With Pulitzer Prize-winner Andrew Sean Greer, Anjum Hassan, Jayant Kaikini and Mahesh Roa.
Here is an hour-long video of an event at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2019.
Jayant Kaikini and me at Jaipur Literature Festival
I’ll be teaching at Writers’ Day at Salisbury Literature Festival on Oct 20th.
“This year the Writers’ Day offers six fantastic sessions. In the morning, award winning novelist, Paul McVeigh (The Good Son) kicks things off looking at the killer first chapter, focusing on that crucial story opening and what agents, competition judges and journal editors look for. Yvonne Battle-Felton, Creative Writing Lecturer, and author of Remembered (longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction) then leads a session on characterisation. The morning events conclude with a session on description and the senses with Susmita Bhattacharya (prize-winning author of Table Manners.)
After lunch, the afternoon begins with a session on editing with Helen Corner-Bryant, the director of transatlantic literary consultancy Cornerstones and the author of On Editing. We then welcome literary agents Amy Fitzgerald (Blair Partnership) and Charlie Campbell (Kingsford Campbell) who will discuss the submission process and tips on finding the right agent. Concluding the Writers’ Day sessions, we are given an insight into the publishing process as we are joined by John Bond (Director of Whitefox) and Tariq Goddard (Publisher of Repeater Books.)”
Hope to see some of you there.
Chris Power, Namita Gokhale and Navtej Sarna in conversation with Paul McVeigh. This episode is a live session from JLF London at The British Library, June 19, 2019.
I hope you enjoy this conversation about the short story.
You can read my latest short story, The Swimmers, in Faber’s ‘Being Various’ Anthology of Irish Short Stories.
‘A very impressive tale from a writer I always enjoy reading – a powerful and gripping story’ Storgy
I’ll be reading at the Embassy of Ireland in London tonight, launching the new Faber anthology alongside Bailey’s Prize winner Eimear McBride, Lucy Caldwell, and Kit de Waal.
Meanwhile…
Storgy Review of ‘Being Various’ Anthology includes a review of my story ‘The Swimmers’.
“Paul McVeigh – The Swimmers – McVeigh delivers a broiling tale which as I was reading gave me a very unsettling vibe. There is something hidden deep within the prose that was disturbing to read and digest, something lurking in the periphery of the story that isn’t uttered but lurks there with a malignant intent. An unspoken secret (possible abuse) sewn delicately throughout the story – but at the heart of the story there is an innocence too, a childlike purity which McVeigh captures mesmerically, the innocence punctuates the story masterfully, blending perfectly with the underlying deep and dark themes that are deftly sewn into the fabric of the story. The Swimmers is about a son who wants to impress his Da, wants his Da to love him for who he is and what he is. He wants to do anything and everything he can to impress him, to spend time with him, to keep swimming with him. No matter the cost, the hurt or the trouble. A very impressive tale from a writer I always enjoy reading – a powerful and gripping story which unsettles the reader…and what a joy it is to be unsettled from time-to-time.”
Thanks 🙂
“Launch of the Jaipur Literature Festival which takes place in Belfast between 21 to 23 June. An opportunity to hear some of the most renowned authors and cultural commentators from India, Ireland the UK and beyond, coming together to share stories and discuss topical themes. Interviews with Writer Paul McVeigh, Arts Council NI Nóirín McKinney and Chef Asma Khan.”
You can hear me talk on NVTV about the Jaipur Literature Festival and that they are bringing their newest satellite version in Belfast which I’m involved with. The segment starts about 17 mins in.
For more on JLF Belfast.
Me with Asma Khan of “Chef’s Table’ on Netflix
‘Belfast author Paul McVeigh is involved in organising this month’s inaugural Jaipur Literature Festival Belfast.’
You can read a Q&A with me here, about fantasy wedding music to favourite films.
‘We invited Salt authors Alison Moore and Paul McVeigh to discuss how they managed writing life post-publication.’
I’ve met Alison a number of times over the last few years and she is one of the loveliest people you could meet. It was amazing then that we ended up with the same publisher. Salt asked us to have a chat about ‘finding the balance’.
You can read the conversation on Salt’s website here.
Have an idea for a novel and don’t know where to start? Have you finished your novel and want to make sure you get the attention of agents, editors and publishers? This course will help you write a gripping first chapter that avoids the rejection pile.
With lots of no-nonsense advice and practical exercises, this course sold out in London and internationally. Felicity Yap came to the class and her novel Yesterday sold for six figures just two weeks later.
Paul’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 de Roman Cezam in France. The novel was chosen for Brighton’s City Reads and given out around the UK as part of World Book Day. He has written for radio, stage, and television and regularly for The Irish Times. His writing has been translated into seven languages.
Here’s an excellent piece from Lisa Frank of Doire Press in Irish Times Culture on the new anthology we edited called ‘Belfast Stories’.
You can come to the launch at Belfast Book Festival this Sunday 5pm at Crescent Arts Centre.
Well, this is a corker.
Do fiction writers have a responsibility to engage with politics? The line between fiction and nonfiction is constantly blurred, especially in the post-truth climate of today. Fiction reflects the world around us, and the world around us at this particular moment in time is in crisis: politically, socially and culturally.
And so, in this tumultuous political climate, this panel will raise, and attempt to answer questions such as, whether fiction writers hold a responsibility to engage with and write about politics?; whether fiction can affect politics?; and whether all fiction is political?
Making up stories is an inherently political act, but that doesn’t mean that the stories are about politics. Does fiction have the ability to change minds? Come and enter into the conversation with these four writers as they discuss and shed light upon a question of pressing importance.
Hope to see some of you there.
Paul McVeigh 