I wrote about the books I’ll be giving and hoping to get this Xmas over in The Irish Times if you fancy having a look.
What are yours?
Literary journal Reading Ireland is a shining a spotlight on me in its next issue and is available to subscribers December 2018. Looking forward to seeing it, to find out about all these wonderful writing neighbours but mostly to see what they’ve written about ME! I love a spotlight from back in my theatre days 😉
To subscribe to Reading Ireland visit www.readingireland.net.
I’ll be speaking and teaching at Stockholm Writers Festival next year. You can check out the schedule here.
I’ll be heading over to India to speak at Jaipur Book Mark before attending ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival in January. Looking forward to working with Namita Ghokhale again.
Thanks to Arts Council Northern Ireland for their support with this trip.
I’m excited to interview Man Booker Prize Winner Anne Enright for the second time, this time on home turf. The first time was in Waterstones Piccadilly for Word Factory earlier this year. We also sat on some panels together whilst at a literature festival in Morges, Switzerland.
Next February 9th, I’ll be interviewing her at the Seamus Heaney Homeplace, here’s the blurb…
‘Booker Prize-winning novelist Anne Enright is one of the most celebrated writers working in Ireland today. Her work is part of a great tradition of Irish writing that explores themes of family life, relationships, love, repression and memory.
Enright won the 2007 Booker Prize for her novel The Gathering, a story about the pull of family and the lure of home. Her first novel was The Wig My Father Wore and subsequent works have included What Are You Like?, The Forgotten Waltz and her most recent The Green Road. Her awards also include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Encore Award and the Irish Novel of the Year.
From 2015 to 2018 she was the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction and we are delighted to welcome her to The Helicon where she will talk about her work and career with Paul McVeigh.’
Come along, it should be a wonderful night.
The short story podcasts inspired by the border in Ireland and the WW1 centenary are now available to listen to online. They feature new writing by me, Garrett Carr, Claire Louise Bennett, Nuala O’ Connor and Women’s Fiction Prize-winner Kamila Shamsie.
The stories were commissioned by Verbal Arts and 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary.
You can listen to the stories here.
The Art of Border Living Short Story
A unique listen-in-the-dark experience launching short story podcasts inspired by the border in Ireland, which feature new writing by Kamila Shamsie, Claire Louise Bennett, Nuala O’ Connor, Paul McVeigh and Garrett Carr, commissioned by Verbal and 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary.
The evening will also feature a new creative audio documentary about the impact of WW1 on what would soon become the borderlands of Ireland, produced by the award-winning broadcaster Peter Curran.
Actor Eleanor Methven will read a selection of acclaimed Irish poetry on these themes throughout the evening, before a Q&A with some of the artists and writers including Garrett Carr, Nuala O’Connor and Paul McVeigh.
The Allingham Arts Festival. Nov 7- 11, Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal
“The Allingham Arts Festival is a community arts festival which takes place in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, each November, in honour of the poet William Allingham.
This year’s events include a tribute to poet Francis Harvey, the Donegal Youth Orchestra, ‘Black 47’ + Q&A, a WWI Remembrance Day performance, Wild Atlantic Writers with Jessica Traynor, a social media workshop for writers with Paul Mc Veigh, and much more.”
I’ll be teaching a workshop on social media on Saturday morning and attending the literary lunch to give out the flash fiction prize I judged. Here’s the info on the class…
Author Paul McVeigh will lead a workshop on Social Media for Writers and Artists. The workshop will explore the ways that a creative individual can use social media to find work and to build an online presence as a writer. Paul’s blog for writers (http://paulmcveigh.blogspot.com), which posts submission opportunities for journals and competitions, gets 40,000 hits a month and has had over one million visitors.
Born in Belfast, Paul McVeigh began his award-winning writing career as a playwright before moving to London. He is the Co-Founder of London Short Story Festival, of which, he was the Director and Curator for 2014 & ’15. He is Associate Director at Word Factory, the UK’s premier short story salon.
The Good Son (2015) is his first novel and was shortlisted for The Guardian’s ‘Not The Booker’ Prize. He received The McCrea Literary Award in 2015 and the Polari Prize in 2016.
Paul McVeigh’s workshop will be held in the Abbey Centre on Saturday morning, 10 Nov at 10:00 am.
I spent the weekend at John O’Connor Writing School in Armagh. I taught a class on Saturday that was so packed I had to stand up to give a student my seat!
Paul Muldoon and Horslips
I also appeared at one of the world famous Muldoon’s Picnic’s, curated and hosted by poet Paul Muldoon, poetry editor of the New Yorker. There was music by Horslips, poetry from Maureen Boyle, Mark Doty and Peter Fallon, and fiction from Lisa McInerney.
Me reading from The Good Son
I really enjoyed listening to the poetry and Lisa’s extract from her WIP, which she debuted at the event I ran in Brooks Hotel recently, and it was phenomenal. I cannot wait to read it.
Lisa McInerney
Horslips provided music throughout and called Lisa Lambe onto the stage and she was joined by Gareth Dunlop (they’d done a packed-out gig the night before). They were fantastic. Lisa and I became fast friends and fans and are sending each other our work.
Lisa Lambe and Gareth Dunlop
I bumped into one of the smartest men in Ireland, Fintan O’Toole – we’ve met in Belfast and Cork before – and we’re both working on pieces about Brexit which he’s going to send to me because I missed his talk.
All-in-all a great time at the John O’Connor Writing School.
Check it out next year!
I’m grateful to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their continued support of my writing by awarding me a grant under their individual Artists Programme.
I’ve been lucky to have been helped by ACNI for a number of years now, including travel grants to Asia and Australia.
I’ll use the money to devote time to work on my second novel.
Paul McVeigh 