welcome two best-selling international authors to Belfast: Jami Attenberg (New Orleans-based author of seven books of fiction and most recently a memoir), and Cate Kennedy (Australian-based author of two short story collections, a novel, three poetry collections and a memoir). Cate and Jami will be in conversation with Northern Ireland-based writers Roise Schaap and Paul McVeigh, to share their work and discuss travel, writing experience and friendship.
Jami Attenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of seven books of fiction, including The Middlesteins and All This Could Be Yours. She has contributed essays to the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times, and The Guardian, among other publications. She lives in New Orleans.
Cate Kennedy is the author of two short story collections, a novel, three poetry collections and a memoir. Her awards include the Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize for Poetry for her collection The Taste of River Water (Scribe, 2011) and the NSW People’s Choice Award for her novel The World Beneath (Scribe 2009, published Australia, the U.S.A, the U.K, France and Hong Kong). Her short story collections are both on the Australian school syllabus as study texts. She teaches widely both in Australia and the U.S., and has just completed her PhD in Creative Writing.
Rosie Schaap is the author of Drinking with Men: A Memoir and Becoming a Sommelier. From 2011 to 2017 she was a columnist for The New York Times Magazine. Her essays appear in numerous anthologies, most recently the new edition of Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York. She teaches creative nonfiction at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the Irish Writers Centre and her next book, The Slow Road North: How I Found Peace in an Improbable Country, will be out next year. A native New Yorker, she has lived in the Glens of Antrim since 2019.
Paul McVeigh is a writer, author and performer. His novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Award and the McCrea Literary Award. He is the Editor of three anthologies, including, 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices, (Unbound), published in 2021. paulmcveighwriter.com
Date Monday 09 May 2022
Time 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Price£4
I have two festival passes for this wonderful festival for writers. Have a look at it here.
Here’s a little info –
“Across five weeks and twelve sessions, we invite you to hear from a range of inspiring speakers across the publishing and wellbeing industries. Programme highlights include a keynote by writer and activist Nikesh Shukla, sessions on writing and sustainability, joyful creativity, a publishers’ roundtable, a discussion about reading culture, a debut novelists’ roundtable, and creative writing Masterclasses with Dorothy Koomson, Vaseem Khan, Paul McVeigh and Monique Roffey.
All Being A Writer Festival ticket-holders are welcome to submit their work to the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition for the opportunity to pitch your writing to a live panel of industry judges. 2022 marks 10 years of TLC Pen Factor, and as a competition it has an impressive track record for finding talent, with many of our previous finalists going on to be published – including as a direct result of meeting their agent there! TLC Pen Factor alumni include Neema Shah, Guinevere Glasfurd, Adam Sharp, Abi Daré, Jeremy Gavins, and Lizzie Damilola Blackburn.”
If you like the sounds of it share on social media and I’ll chose on April 30th.
Good luck.
Paul x
Two Events – Leuven and Kortrijk.
The first is ‘An evening with Irish writers Sinéad Gleeson, Mike McCormack and Paul McVeigh’
Irish college Leuven, May 5th, 8pm.
The evening is a co-organised by the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies, the EFACIS Irish Itinerary programme and ‘Druk in Leuven’ (30CC). The event is free for KU Leuven students and personnel, but please register through this link.
Tickets can also be found on the Druk in Leuven website!
The second event is for students at Korkrijk campus for students only.
Hope to see some you there.
Getting your writing to the next level with Paul McVeigh
Come spend a week in Spain with me – 29 Oct – 4 Nov 2022 at the beautiful Casa Ana in the Andalucian mountains.
Here’s the blurb…
“Paul will bring his 30 years of experience as an award-winning writer, tutor, editor and competition judge to helping you raise your writing to the next level. He’ll lead group sessions each morning, dissecting texts to illustrate how to write compelling fiction, exploring techniques to better equip your writers’ toolbox, and helping you develop your writing voice. The afternoons are free for you to put new insights into practice in your writing and Paul will also offer a one-to-one session where you can discuss your writing and/or the industry. To round off the retreat there’ll be an evening where you can read your work in a supportive atmosphere, in the company of the other writers.”
If you’re interested please head over to the Casa Ana website…
Winner of The Polari First Novel Prize
‘A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.’ Donal Ryan
‘Raw, funny and endlessly entertaining’. Jonathan Coe
I’ve edited a new anthology for my German publisher, Verlag Wagenbach. It’s called ‘Ireland/Irland: A Literary Invitation‘ and it is an anthology of short works (and a little poetry) from all over Ireland – acting like a fictional travel guide. There’s new work from Darran Anderson, Jan Carson and Riley Johnston, with new and classic stories and book extracts from Kevin Barry, Evelyn Conlon, Rob Doyle, Liam O’Flaherty, Dave Lordan, Frank O’Connor, Eilis Ní Dhuibhne, Kerri Ní Dochartaigh, and a bit from The Good Son (they are my publishers, they insisted!).
There’s been a wonderful review in the German Newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’.
“…this book prepares you better for a visit to Ireland – including Northern Ireland – than most travel guides can. Because at its core it is always about attitudes on the island, about the wounds of division, the consequences of Brexit, about the effects of economic upswings and declines of recent times. It is about attachment to one’s homeland against the background of a desertification of rural areas, which one may find picturesque as a tourist. In the stories, current attitudes to life meet and create friction. Reflects the everyday life of the people – and what Ireland and Northern Ireland stand for today.” Irland. Eine literarische Einladung published by Verlag Klaus Wagenbach
I’m delighted that next up the Ulster Book Club is heading to Co. Antrim with The Good Son by meself. Crime writer Gerard Brennan will leading the discussion to discover 1980s Ardoyne in ‘this great coming of age novel’ (their words not mine lol). Wed March 30th with thanks to Irish Secretariat Belfast.
Please do join in for free.
Winner of The Polari First Novel Prize
‘A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.’ Donal Ryan
‘Raw, funny and endlessly entertaining’. Jonathan Coe
‘Following a successful UK tour in 2019, the bestselling, much-loved author and LGBT activist, Armistead Maupin is bringing his brand new show to Belfast.
Maupin has been blazing a trail through US popular culture since the 1970’s, when his iconic and ground-breaking series Tales of the Citywas first published as a column in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The novel series has been taking the literary world by storm ever since, and was recently adapted by Netflix into a critically acclaimed series, starring Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis and Elliot Page.
11am-1pm, Thursday 21st July 2022
I will be running a Masterclass on Place at the first ever Being A Writer Festival, hosted by The Literary Consultancy. #BAWFest is all about writing well, and feeling well. I’d love you to come and join me, or you can buy a Festival Pass for access to all sessions: here.
‘Prophets, Makers and Risk Takers: A Showcase of Writing from Northern Ireland’ is a 2-day festival that brings leading writers in Northern Ireland together, in person and online, to share their ideas and skills with emerging writers, and to promote the best of Northern Irish writing across the world.
I’ll be taking part in the Panel Discussion: Understanding the Industry at 12noon March 9th.
Check out the full programme here.
Winner of The Polari First Novel Prize
‘A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.’ Donal Ryan
‘Raw, funny and endlessly entertaining’. Jonathan Coe
Paul McVeigh 