Who will win the €20,000 prize for The Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year? I’m traveling down tomorrow to Listowel Writers’ Week to help present the prize I co-judged this year.
The shortlist for the 2025 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award is: Christine Dwyer Hickey – Our London Lives (Atlantic Books, 2024) Joseph O’Connor – The Ghosts of Rome (Harvill Secker, 2025) Colm Tóibín – Long Island (Picador and Pan Macmillan, 2024) Niall Williams – Time of the Child (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024) Donal Ryan – Heart, Be At Peace (Penguin Random House, 2024)
For prose writers of all levels, this workshop with award-winning author Paul McVeigh will help you to read your work aloud with confidence.
From breathing to bodily awareness, from pacing your work to using the microphone, you’ll receive support and feedback in a friendly environment.
The workshop is split into two parts: you’ll learn techniques for reading aloud – then practice performing on-stage.
Please bring a writing excerpt (ideally your own work) no more than three-minutes long. With Paul’s guidance, you’ll learn how to handle nerves, deliver a great story and connect with your audience.
Paul McVeigh’s short stories have been publlished in numerous anthologies, journals and newspapers, and read on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 5, RTÉ Radio and Sky Arts. His ten-part short story series, The Circus, aired on BBC Radio 4 in 2023. He co-founded the London Short Story Festival and was Associate Director of The Word Factory. Paul has edited three short story anthologies and guest edited Southword Journal. Paul has judged numerous international literary prizes and was acting Head of Literature for Arts Council NI. Paul’s debut novel, The Good Son, won The McCrea Literary Award and the Polari First Book Prize and his writing has been translated into eight languages.
Price: Pay What You Decide – Recommended Price £12.50
Written with Paul McVeigh’s characteristic flair and Belfast wit, I Hear You (Salt, 2025) is a vibrant collection of short stories from the award-winning author of The Good Son.
Specially written for BBC Radio 4, the stories include a ten-part sequence set around Cliftonville Circus, where five roads meet in North Belfast and the old clashes with the new on diversity, social class, acceptance and change.
Paul will discuss his home city, Belfast, and how it has changed through his work; from Troubles era Ardoyne of The Good Son, post-lockdown north of the city in I Hear You and where its modern diversitycan clash with the lingering past in his play Big Man. During the evening Actor Tony Flynn will also give readings from Paul’s work.
Join Paul in conversation with writer Cathy Galvin, founder of the short story organisation The Word Factory and The Sunday Times Short Story Award.
How does writing for radio differ from writing for the page, stage or screen? Discover how to write and pitch audio at this informative session with RTÉ radio producer and book editor Clíodhna Ní Anluain, BBC audio producerMichael Shannon and Belfast writer Paul McVeigh, author of I Hear You, a dazzling collection of stories written especially for BBC Radio 4.
Congratulations to all those involved with ‘Blue Lights’ especially Abigail McGibbon and Tony Flynn who read out stories from ‘I hear You’ last week. Wonderful to see.
Over-the-moon that two critics, Robin Elliot (NVTV) and Jane Hard (Irish News), gave the one-off event at Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival with actors Micheal Condron, Abi McGibbon and Tony Flynn, 4 1/2 stars out of 5. They also had huge praise for my play ‘Big Man’ calling it ‘superb’.
Stories That Stay with Paul McVeigh, Andrew Meehan & Carol Drinkwater
Date: 29 May 2025
Venue: St John’s Theatre & Arts Centre
Join Paul McVeigh and Andrew Meehan as they discuss their latest works with Carol Drinkwater. The power of storytelling, their diverse genres, and everything from dark humour and deep emotion to gripping tales of mystery and personal discovery will be explored by the trio. Paul McVeigh’s I Hear You is a collection of short stories, written especially for BBC Radio 4. The moving short stories are brave, honest, raw and funny and feature the ten-part sequence: ‘The Circus’, set around Cliftonville Circus, where five roads meet in North Belfast. Andrew Meehan’s much-anticipated Best Friends explores the depth of a relationship between two friends and the complexities of their bond in a world full of uncertainty. Carol Drinkwater, known for her evocative memoirs and fiction, will share insights from her new book, Summer in Provence which will be published in July.
The Best of Everything: Kit de Waal in conversation with Paul McVeigh.
Award-winning writer Kit de Waal in conversation with Paul McVeigh on her latest novel The Best of Everything which is released this month, April 2025.
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted for television by the BBC. It is now on the GCSE curriculum for schools.
Paul McVeigh’s short stories have been in anthologies, journals and newspapers, and read on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 5, RTE Radio, as well as Sky ARTS. He co-founded London Short Story Festival and has edited three anthologies.
Beautiful, Wilful & Adrift: Kathleen Murray and Lisa Harding. In conversation with Paul McVeigh.
If John Irving had been born in Carlow, he would have written The Deadwood Encore by Kathleen Murray. There are similarities in Murray’s tragicomedy, her colourful players, her celebration of the heroism involved in fraternal love. There’s so much here to delight in–fizzing dialogue, offbeat characters, flights of fancy and mad escapades… Kathleen has the guts to take on what’s miraculous and eerie, and spins Frank’s story shrewdly, irreverently, and fondly. A brilliant debut.’
‘Gothic and gloriously entertaining, Lisa Harding’s third novel arrives to fill the Secret History-shaped hole in your lives. Wilde is an elite university in Dublin, full of bright young people who talk about poetry and arthouse cinema, act in plays and have turbulent affairs. Jessica and Linda, friends since childhood, are immediately swept up by the glamour and romance. But then Linda meets Mark, a darkly enigmatic figure, and soon tragedy strikes.’ (The Guardian)
Paul McVeigh 