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27 May, Talking Translation: International Literature Festival Dublin

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Talking Translation – Writing and Rewriting: Writers and Translators in Conversation

Brunch with guests including Paul McVeigh, Rasha Khayat, and their translators Hans-Christian Oeser and Sinead Crowe. The event will feature a discussion between the participants about their work, separately and together, providing some insight into the mysterious workings of the writer–translator relationship and their common search to give voice to contemporary fiction. Brunch will be served in a relaxed and informal setting, offering the opportunity to listen and speak to these remarkable writers and ‘rewriters’.

Organised by the French Embassy in Ireland, the German Embassy Dublin, the Goethe-Institut Irland and Literature Ireland within the framework of the French- German cultural funds.

Date Saturday, 27 May

Time 10:30AM
Venue Drury Buildings
Price €5

World Book Night: Free Books

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2000 copies of my debut novel ‘The Good Son’ are being given out all over the UK this week as part of the World Book Night 2017 celebrations. This is such an honour. And to think I volunteered giving out books on World Book Night twice, now my book gets chosen. You couldn’t make it up.

I’ve already seen books being given out in Manchester and Carlisle in colleges and libraries.


You can copies this weekend at Gays the Word in London.


You can also pick up copies in Brighton where The Good Son was the City Reads in 2016.

I’ll give out more information when I get it.

Grab your free copy!

Teaching: Cork World Book Festival April 21

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Turning a short story into a novel.

In association with Cork World Book Fest 2017

Triskel Project Space

€50 per person. Spaces limited. 11am to 4pm
Have you a short story that is crying out to be a novel?

Paul McVeigh developed one of his short stories into his award-winning debut novel ‘The Good Son’. He will share his process and give lots of feedback on your ideas.

Come prepared to work hard.

I hope to see some of you there.

Cork World Book Festival

New Interview with Lisa McInerney

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Lisa McInerney Q&A: ‘Heresies was a landscape. Miracles is a portrait’

Last night I was Lisa McInerney’s launch in Dublin. My interview with her appeared in The Irish Times yesterday – you can read it here.

Here’s a snippet…

The Blood Miracles is a follow-up to The Glorious Heresies. It was always your intention to write a trilogy.
Yeah, I think it was. It felt to me very early on like each should be part of a larger story. I had in my head that very famous hendiatris “sex, drugs, rock and roll”. “Three words, one idea” became “three novels, one broader story”. Heresies was sex, Miracles is drugs . . . which leaves me with a rousing symphonic epic to write for the closer. Each novel works on its own too, I think, so I think it will be more of a set than a trilogy.

You had this overview in mind but how much of the story did you have before you began writing The Blood Miracles?
Quite a bit, which isn’t usual for me. I knew the nuts and bolts of Miracles from the beginning, whereas with Heresies, I knew where it started and where it would end but I hadn’t a clue how I was going to get from one to the other. Miracles came together very differently. But that said, I think it’s more plot-centric than Heresies. It might show in the reading that I knew where I was going with it.

Lisa 1

Lisa McInerney last night

 

George Saunders & me on BBC Radio 3

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How Short is a Short Story?

This event was recorded at BBC 3’s Free Thinking Festival last weekend. It is a highlight of my career to share a stage with one of my writing heroes – George Saunders. You can listen to it here for the next 30 days. I also got to interview George after the event so look out for that.

As part of the festival Jenn Ashworth, Kirsty Logan and myself write some (very) short stories and you can listen to them here. The stories were commissioned by New Writing North and Word Factory.

George and me BBC 3

Here’s what BBC3 said:

George Saunders, Kirsty Logan, Jenn Asworth and Paul McVeigh discuss writing fiction short and long with presenter Matthew Sweet.
Acclaimed American short story writer George Saunders talks about travelling in time to explore Abraham Lincoln’s life during the American Civil War when the President’s beloved young son died. These historical events have inspired Saunder’s first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, whilst his short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, McSweeeney’s and GQ.


He compares notes on the art of the short story with Paul McVeigh, Jenn Ashworth and Kirsty Logan, who’ve been commissioned by New Writing North and the Word Factory to write Flash Fiction on this year’s Free Thinking Festival theme of The Speed of Life.

Kirsty Logan is the author of books including The Gracekeepers and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales and a range of short stories.

Jenn Ashworth’s books include Fell, The Friday Gospels, A Kind of Intimacy and Cold Light and a selection of short stories.

Paul McVeigh has won prizes including the Polari prize for his debut novel The Good Son. Born in Belfast he is co-founder of the London Short Story Festival, writes a blog and has represented the UK at events in Mexico and Turkey.

Recorded in front of an audience as part of Radio 3’s Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead.
The stories commissioned for the Festival are available to listen to as an Arts and Ideas podcast available for 30 days.

My New Story on BBC Radio 3 – Hurry!

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The Speed of Life – Short Stories: Jenn Ashworth, Paul McVeigh & Kirsty Logan

Stories on the theme of this year’s Free Thinking Festival, commissioned by New Writing North and Word Factory.

Last weekend I travelled to Gateshead to record a short story for BBC Radio 3 along with Jenn Ashworth and Kirsty Logan. You can listen to or download these 3 short stories (total 25mins) for the next 25 days only on BBC IPlayer here.

Later tonight you can listen to the BBC 3 event we recorded with George Saunders ‘How Short is a Short Story?’ too.

I hope you enjoy.

 

George and me BBC 3

Presenter Matthew Sweet, Jenn Ashworth, George Saunders, Kirsty Logan & Me

 

 

The House That Made Me only 97p/99c

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The House That Made Me: Writers Reflect on the Places and People That Defined Them – only 97p on kindle & 99c USA. Edited by Grant Jarrett, this anthology has an exclusive essay from me called ‘Scars’ and work from these amazing authors…
Lee Upton, Tim Johnston, Antonya Nelson, Ru Freeman, Me, Meg Tuite, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Grant Jarrett, Julie Metz, Ellen Meister, Pamela Erens, Jeffery Renard Allen, Alice Eve Cohen, Porochista Khakpour, Laura Miller, Justine Musk, Jen Michalski, Kris Radish, and Roy Kesey, all for less than a pound/dollar!
Pick one up while the promotion lasts.
The House 99c

The Good Son Reprint

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Wonderful news. The Good Son is going into its third reprint. What with the Polari Prize win, the WHSmith Fresh Talent promotion and the inclusion World Book Night in April, we had to print more books. We could put all the good news, prizes and great new endorsements on the cover, the latest being from the amazing Johnathan Coe, author 11 novels including The Rotters’ Club and What a Carve Up!. Here it is in full.

“Paul McVeigh’s debut new novel is everything its fans say it is – funny, raw, sometimes distressing, always wonderfully entertaining. The young Mickey Donnelly is a superb creation, his thoughts and feelings bubbling onto the page in an immaculately-rendered voice, droll, cheeky and authentic. McVeigh renders a child’s view of a very adult nightmare with bewitching empathy. You will love every moment of it.”

You can see the new cover here. Exciting!

3rd-rreprint-cover

The Gloss Magazine Interview

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Writer’s Block With Paul McVeigh – an interview with me in The Gloss Magazine.

I talk about The Good Son new writing projects, what I’m reading and places I’ve lived.

This is me on loving London…

“Above all, though, it was the lure of anonymity that attracted me to London. To go to a place where no-one knew you and you could be whoever you wanted to be. Who you were meant to be. Do whatever you wanted with whomever you wanted and where, marvellously, no-one gave a fiddler’s fook about you and your doings. I left London while I was still in love with it, knowing I’d always come back.”

 

New Book Cover

The Good Son: Winner of The Polari Prize
“One of the most engaging protagonists of the year” Lisa McInerney
“It’s a triumph of storytelling, an absolute gem.” Donal Ryan
“Funny, raw and endlessly entertaining.” Johnathan Coe