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″

 

 

Red Line Book Fest, Oct 10, Dublin

Delighted to be reading alongside these great authors in one of my favourite cities. Here’s the blurb…

This Voice: Writing & The Working Class

A working class hero is something to be…Although working class characters are well represented in the Irish literary canon, more often than not, the writers behind the stories derive from more privileged backgrounds.Hosted by poet and writer Colm Keegan (Randomer), a panel of top authors explore the challenges faced by working class writers and the valuable perspectives they have to offer. Joining Keegan are Polari prize-winner Paul McVeigh (The Good Son), acclaimed author Frankie Gaffney (Dublin Seven) and bestselling writer June Caldwell (Room Little Darker).
  • VENUE: Rua Red
  • TIME: Wed 10 Oct, 7.00pm
  • PRICE: €8/€5

 

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Interviewing Kit de Waal in Belfast

Kit De Waal: The Trick To Time

Date Thursday 13 September 2018
Time 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Price£8 | £6

with Paul McVeigh

I’m delighted to be working with Kit de Waal again. We read together at a festival in Morges and for the Royal Society of Literature in London. I’ve also interviewed her for The Irish Times. This time I’ll be interviewing her live in Belfast. Here’s the blurb…

The Crescent is delighted to welcome to Belfast, the author of the Costa shortlisted and Irish Novel of the Year award winning novel, My Name is Leon, Kit De Waal for a Belfast Book Festival Fringe event. She is joining us to discuss her latest novel, The Trick To Time; an unforgettable love story.

Birmingham, 1972. Mona is a young Irish girl in a big city, with the thrill of a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. On her first night out in town, she meets William, a charming Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face. They embark upon a dizzying love affair, a whirlwind marriage, an unexpected pregnancy – before a sudden tragedy tears them apart.

Decades later, Mona pieces together the memories of the years that separate them. But can she ever learn to love again?

The Trick to Time is an unforgettable tale of grief, longing, and a love that lasts a lifetime.

‘Weaving tragedy and joy, big themes and the minutiae of life, this is a love story to take on the classics’ – Emerald Street

Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the 60’s and 70’s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, long-listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017.

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Kit and me read together at a festival in  Morges

 

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 FlyThe Dublin Review and The White ReviewMothers 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.

Attending ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival

I’m delighted to have been invited to speak at the 12th edition of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival to be held from 24th to 28th January 2019.

Hosted at the heritage Diggi Palace, located in the heart of the Pink City of Jaipur, the Festival is among the world’s leading literary events attracting authors, publishers and book lovers from across the world. In 2018, it hosted over 350 speakers in 200 panels and represented over 25 languages, receiving over 4,00,000 footfalls in a span of 5 days.

The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival provides a potentially life-changing opportunity for audiences from Rajasthan, across India and the world to learn from and exchange ideas with contemporary literary stalwarts.

I’m particularly delighted to be working with Festival Director Namita Gokhale again, after we co-judged the International Dylan Thomas Prize this year.

This trip is made possible by the support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

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Social Media Class, London

Paul McVeigh has become well known on social media as a go to person for other writers, and for juggling an online presence with his own work. He has over 4,000 followers on Facebook, 12,500 on Twitter and a blog that gets over 40,000 hits a month internationally – his blog is fast approaching 2 million visitors.

In this class you’ll find out how to build a social media platform, how to use that platform to help you get published, get reviewed and endorsed, access to high profile authors, and get paid work. Paul’s online presence has led to him being invited to establish the hugely successful international London Short Story Festival, become Associate Director of Word Factory the leading short story salon in the UK and being judge of prestigious literary prizes such as the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and The Dylan Thomas Prize. It has also gotten him invites to teach and read in Australia, Bali, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland and Poland and access to interview authors such as Kevin Barry, and George Saunders from The Irish Times.

Paul set up and ran social media platforms for London Short Story Festival and Word Factory.

Paul’s short stories have been published in The Stinging Fly, commissioned by anthologies in the USA & Faber UK and by BBC Radio 3, 4 & 5. He debut novel ‘The Good Son’ won two awards and was shortlisted for a further four selling stage and multiple foreign rights.

This class has sold out in Belfast London and Melbourne..

DATE & TIME: Thu, March 15, 2018. 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM GMT

Location: Irish Cultural Centre, 5 Black’s Road, London, W6 9DT  View Map

Masterclass followed by A Novel Affair at the ICC at 19:00 – four novelists (Martina Evans, Paul McVeigh, Aoibheann McCann and Alan McMonagle) read from and discuss their work. Chaired by Conor Montague.

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Event on Poverty for Royal Society of Literature

Can Literature Solve Poverty?

Hosted by LSE “Beveridge 2.0” and the Royal Society of Literature

Poverty RSL

“In the run up to the LSE Festival: Beveridge 2.0, rethinking the welfare state for the 21st Century, we bring together a panel to discuss the relationship between literature and poverty. They reflect on questions such as: do you need money to access literature? If not, why are there comparatively few working-class writers? And can literature actively play a part in reducing financial hardship?”

I’ll be sharing the stage with Kit de Waal again – we had a wonderful time at Le Livres sur les Quais in Morges, Switzerland, last year. Kit mentioned The Good Son in her article for the Guardian on working class literature this weekend. Kit also commissioned me for the Common People anthology currently 75% funded on Unbounders. I can’t wait.

The Good Son 3rd Editon

Buy Here

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

Writers in Conversation, Southampton

Writers in Conversation

Free Event!

I’ll be the Writer in Conversation filling the very large shoes of writers like Helen MacDonald and Jennifer Egan. It takes place in Southampton on Feb 19th. Know anyone in those parts? Please share.

You can check out the Facebook events page here.

Date & Time: Monday, February 19 at 7 PM – 9 PM

Venue: John Hansard Gallery, Gallery, Studio 144, 142-144 Above Bar Street, SO14

The Good Son 3rd Editon

Buy Here

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

31 May – 2 June, Listowel Writers Week, Ireland

I’ll be teaching a three day short story course next May. Here’s a little more about it…

Workshop Theme:

Find out how to write ‘That Killer First Page’ and get the attention of editors and competition judges.  Get feedback on your writing of that crucial opening and explore how to write complex and engaging short stories.  You’ll also take a detailed look at using dialogue to further action and reveal character and the power of emotion to hook the reader.

You can pop over to their website to find out what else is on and book tickets.

Listowel

 

 

Franco-Irish Literary Festival March 2018

FRANCO-IRISH LITERARY FESTIVAL Theme: Sexe, Sex, Gnea, 23, 24, 25 March 2018

I hope to see some you at this wonderful festival in Dublin which includes authors like Anne Enright, Rob Doyle and Lisa McInerney.

Event One: Panel discussion: An chéad bhlaiseadh / Like a virgin / Toute première fois

Time: Sat 24th March 12.15 to 1.15pm  

Venue: Dublin Castle, Castle Hall

Moderator: Dominique Le Meur

WITH:

  • Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
  • Myriam Gallot
  • Paul McVeigh

Event Two: Panel discussion: An 21ú céad: gnéas fíor nó fíorúil /The 21th Sex /Le 21e Sexe 

Time: 12.15 to 1.15pm, Sunday 25 March

Venue: Alliance Française, 1 Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Moderator:  Michael Cronin

WITH:

  • Lisa McInerney
  • Françoise Rey
  • Paul McVeigh
  • Sylvain Bosselet

francophonie