Delighted to be appearing at the Cork World Book Fest again this year. More news to follow… save the date!
interview
Interview w/ BBC National Short Story Award
On the day of the ceremony on BBC Radio 4 Front Row I go behind the scenes of the BBC National Short Story Award with one of its founders and BBC Radio Books Editor Di Speirs. Find out all you need to know about the judging process in Irish Times Culture.
“Over the last few years I’ve worked with a number of literary awards and prizes, and it’s been an education. The behind-the-scenes processes have varied quite significantly. To illustrate with one example; for the £30,000 International Dylan Thomas Prize we read the longlist of twelve books then re-read our chosen shortlist of six, for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize we didn’t read the longlist only the five collections on the shortlist, for the Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Prize I was the only judge and reader, tackling around 750 short stories.
This year I was asked to be an ambassador for the BBC National Short Story Award. I first worked with the award a few years back for an event at the London Short Story Festival, which I co-founded and programmed. Now in its 13th year, the award has become a landmark on the short story landscape in the UK and internationally. I have long been a fan of their excellent website, for podcasts and recordings of previous winners and specially commissioned short stories from the best writers in the form. On that note, a little known astonishing fact, BBC Radio 4 is the world’s biggest single commissioner of short stories, attracting audiences of over a million listeners to short fiction.
Due to its unique and powerful position, at times, questions are asked about access to the BBC’s short story feast. As I watched the twitter reaction to the news of the fifth all-female shortlist and the issues raised re its selection process, I realised there were some questions even I had about the way the award worked.
I used my role as ambassador to gain an interview with Di Speirs, founding judge of the award and BBC’s editor of books, who has gone into detail about every step of the judging process, and shares her love for the short story form.”
Interviewing Sarah Perry
An Evening with Sarah Perry
Thursday 22nd November 19:00 – 21:00
at Crescent Arts Centre Cube, 2-4 University Road, Belfast , BT7 1NH
I’ll be interviewing the wonderful Sarah Perry in Belfast in November. I read with Sarah a few years back at a festival in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. Here’s what Waterstones said…
“We are thrilled to welcome Sarah Perry, the author of 2016’s Waterstones Book of the YearThe Essex Serpent, to Belfast in conversation with Paul McVeigh to discuss her new novel Melmoth.
Sarah Perry is the UK’s most extraordinary writer of Gothic literature. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway. She has been the writer in residence at Gladstone’s Library and the UNESCO World City of Literature Writer in Residence in Prague. After Me Comes the Flood, her first novel, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Folio Prize, and won the East Anglian Book of the Year Award in 2014. Her latest novel, The Essex Serpent, was a number one bestseller in hardback, Waterstones Book of the Year 2016, the British Book Awards Book of the Year 2017, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and Dylan Thomas Award, and longlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2017.
Melmoth is a profound, ambitiously realised work of fiction which asks fundamental questions about guilt, forgiveness, moral reckoning and how we come to terms with our actions in a conflicted world. A compulsive, terrifying and thoroughly modern Gothic novel, and a response to the Irish Gothic classic Melmoth the Wanderer.
Further details: 020892040159″
14 Sept, Interviewing Chris Power
Chris Power in conversation with Paul McVeigh
10pm, Firkin Crane Theatre (€5)
Chris Power lives and works in London. His ‘Brief Survey of the Short Story’ has appeared in the Guardian since 2007. His fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review and The White Review. Mothers is his first book.
The Good Son, Paul McVeigh’s debut novel, won The Polari Prize and The McCrea Literary Award. It was shortlisted for The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, the Prix du Roman Cezam in France and a finalist for The People’s Book Prize. The Good Sonwas chosen as Brighton’s City Reads 2016 and was given out as part of World Book Night 2017. Paul has written comedy, essays, flash fiction, a novel, plays and short stories, and his work has been performed on stage and radio, and published in seven languages.
Lucy Caldwell Interviews Me on Child Narrators
Lucy Caldwell and Paul McVeigh discuss The Good Son
You can take the child out of Belfast:
two writers explore the challenges and rewards of using a child narrator
I was delighted to find this interview with Lucy Caldwell in The Irish Times which I’d forgotten about. I hope you enjoy it.
Lucy recently commissioned me as part of a new Faber anthology on Irish writing ‘Being Various’. I read the story for the first time at the International Conference on the Short Story in Lisbon. Look out for that next year.
Winner of The Polari Prize & The McCrea Literary Award
“I devoured it in a day, but I’ve thought about it for many, many more. ”
Bailey’s Prize-winner Lisa McInerney
“A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.”
Donal Ryan
My Interview with Kit de Waal in The Irish Times
You can read my interview with author Kit de Waal in The Irish Times today.
“When I arrive at Kit de Waal’s she’s in her writing cabin in the back garden of her house in Leamington. De Waal gets a kick out of using the no-frills Leamington while the locals insist on its full title:Royal Leamington Spa. No surprise, really, as though outwardly seeming to have fallen far from the tree in this wealthy, white, middle-England town, this author holds tightly to her roots; Brummie, Irish, West Indian and working class.”
Read the full interview on their site.
Kit’s new novel is the Irish Book Club choice for this month.
de Waal and I shared the stage at a festival in Morges last year and at the above event for Royal Society of Literature
Interview in Greek Newspaper
Μια Passionate About Writing συνέντευξη με τον Paul McVeigh
There’s an interview with me in a Greek newspaper ‘Athens Voice’ ahead of my International Creative Writing Summer School in Athens in June.
If you can read Greek I’d love to know how it sounds.
Here’s the course…
Flash Fiction with Paul McVeigh
4–8 June 2018
- Designed for aspiring and accomplished writers alike who want to enhance their skills for writing flash fiction and short fiction
- Participants will explore and discuss flash fiction and micro literature from a variety of authors and consider their sources of inspiration, and will also have the opportunity to experiment with voice and style
- Workshops will centre on exercises, constructive feedback, experimentation and discussion in a supportive and friendly atmosphere
Winner of The Polari Prize & The McCrea Literary Award
“I devoured it in a day, but I’ve thought about it for many, many more. ”
Bailey’s Prize-winner Lisa McInerney
“A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.”
Donal Ryan
Interviewing Anne Enright in London
Last year I had the honour of sharing the stage with Anne Enright at Le Livre Sur les Quais in Switzerland last year. This St Patrick’s Eve I’ll be interviewing her live on stage in London for Word Factory. More info below…
WORD FACTORY PRESENTS:
SPECIAL EVENT – An Evening with Anne Enright
On the eve of St Patrick’s Day, meet one of the most celebrated literary figures of our age. Man Booker prize winner Anne Enright is the Laureate for Irish Fiction, an acclaimed novelist, short story writer and essayist. Her books include The Wig My Father Wore, The Gathering and The Portable Virgin. In this one-off London event, reading new work commissioned by Word Factory for the Change Maker series, Anne will explore the boundaries of short fiction in new work and her writing life, in conversation with Word Factory associate director Paul McVeigh. Paul, who lives in Belfast, is author of the acclaimed The Good Son, set in the Northern Ireland of the 1970’s.
DON’T MISS THIS MEMORABLE EVENING.
Salon limited to 80 places.
Date and Time
Fri 16 March 2018
19:00 – 20:30 GMT
Location
Ciaran McMenamin, Sally Rooney & June Caldwell this Sunday
I’m chairing this exciting event – Young Blood: Ciaran McMenamin, Sally Rooney & June Caldwell – this Sunday at The Seamus Heaney Homeplace.
All these authors are making a splash with their first books – novels and short stories. Come along and find out all about there journey to publication and how they’ve coped with success.
Show starts at 3pm.
Winner of The Polari Prize
“Pungently funny and shot through with streaks of aching sadness.” Patrick Gale
“I devoured it in a day, but I’ve thought about it for many, many more.” Lisa McInerney
“Funny, raw and endlessly entertaining.” Johnathan Coe
Short Interview w/ Ubud Festival
“With over 150 speakers from 31 countries, this year’s UWRF lineup is a literary treasure trove of discoveries. Each week in the lead up to the Festival, we’ll speak to a writer whose work you may not yet have encountered, but who could well turn out to be your Festival favorite. For the sixth installment, we spoke to Paul McVeigh, award-winning short story writer and Founder of the London Short Story Festival.”
You can read the short interview here.
Paul McVeigh 