The books have been read, the deliberations have concluded and a shortlist has been made and sent to Listowel Writers’ Week for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year award that I’m judging this year with Carol Drinkwater. The news will be out soon.
If you’re interested, I’m teaching a novel course for West Cork Literary Festival.
The wonderful George Saunders gave the story ‘Liberation Day’ free to download to those on his mailing list and said to share it – so here you go! Lucky us.
“Paul McVeigh has the rare gift of making optimism seem reasonable and an even greater gift for portraying characters who find value in their own lives and in their commitment to each other.”
A wonderful review of ‘I Hear You’ over at Bookmunch. Getting reviews is always nerve-wrecking and such a relief and then joyful when it’s a review like this.
“McVeigh has an enviable ability to create an immediately recognisable character from a quick glance and drawing out the relationships of disparate characters from the common situations that has shaped them. While each individual story can seem like a sketch, there is an overarching plot as the events of the talent competition unravel some relationships and force others into the open. Linking the stories further, there is the common theme: the ability to create one’s own family out of friendship when their own families let them down. No-one will close I Hear You without the life-affirming feeling that there are possibilities in every life.”
You can read there whole review here.
I’m honoured to be attending the Short Forms in the Global Literary Marketplace Symposium on April 7.
The event is at the Queen Mary University of London, Mile Ed Campus, 2.45 – 4.05.
Panel 4 – The literary marketplace (chair: Rehana Ahmed)
I’ll be joining…
Can’t wait to return to Cork World Book Festival.
Spoken Stories is a themed-led trilogy of 36 original stories. Commissioned from some of the most dynamic contemporary writers associated with Ireland and the short story, they navigate the imaginative breadth of what it is to be alive in the world in our time. Tonight’s gathering of tales will be told by Nuala O’Connor, Paul McVeigh and Cork’s own Colm Ó Ceallachain, ably hosted by the brilliant RTÉ culture and arts producer and editor Clíodhna Ní Anluain.
Wow. Very grateful to Neil Hegarty for his lovely remarks about ‘I Hear You’ last night on RTÉ One Arena choosing them as great examples of radio writing leading Tristan Rosenstock to say ‘sounds like the collection is a manual for entering the Francis McManus Award.’. You can listen here.
You can enter the competition here.
You can buy your copy of ‘I hear You’ here.
Delighted to be returning to West Cork Literature Festival this year. I’ll be running the course below.
This workshop will run from Wednesday 16 to Friday 18 July, from 9.30am to 2.30pm each day with two breaks built into the day.
Join award-winning novelist Paul McVeigh for a three-day novel writing workshop. Over the three days we will explore the elements needed to write a novel that hooks a reader; looking at how to create characters that capture us, the use of dialogue, how to master emotion on the page, the importance of plotting and how to make your setting more than a passive backdrop to your story.
You will also find out what every debut novelist needs to know about the industry and what do you do when you’re novel is finished. This is for writers at all levels; with talks, writing exercises and lots of Q&A time.
Max: 15 participants
Location:
Saint Finbarr’s Boys National School
Seskin, Bantry, Co. Cork
P75 NY51
Admission: €230
Winner of The Polari First Novel Prize
‘A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.’ Donal Ryan
‘Raw, funny and endlessly entertaining’. Jonathan Coe
‘I Hear You’- Live Readings – Paul McVeigh
The Deer’s Head
Monday 5th May, 7.00pm
Doors 6.30pm
£9.00 / £7.00 Concession BUY TICKETS
Join us as we bring Paul McVeigh’s BBC Radio 4 short story collection, I Hear You, to life on stage. The collection features three standalone stories alongside The Circus—a ten-part series set in Cliftonville Circus, North Belfast, where ten unique voices take centre stage.
In this one-of-a-kind fusion of literature, radio, and theatre, acclaimed actors Tony Flynn (Big Man, Blue Lights), Michael Condron (Coronation Street, Say Nothing), and Abigail McGibbon (Ballywalter, Blue Lights) will perform their radio-recorded stories live, immersing you in the world of The Circus.
And for the first time, Paul McVeigh himself will take the stage to share the inspirations behind his stories.
Paul’s short stories have been in anthologies, journals and newspapers, read on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 5, RTE Radio, as well as Sky ARTS. His ten-part short story series, The Circus, aired on BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Foyle and BBC Radio 4. He co-founded London Short Story Festival and has edited three anthologies. His collection, I hear You, was published in March 2025. His debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrae Literary Award and his writing has been translated into eight languages.
Tickets also available from:
Visit Belfast | 028 9024 6609
9 Donegall Square North – Open 7 days a Week
Thank you to novelist Neil Hegarty, for this lovely review of, I Hear You, in the Irish Times.
“My mind found an old shoebox full of memories, and as I opened it, the moths of the past flew out”: in The Singer, one of the short stories in Paul McVeigh’s vivid and memorable new collection, we meet a nameless female protagonist as she sifts through the stuff of her life. The scene is an ordinary family home in north Belfast – but as each of these stories reminds us, there is no such thing as an ordinary family or home. Rather, each family, home, life is invariably extraordinary, in myriad ways – and all we need do to see this is to pay attention.
The Singer is a story of sibling rivalry, envy, tension – and to add further to such pleasures, this is also a complex retelling of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The protagonist’s sister (and indeed, her name is Jane) has always been the favourite one, the talented one, the one who triumphed at the local talent competition three years running – though also the one who even as a child liked to take nips from the bottle of cooking brandy in the kitchen cupboard. The other sister has gone off and earned a degree, has been good, has carved out a sensible place in the world – has been thoroughly eclipsed: but now she teeters on the edge of something remarkable, of a longed-for switch in life; and to add to her satisfaction, Jane has taken to calling from London, looking for money. There is sleekness in the telling, there is satisfaction in the glimpse of a happy ending – and best of all, this happy ending will not be for everyone.
The Singer is one element in The Circus, a sequence of linked stories that shows us a multifaceted society, and provides a much-needed corrective to the version of north Belfast glimpsed from time to time in the television news. Each story was originally written for radio, and this genesis explains the collection’s depth of colour and vividness of voice. And its variety: Paul McVeigh’s writing has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to working-class and queer representation, and this sustained energy flows through this collection, to illuminating effect – for this is a world of change, of openness, of the drunkenness of things being various.“
Read here.
Buy here.
“..in this collection, voice is of paramount importance. Each story is told from the point of view of a different character and they vary in age, sex and sexuality, from schoolgirls to drag queens, cleaners to abused wives and even a character peaking in English as their second language. McVeigh differentiates his characters with ease and skill, using language, style and structure to make each voice individual, distinctive and ultimately believable.”
Thanks to Cathy Brown for this lovely review of ‘I Hear You’ and The Good Son gets a great mention too.
Paul McVeigh 