It sounds like all is going brilliantly in rehearsals and these pics are gorgeous. Thanks to Jimmy Fay and Lyric Theatre Belfast, the director Patrick J O Reilly and designer Tracey Lindsay. And especially actor Tony Flynn. I’ll see it at the dress run on Wednesday night (gulp!) Tickets here.
Join Dublin Book Festival for an evening of delving into Queer Love: An Anthlogy of Irish Fiction (Munster Literature). The anthology was conceived as an attempt to redress the lack of acknowledgement of LGBTQIA+ community and representation in Irish literary anthologies. At this online event, editor of the collection Paul McVeigh is joined by two of its contributors, Emma Donoghue and Neil Hegarty to discuss their contributions to the anthology, the importance of producing this anthology, and developing LGBTQIA+ presence and representation in the Irish literary community.
Also available as a Podcast
Queer Love: An Anthology of Irish Fiction is a new publication from Southword Editions which seeks to go some way to redress the lack of acknowledgement of the LGBTQI+ community in Irish literary anthologies, with a mixture of established writers of international standing, writers who have been making a splash in recent years and new emerging writers. The anthology has a mixture of previously published stories, newly commissioned work and those entered through our call out. Featuring stories by John Boyne, Emma Donoghue, Mary Dorcey, Neil Hegarty, James Hudson, Emer Lyons, Jamie O’Connell, Colm Tóibín, Declan Toohey, and Shannon Yee.
Emma Donoghue, born in Dublin in 1969, is an award- winning novelist, playwright and screenwriter, living in Canada with her family. Her novel The Pull of the Stars became a bestseller in the US (New York Times), Canada, Ireland and Britain on publication in July 2020. Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes and has sold over two million copies. She adapted the novel into her first feature film, Room, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, which was nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Actress (won by Brie Larson). Her short-story collections include Astray, Three and a Half Deaths (UK ebook), Touchy Subjects, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, and Kissing the Witch.
Declan Toohey is from County Kildare. His writing has appeared in Soft Punk, The Dublin Review of Books, The Blue Nib, Stone of Madness Press, and the anthologies Queer Love and Brevity is the Soul, among other outlets. Earlier this year, he was a co-winner of the IWC Novel Fair, and his debut novel, Perpetual Comedown, is forthcoming with New Island Books.
Shannon Yee is an award-winning writer and producer. Her perspectives as an immigrant, ethnic minority, queer artist-parent with a disability living in NI are deeply embedded in her work. Shannon has received a number of awards and grants, including the ACNI Major Individual Artist Award (2017). Her Reassembled, Slightly Askew sonically immerses audiences in her autobiographical experience of nearly dying and subsequent acquired brain injury (www.reassembled.co.uk) , touring locally, nationally and internationally in arts festivals and medical training settings since 2015. Shannon’s published short stories are ‘The Brightening Up Side’( Belfast Stories; Doire Press, 2019), and ‘Thumbnails’ (Queer Love: An Anthology of Irish Fiction; Southword Editions, 2020). Her first dance film, Pandemic Parenting: Pandemonium, will be aired this autumn on BBC as part of the Culture in Quarantine commissions.
Paul McVeigh‘s debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Award and was shortlisted for many others including the Prix du Roman Cezam in France. His short stories have been read on BBC Radio 3, 4 & 5 and on Sky Arts. They have appeared in print in journals such as The Stinging Fly, and numerous anthologies including Faber’s Being Various: New Irish Short Stories and The Art of the Glimpse. He is associate director of Word Factory, ‘the UK’s national organisation for excellence in the short story’ (The Guardian), and he co-founded the London Short Story Festival. He was co-editor of the Belfast Storiesanthology and was fiction editor at Southword Journal. He edited The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working Class Writers, which includes new work by Kevin Barry, Roddy Doyle and Lisa McInerney.
Image credits: Paul McVeigh photographed by John Minihan
On Saturday I chaired a very special event for Belfast Book Festival with Colm Toibin and Mary Dorcey about the Queer Love anthology – it was such a warm conversation about the growing up LGBT in Ireland.
This Saturday coming, June 19th, I’m doing my first event in the USA for Carlow University (sadly online) with Mary Dorcey again. This time however I’m a guest writer and will be reading from my work.
The third event is with Jamie O’Connell who has also has a story in Queer Love. We’ll be talking about that and our novels.
Do come along – the two upcoming are free!
A Taster of the ‘Queer Love’ Event on Saturday 12 June 8pm
This week’s Culture Cafe on BBC Radio Ulster gathers some of the guests at the Belfast Book Festival 2021.
Including Colm Tóibín and me on being part of the literary road map for Irish LGBTQ+ writers and readers starting around 4.40 mins in. The full event takes place this Saturday – you can buy tickets here.
“Ireland is more than one voice and in Queer Love, edited by Paul McVeigh, we see more than one Ireland. Love is a beautiful thing—especially in the hands of familiar writers like John Boyne, Emma Donoghue and Colm Tóbín—but in this anthology of short stories are new writers and new voices; it’s this combination which lends the collection its charm. Paul McVeigh steers the collection through our history, from a time of secrecy to the new freedoms of growing up gay in an era of the Yes vote.”
Delighted with this review in Books Ireland and you can it read it in full here.
You can buy the book here.
To Garth Greenwell, the huge international success of his debut What Belongs to You, “was the biggest surprise of my life”, and he feels “immensely lucky” as “the success of a book has as much to do with chance as anything else”. Its success has allowed him to have a career as a writer and teacher in a way he wasn’t able to in his previous 20 years of writing. He feels relieved, though, that the writing process itself, “the struggle”, just him alone with his notebook and “the pit of doubt and despair”, hasn’t changed. “I wouldn’t know who I would be without it.”
You can read my interview with him about his new novel, Cleanness, in The Irish Times.
A collection of Irish authors have responded to Brexit in the Irish Times today. Mine begins…
“One positive thing for Northern Ireland is that Brexit has actually made it visible. Mostly it feels like a little desert island and we jump up and down trying to get the attention of passing aircraft.”
And ends…
“…the whole damn place needs a gaying up!”
Head over the read the full text and the rest of the responses.
In 2016 I won The Polari First Book Prize for The Good Son and it was an incredible experience.
This year there is a new prize – The Polari Book Prize and I will be one for the judges – check out the information for both below.
“Founded in 2011, The Polari First Book Prize is awarded annually to a writer whose debut book explores the LGBT+ experience, whether in poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction. The prize is open to writers born or resident in the UK and Ireland.
Previous winners include Fiona Mozley, Saleem Haddad, Paul McVeigh, Kirsty Logan, Diriye Osman, Mari Hannah, John McCullough and James Maker. The Prize is sponsored by leading literary PR consultancy FMcM Associates. Prize money is £1,000.
For 2019, the award-winning LGBT+ literary salon is adding a second prize. The Polari Book Prize will be awarded to a writer at any stage of their publishing career (other than debuts). Writers must identify as LGBT+ or the work must feature LGBT+ themes and characters.
In its inaugural year, The Polari Prize will be sponsored by D H H Literary Agency, with the winner receiving a cheque for £2,000. Entry for the prize includes a submission fee of £25 per title.
Judges for the new prize include critically-acclaimed author Bernardine Evaristo, CEO of the National Centre for Writing Chris Gribble, award-winning author and comedian VG Lee and author and former winner of The Polari First Book Prize Paul McVeigh.
Judges for this year’s Polari First Book Prize are bestselling novelist Kiki Archer, writer and performer Cerys Evans, author and former Head of Literature & Spoken Word at Southbank Centre Rachel Holmes and previous Prize winner John McCullough. Entry is free.
Both panels will be chaired by author and Polari founder Paul Burston.
Books for both prize must have been published in English by a writer born or resident in the UK and Ireland. Books must have been published in the 12 months up to February 1, 2019. Self-published works are eligible. Works should be submitted by the publisher, while self-published works should be submitted by the writer with a covering letter explaining why the book was self-published.
The deadline for submissions for both prizes is April 10, 2019. For further information, please email Paul Burston
The longlists will announced on June 10 and the shortlists on July 26.
The winners will be revealed in October 2019 as part of the London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre.
Winners will be offered headline slots at future Polari events.
Terms & conditions
Entry for The Polari First Book Prize is free.
Entry for The Polari Book Prize is £25.
Any eligible book that is entered for the Prize shall not qualify unless its publisher/author agrees:
a. that in the case of The Polari Book Prize, the publisher/author will contribute a submission fee of £25 per title. This payment is to be made promptly within seven days by BACS.
b. to provide a short bio and high resolution author photo for each book submitted – no later than May 31.
c. to invite longlisted authors to the public shortlist event on July 26 at the Southbank Centre and shortlisted authors to the award ceremony at the London Literature Festival in October, also at the Southbank Centre (date TBC). Publishers/authors will be responsible for travel costs and will do their best to ensure attendance.
d. that if an entered book should be longlisted, the publisher will obtain permission from the copyright holder and agree to broadcast, record and/or make available a downloadable audio and/or text file extract, to be used for publicity purposes on the website, mobile site and any other partner websites or platforms, and to inform the Society of Authors of the copyright credit to be used.
e. that if an entered book should be shortlisted, the publisher will endeavour to facilitate recorded interviews/readings with the author to be used by the Polari Prize on either web or mobile platforms to promote the Prize.
f. that if an entered book should be shortlisted, the publisher will do their best to ensure the author’s attendance at the Prize award ceremony.
Eligibility for The Polari First Book Prize
a. The prize is open to any writer whose first book explores the LGBT+ experience, whether in poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction.
b. Writers must be born or resident in the UK and Ireland.
Eligibility for The Polari Book Prize
a. Any full length novel, novella, short story collection, memoir, biography or book of poetry written in English by a writer born or resident in the UK and Ireland is eligible.
b. Writers must either identify as LGBT+ or explore LGBT+ subjects, themes and characters in the work submitted. Books by LGBT+ writers writing in all genres are actively encouraged, whether they feature LGBT+ characters or not.
c. All entries must be submitted in print form. Where books exist only in e-book format, a bound printed copy will be accepted. E-books or PDFs will not be accepted.
d. All entries must be first published as a print edition in the United Kingdom or Ireland between 2 February 2018 and 1 February 2019,
but may have been previously published outside the UK. Titles with simultaneous UK / US publications within this timeframe are eligible.
e. Self-published books are eligible for the Prize. Submission must include a covering letter explaining why the work was self-published.
f. Authors / publishers are reminded that it is their responsibility to ensure that all submitted titles meet all other requirements for the prize.
Submissions
There is no limit on the number of eligible titles entered by any one publisher.
The following steps should be taken for titles to be considered:
a. By April 5, 2019 Publishers should contact the chair of judges via email expressing their intention to submit.(In the case of the Polari Prize, the submission fee of £25 per title will then be sent via BACS and the judges’ addresses will be forwarded for submission.)
b. By April 10, 2019 Publishers should ensure that all books have been received by the judges.
I’ll be appearing at the London Book Fair Wednesday, March 13th at the invitation of The British Council. I’m excited by the topic of the conversation and to talk to some Indonesian writers after my trip there to The George Town Literature Festival in 2018. Here are the details.
Taboo
Laksmi Pamuntjak, Norman Erikson Pasaribu and Paul McVeigh; chaired by Phillip Kim
16.00-17.00, Cross Cultural Hub, Olympia
Indonesian writing today is becoming more bold, more inventive, and more determined to say the unsayable. How, through literary experiments, style and themes, are Indonesia’s writers tackling taboos and redefining norms? Laksmi Pamuntjak, author of The Question of Red – which counters the official government history of 1965; Norman Erikson Pasaribu, whose poems shine light on queer Indonesian life in the midst of erasure and oppression today; alongside Paul McVeigh whose writing touches on the complex layers of political oppression, violence and sexuality; discuss their personal reasons for writing on their chosen subjects, and the need to explore, and unsettle, the dominant narratives.
The Good Son 