The Irish Ambassador to Malaysia is holding a special night at the Irish Embassy in Kuala Lumpur in my honour on November 30th. I’m so honoured.
I will read from my novel, The Good Son, followed by a Q&A. There will be music in between and a party after.
Thanks to Cat Brogan for all her help in organising this.
Thanks to Culture Ireland and Arts Council of NI for their generous support.
I’ll be attending the George Town Literary Festival in Penang, Malaysia, 24/25/26. You can read about it The Malaysian Insight.
My first event is;
Conversations: The Monsters Within: Man versus Man
Speakers: Kosal Khiev, Paul McVeigh, Nisha Ayub
Moderator: Danton Remoto
Writing and talking about violence is painful but necessary. How do we deal with real violence and how do we deal with fictive violence? How do writers and activists resist and confront violence in themselves, their lives and their work? Here, we listen to three remarkable individuals who have overcome violence in their lives and have used the transformative forms of writing, poetry and activism to shape their stories and to help inspire others to tell their own.
Date: Saturday, 25 Nov at 11.15am–12.15
Venue: Earth, Wisma UAB
My second event is a little unusual as it’s poetry – I’ve chosen the work of 3 Northern Irish poets to read Stephanie Conn, Padraig Regan & Stephen Sexton.
Poetry Marathon
Poets: A. Samad Said, Al-Mustaqeem M. Radhi, Takako Arai, Jérôme Bouchaud, Maung Day, Jelena Dinic, Ulrike Draesner, Kosal Khiev, Gerður Kristný, Lynne Lawner, Kirsty Logan, M. Aan Mansyur, Paul McVeigh, Laksmi Pamuntjak, Rahmat Haron, James Shea, Darryl Whetter and Gündüz Vassaf
A non-stop performance by festival poets, translators and their work. A celebration of poets, poetry and the world.
Date: Saturday, 25 Nov 12.30pm–2.00pm
Venue: Earth, Wisma UAB
My third and final event is;
When Immortals Walked Among Us
Speakers: Gerður Kristný, Paul McVeigh, Arshia Sattar, Zen Cho
Moderator: Jason Erik Lundberg
There are many commonalities in the world’s mythologies and cosmologies. Greek legends, Norse and Celtic sagas, and Hindu epics all had gods and goddesses who were anthropomorphic and therefore resistant to Joseph Campbell’s argument – ‘that the secret cause of all suffering is mortality itself, which is the prime condition of life.’ Did the immortals deny humans the right to live uninterrupted, guilt-free lives? What is the notion of ‘god’ and its mythos in literature? We examine some of our most enduring myths, the power they still wield in our everyday lives and narratives, and how these stories have evolved from then until now.
Date: Sunday, November 26 at 11:15 AM – 12:15
Venue: Bangunan UAB
I hope to see some of you there.
Thanks to Culture Ireland for their support.
I’ll be reading in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the Seksan Gallery on Saturday afternoon December 2nd.
Thanks to Sharon Baker for the invitation and organising.
I hope to see some of you there.
Thanks to the generous support of Culture Ireland and Arts Council of NI.
I’ll be visiting Australia soon teaching classes in Adelaide (more soon) and Melbourne where I’ll also be part of an Irish whiskey tasting night. You’ll learn all about Irish whiskies and it should be a lot of fun! Come along.
“Belfast-born, Paul is a world-renowned storyteller. His brilliant debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize, The McCrea Literary Award and is shortlisted for the Prix de Roman Cezam.
Paul has had works performed in London’s West End and on BBC radio. And is a founder of the London Short Story Festival.
Between Paul’s tales, Martin from Dublin’s Teeling Distillery will share colourful stories around the history and traditions of Irish whiskey, while you taste five award-winning Teeling whiskies.”
Location: 217 High Street, Northcote, 3070 Victoria, Australia
Date: Thursday 16th November 6.30-8.30pm
My trip to Australia is made possible by the generous support of…
It’s no secret how much I love Cork and the Cork International Short Story Festival. Every year Patrick Cotter brings together the best short story writers from all over the world to celebrate the form. This year is no exception with Carlo Gebler, Claire Keegan, David Means among many. There are films, panel events, workshops and interviews by Rob Doyle, Tom Morris, Sinead Gleeson and me!
I’m involved in three events this year. I’m chairing events with Carlo Gebler & Alannah Hopkin and Alan McMonagle & Billy O’Callaghan. This year I had the honour of judging the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition and I will giving the prize to the winner at a special ceremony on Friday.
Last year at CSSF with Sinead Gleeson and Claire-Louise Bennett
My events:
14th September at 8.30pm Firkin Crane Theatre, Shandon Admission: €5
Alannah Hopkin is a novelist, travel writer and critic from Kinsale, Co Cork. She has published two novels (Hamish Hamilton, London); other books include West Cork, the People & the Place (The Collins Press, Cork). Her stories have appeared in the London Magazine and The Cork Literary Review. The Dogs of Inishere (Dalkey Archive Press) is her first story collection.
Carlo Gébler was born Dublin in 1954, the eldest son of writer parents, Ernest Gébler and Edna O’Brien. His recent publications from New Island are The Projectionist: The Story of Ernest Gébler, The Wing Orderly’s Tales, and The Innocent of Falkland Road. He teaches at Trinity and is a member of Aosdána.
15th September at 4pm Cork Central Library (Grand Parade) Admission: FREE
Louise Nealon is a twenty-six year old writer from Co. Kildare. She studied English literature in Trinity College Dublin, and then completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast in 2016. She currently lives on her family’s farm where she divides her time between reading, writing and milking cows. She will be reading her prizewinning story, ‘What Feminism Is’, at this event.
The Sean O’Faolain Prize is awarded to the best single story entered in competition from anywhere in the world. The first prize is €2000. The winner also receives a week’s residency at the Anam Cara artist retreat in West Cork and publication of their winning story in Southword. The winner, if they choose to travel to Cork for this event, also receives accommodation with meals for the duration of the festival and entry into all events. This occasion is an opportunity to hear the winning story and the judge’s citation from Paul McVeigh. The competition is now closed, and the winning and shortlisted stories have been announced on our competitions page.
15th September at 8.30pm Firkin Crane Theatre, Shandon Admission: €5
Alan McMonagle has written for radio and published two collections of short stories, Liar Liar (Wordsonthestreet, 2008) and Psychotic Episodes (Arlen House, 2013), both of which were nominated for the Frank O’Connor Award. In November 2015, he signed a two-book deal with Picador, and in March 2017, Ithaca, his debut novel was published and immediately nominated for the Desmond Elliott Award for first novels. He lives in Galway.
Billy O’Callaghan, from Cork, is the author of three short story collections: In Exile (2008) and In Too Deep (2009), both published by Mercier Press, and The Things We Lose, the Things We Leave Behind (2013), published by New Island Books, which won the 2013 Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Award for Short Story of the Year, and which has been selected as Cork’s ‘One City, One Book’ for 2017. His first novel, The Dead House, was published by O’Brien Press/Brandon Books in May 2017. A novella, A Death in the Family, will be published in late 2017 as a Ploughshares Solo.
I hope to see some of you there.
Paul McVeigh & Hans-Christian Oeser at Germany@Home
I will be reading in the series Germany@Home on 29th September 2017 at 19:00. The Goethe Institut Irland has invited me and my German translator to discuss the book in Dublin. Guter Junge is published in Germany by Wagenbach.
“McVeigh is writing with warmth and humor about a time of poverty and violence. His two translators Hans-Christian Oeser and Nina Frey were able to transfer this tone of voice wonderfully into the German translation.”
Admission is free, booking essential via Eventbrite: Paul McVeigh & Hans-Christian Oeser
Language: English
+353 1 6801120
Anne.Klapperstueck@goethe.de
“Told vividly and with grim humour… McVeigh’s lush and, against all probability colourful novel from a black and white world bears the utopia that even in dark times, the hope can not be defeated.” Die Welt
I’ve always wanted to go to Bali and I’m excited to be travelling there this October for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
My first event is a workshop: A Competitive Edge on October 26th.
“How do you get the attention of agents and editors? How is a story selected from hundreds of competition entries? Paul McVeigh has been on both sides – a writer who now judges international competitions. In this workshop, find out what judges and editors look for and how to avoid the rejection pile.”
My main event, Dazzling Debuts, in on my birthday – October 27th.
“You get one chance to make a first impression, and these authors did so with a splash! They take us on the journey from unpublished hopeful to bestseller lists, film deals and award ceremonies, and dare to take a look ahead at meeting the expectations that come with a dazzling debut.”
I’ll also sit on a panel on class The Last Taboo? on October 28th.
“Why is class such a taboo topic in the 21st century? It remains deeply embedded in most societies, yet many of us deny its existence with rhetoric around equal opportunity or meritocracy. Three writers who dare to speak its name take stock of how class plays out in their writing lives, both on and off the page.”
This trip is with the help of…
I’ll be reading and talking with Marnie Kennedy at The Duncairn Centre for Culture & Arts in Belfast on August 11. It’s part of Féile an Phobail Ireland’s biggest community festival. I’ll be joined by writer Victoria McNulty and one other writer tbc.
The event is called Scribes at the Duncairn and you can check out the full festival programme here.
I hope to see some of you there.
I’m at the Belfast Book Festival this year, starting with the first event of the fest… I hope to see some of you there.
Wed 7 June 12.45: Interviewing Cairan McMenamin about his debut ‘Skintown’
Sat 10 June 10am-1pm: Workshop – Turning a Short Story into a Novel
Wed 14 June 12.45: Interviewing Ethel Rohan about her debut novel ‘The Weight of Him’
Fri 16 June 8pm: Reading at Polari Literary Salon at Sunflower Pub
Sat 17 June 2-5pm: Workshop – Everything a Debut Novelist Needs to Know
Paul McVeigh 