Polari returns to The Printworks for a festive outing.
Hosted by Paul Burston with guests Alexandra Benedict, Paul McVeigh, VG Lee and Oli Spleen.
7pm doors for 7.30pm start.
Bookstall kindly provided by Printed Matter.
Tickets from OutSavvy – https://www.outsavvy.com/event/30919/a-very-polari-xmas
Or Eventbrite – https://www.eventbrite.com/…/a-very-polari-xmas-tickets…
Please come and join me to celebrate Book Week NI in Lisburn Library on Oct 21.
Book your free ticket at: lisburnlibrary@librariesni.org.uk
Join award-winning author Paul McVeigh as he discusses his new short story collection, I Hear You, with journalist and critic Niamh Donnelly.
Paul McVeigh’s short stories have been in anthologies, journals and newspapers, and read on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 5, RTE Radio, as well as Sky ARTS. His ten-part short story series, The Circus, aired on BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Foyle and BBC Radio 4. He co-founded London Short Story Festival and has edited three anthologies. His collection of stories written for radio, I Hear You, was published in March 2025. His debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Book Prize and The McCrae Literary Award and his writing has been translated into eight languages.
Niamh Donnelly is a journalist, critic, and writer from Dublin. A regular contributor to The Irish Times, she covers books, arts, and a wide range of other topics. Her work can also be found in Business Plus Magazine, The Irish Independent, New York Magazine, The Financial Times, The Business Post, The Sunday Times, and many other publications. Her short fiction has appeared in Granta, The Dublin Review, Banshee, and elsewhere. She has been shortlisted for five Irish Journalism Awards.
| Date | Monday October 13th |
| Time | 7pm |
| Admission | Free, booking required |
| Venue | Lucan Library |
Free but booking required here.
Delighted to see this post on Facebook from my publisher. Great news for the short story but particularly chuffed that ‘I Hear You’ is Salt’s bestselling book of 2025. Here’s to the short story!
So happy to be returning to this festival. Hope to see some of you there. Tickets here.
Peter Bradshaw is an author and critic who has been chief film critic for The Guardian since 1999 and is also contributing editor of Esquire UK. His most recent publication is The Body In the Mobile Library and Other Stories and in addition he has written three novels and an edited selection of his Guardian reviews entitled The Films That Made Me. He also writes for radio and television and is currently co-writing a drama-thriller for Channel Four TV entitled I Am Not Alice Bell. He lives in London with his wife and son.
Buy The Body in the Mobile Library (Lightning Books).
“Bradshaw relishes the grotesque and improbable; his set-ups are outrageously inventive … Characters are sympathetically drawn and their longings, insecurities, vanities and weaknesses feel all too credible.” — Emma Beddington
Paul McVeigh‘s short stories have been in numerous anthologies including Being Various, The Art of the Glimpse and Common People. They have also appeared in The London Magazine, The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, on BBC Radio 3, 4, 5, RTÉ Radio 1, and Sky ARTS. His ten-part short story series, The Circus, aired on BBC Radio 4 in 2023 and was repeated on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle. His debut collection of radio stories, I Hear You, was published by Salt in March 2025. Paul co-founded the London Short Story Festival and was associate director of Word Factory, described by The Guardian as ‘the UK’s national organisation for excellence in the short story.’
Visit the author’s website.
“This is a world of escape artists and fraudsters, of body swaps and comedy cuckoos, of misfits and trespassers of every ilk … where else would you want to be than amongst the outliers, where the tender, the vulnerable and the brave reside?” — Bernie McGill
(Moderator) Patrick Holloway’s debut novel, The Language of Remembering, is published by Epoque Press (2025). He is the winner of the Bath Short Story Award, The Allingham Fiction Prize, The Flash 500 Prize and The Molly Keane Creative Writing Prize. He is an editor of the literary journal The Four Faced Liar.
Sun 23 Nov 2025, 12th – Tickets here.
Two award-winning masters of the short story come together for an unmissable hour of fiction, feeling, and fierce imagination. Belfast-born Paul McVeigh – author of The Good Son and I Hear You and co-founder of the London Short Story Festival – writes with humour, compassion and razor-sharp insight. His work, celebrated internationally, explores working-class life, queer identity and the power of language to wound or redeem.
Folkestone-based Adam Marek – winner of the prestigious Arts Foundation Short Story Fellowship and author of The Universe Delivers the Enemy You Need – is known for his brilliantly strange, deeply human stories that bend reality and tap into the surreal edge of everyday life.
Together, McVeigh and Marek will read from their work, talk about their playfully different approaches to the form, and explore how short stories can capture the biggest questions in the smallest moments. Expect a rich conversation about craft, vulnerability, play, and why the short story continues to punch above its weight.
A must-attend for readers, writers, and anyone who believes in the power of a well-told tale to shake the world – or shift your soul.
You can also buy my radio short story collection, I Hear You, out now.
“McVeigh captures the ongoing journey of a place and its people learning to live with peace, facing the legacies of the past, and cautiously embracing a new, shared future.”
This is a wonderful review of the event on my work with Cathy Galvin & Tony Flynn at Belfast Book Festival by Natasha Lynch for Shared Future News. The event (and review) covered ‘The Good Son’, ‘Big Man’ and ‘I Hear You’.
You can read the full review here.
I’m attending the 17th International Conference of the Short Story in English. I’ve been invited to this bi-annual conference in Lisbon, Singapore and Vienna. This year I’ll be alongside luminous guests such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler and ZZ Packer.
Bring your notebooks with your fragments, your unfinished stories, and ideas that just wouldn’t launch, this workshop will talk you through a method of making them work. Using examples from his work Paul will show you how he has used his method to create powerful narratives then you can try it on your broken stories. You’ll get feedback and input into your ideas. Because he is also a playwright and has written thirteen short stories for BBC Radio 4, Paul will also show you how to write that story for radio. Be prepared to work and learn a lot.
Writers:
Paul McVeigh
Éilís Ni Dhuibhne
Judith Nika Pfeifer
Writers discuss the pros and cons, ways and means of putting your publications before the public. They will showcase specific works, including their own as examples. Robin Hemley will serve as Chair, with Madeleine D’Arcy as Co-Chair. The participants are Robin Hemley, Katie Singer, Evelyn Conlon, Madeleine D’Arcy, Emma Hislop, Rebekah Clarkson, Paul McVeigh, and Robert Olen Butler.
Wednesday 2 July 2025; Zoom
7.00pm – 8.30pm; £15/£12
Whatever their form, all stories take place somewhere. Join Belfast-born fiction writer Paul McVeigh and Coventry-born poet Cathy Galvin as they invite you to disrupt your usual writing practice and find a space to look again, and more deeply, at the all-too-familiar landscape of home.
Whatever your chosen literary form – but with a particular focus on the short story – this relaxed 90 minute session is aimed at helping you discover the still points and the surprising in the everyday. Exploring their own work and that of other writers who have inspired them, they will help you consider what lies beneath and within the landscapes we think we know.
Colleagues in the short story organisation, the Word Factory, Paul and Cathy both write across many forms and enjoy working with other writers: you can expect insight, banter, some suggested reading in advance (not essential) and some writing prompts and recommended reading to follow up in your own time.
“We’re delighted to welcome back Polari, the multi award-winning LGBTQ+ literary salon, for another unforgettable evening in Bradford.
Founded and hosted by author and activist Paul Burston, Polari is known for its high-energy, cabaret-style atmosphere and showcases the very best in established and emerging LGBTQ+ literary talent.
Expect thought-provoking readings, captivating performances, and a celebration of queer voices that’s anything but your average literary event. Uplifting, entertaining, and always inspiring, Polari is a literary salon with heart, flair, and a whole lot of soul.
Wallers Brewery, Sunbridge Wells, BD1 1SX More Info
Paul McVeigh 