Author: Paul McVeigh Writer

27 Mar, Mairtín Crawford Award: Preparing Short Stories For Submission (Online)

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Date Saturday 27 March 2021

Time 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Price Free. Book NowMairtín Crawford Award: Preparing Short Stories for Submission

workshop

Join 2021 Short Story Judges Lucy Caldwell and Paul McVeigh in a lively conversation about submitting your work to Awards. Lucy and Paul will speak about their own experience of Awards – as writers and judges; the specificities of the Mairtín Crawford Award and practical approaches to assembling and presenting work for Submission. 

Lucy and Paul will be in conversation for about 45 minutes, then spend 30 minutes responding to your questions.

Please note that questions must be submitted in advance. To submit a question please email BBFSubmissions@CrescentArts.org by 5pm on Wednesday 24th March. Please include in the email that the question is for the Short Story Workshop. 

Can’t make the 27th? This workshop will be recorded and available to stream online afterwards. 

This event is free to attend and registration is essential. 

Lucy Caldwell is the author of four novels, including the forthcoming These Days (Faber, Spring 2022), two short story collections, including Intimacies, out this May, and several stage plays and radio dramas. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright, a Fiction Uncovered Award and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. In 2019, she edited Being Various, the latest volume in the ongoing Faber series of New Irish Short Stories.

Paul McVeigh‘s debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Award and was shortlisted for many others including the Prix du Roman Cezam in France. His short stories have appeared in Faber’s Being Various, Kit de Waal’s Common People, The Art of the Glimpse and have been read on Radio 4 and Sky Arts. He is associate director of Word Factory ‘the national organisation for excellence in the short story’ The Guardian, and he co-founded London Short Story Festival. Paul has edited Belfast Stories, Queer Love: Anthology of Irish Fiction and The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices.

I’m Judging Mairtin Crawford Short Story Award

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The Mairtin Crawford Awards for Poetry and Short Story 2021 open now.

This year marks the fifth year of the Poetry Year and the fourth year of for the Short Story Award.

The Awards are aimed at writers working towards their first full collection of poetry, short stories, or a novel. Both published and unpublished writers are invited to submit between 3-5 poems for the poetry award, and a short story of up to 2,500 words for the short story award, with the only stipulation being that they have not yet published a full collection of poetry, short stories, or a novel.

The closing date for work is midnight on Sunday 2nd May 2021 (GMT).

For more information about submitting your work click here.

The Winners of each Award will receive a Cash Prize of £1,000 and a 5-night stay at The River Mill Writing Retreat.

The 2 Runners Up for each Award will receive a cash prize of £250.

We are delighted to announce that the judges of the 2021 Mairtín Crawford Award are Lucy Caldwell (Chair – Short Story) and Moyra Donaldson (Chair – Poetry). Guest judges Annemarie Ní Churreáin and me.

Click here for more information about the judges.

More Queer Love – Books Ireland Review

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“Ireland is more than one voice and in Queer Love, edited by Paul McVeigh, we see more than one Ireland. Love is a beautiful thing—especially in the hands of familiar writers like John Boyne, Emma Donoghue and Colm Tóbín—but in this anthology of short stories are new writers and new voices; it’s this combination which lends the collection its charm. Paul McVeigh steers the collection through our history, from a time of secrecy to the new freedoms of growing up gay in an era of the Yes vote.”

Delighted with this review in Books Ireland and you can it read it in full here.

You can buy the book here.

23 March, Royal Society of Literature & Arts Council NI Writers Day

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Join the Royal Society of Literature and Arts Council Northern Ireland for a day of activity, shining a spotlight on the outstanding writers and writing of Northern Ireland, hosted by award-winning writer Paul McVeigh. A seminar, workshop, and panel discussion aim to inspire you to revisit and recommend your most loved Northern Irish writers.

1 – 2pm, Poetry Workshop with Daljit Nagra
At lunchtime, award-winning poet and Chair of the RSL, Daljit Nagra (pictured), delivers a free hour-long workshop designed to reinvigorate your poetic voice. Open to all, whether you’ve recently started writing or are regularly performing work, Daljit’s writing exercises and infectious energy will encourage you to experiment with form and imagination. BOOK NOW

3pm, In Conversation with Paul McVeigh and Molly Rosenberg 
Director of the RSL Molly Rosenberg and Paul McVeigh (pictured) discuss the RSL Open programme and answer your questions about what RSL Fellowship means, why a community of writers is important, and how to recommend a writer to the programme.
BOOK NOW

6.30pm, Panel Discussion with Paul McVeigh, Wendy Erskine, Glenn Patterson, Shannon Yee and Daljit Nagra
We celebrate some of the finest Northern Irish writers working across form and genre today. Short-story writer Wendy Erskine (pictured), novelist Glenn Patterson, playwright Shannon Yee and poet and Chair of the RSL Daljit Nagra, will discuss their work, routes into writing and the Northern Irish literary scene. BOOK NOW

‘Queer Love’ Reviewed in The Irish Times

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‘Queer Love’ Reviewed in The Irish Times

The Queer Love anthology ‘demonstrates why queer writers excel at writing’ according to poet/professor Sean Hewitt in The Irish Times.

Queer Love seeks to go some way to redress the lack of acknowledgement of the LGBTQI+ community in Irish literary anthologies, with a mixture of established writers of international standing, writers who have been making a splash in recent years and new emerging writers. The anthology has a mixture of previously published stories, newly commissioned work and those entered through our call out. Featuring stories by John Boyne, Emma Donoghue, Mary Dorcey, Neil Hegarty, James Hudson, Emer Lyons, Jamie O’Connell, Colm Tóibín, Declan Toohey, and Shannon Yee.

You can buy it here.

Queer Love Anthology in Irish Times

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 “Let’s fill those bookshelves in homes, libraries, and shops with more and more stories of us.”  Click to read the article.

Thanks to Martin Doyle for spreading the word about the ‘Queer Love’ anthology by Southword Editons (Southword Literary Journal / Munster Literature Centre) edited by me. This is an extended version of the foreword with contributions from Shannon Yee and Neil Hegarty. Thanks to the other contributors to the anthology John Boyne, Emma Donoghue, Mary Dorcey, James Hudson, Emer Lyons, Jamie O’Connell, Colm Toibin & Declan Toohey.

Buy here

Reading and Q&A for Uni of Worcester

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by University of Worcester Creative Writing Course

Join us to hear Paul McVeigh read from his novel ‘The Good Son’ and take part in a Q&A about his writing career and creative practice.

7.30 pm

16th February 2021

Free

Register to get sent an online link before the event.

This event is hosted by the Creative Writing course at the University of Worcester.

It is free to attend: designed to enable students, staff and members of the public to access authors reading their work and talking about their creative practice & writing careers.

Please register and you will then be sent the link before the event.

For more information please contact Ruth Stacey: r.stacey@worc.ac.uk

and follow us on Twitter to find out about future events: @uowriting


The Good Son: Won The Polari Prize & The McCrea Literary Award

“The Good Son is a work of genius from a splendid writer.”

Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler

“A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.” Donal Ryan

Praise for The Good Son:

“The Good Son gave us one of the most engaging protagonists of the year in Mickey Donnelly, who occupies a space between whimsy and horror in Troubles-era Belfast.” Bailey’s Prize-winner Lisa McInerney Top Reads of 2015 The Irish Independent

“When I think of exceptional working-class novels from the last few years, I inevitably think of Kit de Waal’s My Name Is Leon and Paul McVeigh’s The Good Son.” The Observer

“Paul McVeigh has written a first novel of beautiful generosity, poignant in the delicate manner in which he evokes the brutality of an era. A striking fresco, mixing historical upheavals and hardships of a family shattered.” Le Monde

“Blackly hilarious (with) one of the most endearing and charming characters I’ve come across in a long time.” ELLE Magazine Best of 2015

The 32 Has a Cover!

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We’ve taken a big step on the way to publication – The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices has a cover! We hope you like it.

Our publisher Unbound will close the supporters’ list on Sunday, 7 February, which will be the last opportunity for you get your name in the back of the book. So if you’d like to have your name as a supporter of this historic book please head over and buy your book before Feb 7.

Contributors: Claire Allan, Kevin Barry, Dermot Bolger , June Caldwell, Martin Doyle, Roddy Doyle, Rosaleen McDonagh, Lyra McKee, Lisa McInerney, Dave Lordan, Danielle McLaughlin, Eoin McNamee, Michael Nolan, Senator Lynn Ruane, Rick O’Shea and Dr Michael Pierse.