Armagh

Kit de Waal in Conversation with Paul McVeigh

The Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre

Monday 22 July | 1.30pm | £10

03300561025

Fiction

Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up in a household of opposites and extremes among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s The best-selling author of novels, short stories, anthologies, and radio dramas, 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.

Her second novel, The Trick to Time, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. A prolific writer, she has also published an anthology of working-class memoir, Common People (2019), crowdfunded and edited by Kit, a collection of short stories, Supporting Cast (2020), and a memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes (2022). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her new novel Best of Everything will be released in April 2025. kitdewaal.com/

Paul McVeigh is the acclaimed author of the novel, The Good Son. A Co-founder of the London Short Story Festival, his 2023 play, Big Man, premiered at the Lyric Theatre Belfast. paulmcveighwriter.com/

BOOK NOW

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!

Paul McVeigh

The Good Son & I Hear You

In Conversation w/ Kit de Wall

Muldoon’s Picnic