short story

My New Story on BBC Radio 3 – Hurry!

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The Speed of Life – Short Stories: Jenn Ashworth, Paul McVeigh & Kirsty Logan

Stories on the theme of this year’s Free Thinking Festival, commissioned by New Writing North and Word Factory.

Last weekend I travelled to Gateshead to record a short story for BBC Radio 3 along with Jenn Ashworth and Kirsty Logan. You can listen to or download these 3 short stories (total 25mins) for the next 25 days only on BBC IPlayer here.

Later tonight you can listen to the BBC 3 event we recorded with George Saunders ‘How Short is a Short Story?’ too.

I hope you enjoy.

 

George and me BBC 3

Presenter Matthew Sweet, Jenn Ashworth, George Saunders, Kirsty Logan & Me

 

 

Last Free Tickets Released Feb 17 for George Saunders, Jenn Ashworth, Kirsty Logan & me

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Last Free Tickets Released Tomorrow Feb 17 for George Saunders, Jenn Ashworth, Kirsty Logan & me talking to Matthew Sweet at BBC 3 Free Thinking Festival. Here’s the information from the website…

BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival: How Short Is A Short Story? Sat 18 Mar. 10.15-11.15am

With US author George Saunders, Jenn Ashworth, Paul McVeigh and Kirsty Logan

Acclaimed American short story writer George Saunders talks to Radio 3 presenter Matthew Sweet about travelling in time to explore Abraham Lincoln’s life during the American Civil War when the President’s beloved young son died. These historical events have inspired Saunder’s first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, whilst his short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, McSweeney’s and GQ.

He compares notes on the art of fiction long and short with Paul McVeigh, Jenn Ashworth and Kirsty Logan, who’ve been commissioned by New Writing North and the WordFactory to write Flash Fiction on the Festival theme of The Speed of Life.

Kirsty Logan is the author of books including The Gracekeepers and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales and a range of short stories.

Jenn Ashworth’s books include Fell, The Friday Gospels, A Kind of Intimacy and Cold Light and a selection of short stories.

Paul McVeigh has won prizes including the Polari prize for his debut novel The Good Son. Born in Belfast he is co-founder of the London Short Story Festival, writes a blog and has represented the UK at events in Mexico and Turkey.

You can hear the specially commissioned stories for the Festival on the free Radio 3 headphones available to borrow in Sage foyer.

Matthew Sweet is author of Inventing the Victorians, Shepperton Babylon and The West End Front. He is a columnist for Art Quarterly and Newsweek and presents Free Thinking and Sound of Cinema on BBC Radio 3 and The Philosopher’s Arms on BBC Radio 4. He was series consultant on the Showtime drama Penny Dreadful and played a moth from the planet Vortis in An Adventure in Space and Time on BBC2.

In association with New Writing North and the WordFactory.

For your information…

  • A second batch of tickets will be released at 12noon on Friday 17 February.
  • A restricted number of tickets will be available on the day on a first come first served basis.
  • Please take your seats 10 minutes prior to the event start time otherwise you may lose your place.

Danielle McLaughlin explores The Good Son

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Danielle McLaughlin explores The Good Son and the story that inspired it.

One of Ireland’s finest short story writers examines how I developed my short story, What I Did On My Summer Holidays, into ‘a captivating and poignant book’.

Click to read.

New Book Cover

Currently longlisted for The Polari Prize
Chosen as Brighton’s City Reads 2016
Shortlisted: The Guardian’s ‘Not The Booker’ Prize
Shortlisted: The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award
Finalist for The People’s Book Prize
ELLE Magazine Best Books of 2015
The Irish Independent Top Reads of 2015
The Reading Agency Staff Picks Best of 2015
Wales Arts Review – Fiction of the Year
Number 1 Beach Read The Pool
A Gransnet Best Christmas Read for 2015
Savidge Reads and Pam Reader Blogs Books of the Year

 

Read My First Short Story

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Go easy on me – this was my first attempt at prose…

Today The Irish Times published two pieces to start their Book Club month celebrating The Good Son.

You can read the original 17 (not 15) year old story short story ‘What I Did On My Summer Holidays‘ which was the inspiration for the novel.

The second piece, Go Easy On Me, is a companion to the story, explaining the move from plays to prose and the evolution of the story into a novel. It also talks about using humour in dark situations and everyday swearing!

I hope you like them.

 

 

Translated into Turkish

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I’m  very excited that a short fiction of mine “Dig” has been translated in Turkish by Cihan Akkartal for Altzine – a Turkish literary magazine. To read click onto the site – the first box is for your email, the second is the capthca, so just fill in what you see and you can download it.

I went to Turkey earlier this year with The British Council as part of the Authors Meet programme. I visited Izmir and Istanbul and met the magazine’s editor Su Basbugu while there. I hope you enjoy the story and read the rest of the magazine.

altZine Yaz 2016

This flash fiction Dig first appeared, in English, in Unbraiding the short story – an anthology of the authors attending The 13th International Conference on the Short Story which I attended in Vienna, in 2014. This translation was commissioned by MF Opowiadania – Int. Short Story Festival where I read in Wroclaw, in 2015.

Unbraidng Cover

Novel vs Short Story: me, Simon van Booy & Fiona McFarlane

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Honoured to be sharing the stage with Fiona McFarlane and Simon van Booy in my favourite venue in the world! Hope some of you can some. Here’s the skinny…

Tonight three authors will debate the pleasures and pitfalls of the two forms as readers and writers of both. Award-winning Simon van Booy joins us from the USA and Fiona McFarlane visits us from Australia, making her first UK appearance. Paul McVeigh, author and co-founder of London Short Story Festival completes the panel with literary agent Carrie Kania chairing. Lively readings, engaging conversations and signings with a glass of wine.

Simon Van Booy is the author of three collections of short stories and three novels, with his most recent novel ‘Father’s Day’, just published in the UK by One World. In 2010, he won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for his collection Love Begins in Winter. His fiction has been translated into seventeen languages.

Fiona McFarlane’s novel, The Night Guest, will be published in 19 countries and 15 languages, and won a NSW Premier’s Prize and Fiona was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist for 2014. Fiona’s short stories have been published in the New Yorker her debut collection ‘The High Places’ is out now.

Paul McVeigh’s debut novel ‘The Good Son’ was chosen as Brighton’s City Reads 2016 and has been shortlisted for numerous awards. His short stories have been published in journals and anthologies and read on BBC Radio 4 and 5. Paul is also the co-founder of the London Short Story Festival and associate director of Word Factory the UK’s premier short story salon.

£5 tickets are available in store, by telephone 020 7851 2400 or by email:piccadilly@waterstones.com

Free Tickets to Greenwich Book Festival

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I’m attending Greenwich Book Festival on Saturday chairing an event on the short story with Carys Davies and Joanna Walsh. I have two tickets to the event if you fancy them. Leave a note here or on Facebook or twitter. I also have some comps to the other events listed below so let me know if you fancy them.
THE RISE AND RISE OF THE SHORT STORY AT THE GREENWICH BOOK FESTIVAL
28-05-16
16:30 to 17:30

Are we finally entering the long overdue golden age of short fiction? Readings and a Q&A discussion about the resurgence in popularity of the short story and the challenges of the form with Joanna Walsh (Vertigo) and Carys Davies (2015 winner of the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize for The Redemption of Galen Pike). Chaired by Paul McVeigh, author of The Good Son, co-founder of the London short story festival and associate director of The Word Factory.

Event followed by a book signing.

Suitable for age 16+

Tickets

 

The other events I have tickets for…

– 10.30-11.30am, Cast Away/Breach: Europe’s refugee crisis, with Charlotte McDonald-Gibson, Olumide Popoola and Annie Holmes National Maritime Museum

– 14.30-15.30 Silver age of the Small Presses with And Other Stories, Galley Beggar and Salt

– 1530-16.30 Inside the Mind of an Outsider with Alex Pheby, Anakana Schoefield and Andrew Hankinson

– 16.30-17.30 The Rise and Rise of the Short Story with Joanna Walsh, Carys Davies and Paul McVeigh

– 18.00-19.00 Why we need more diverse stories with Alex Wheatle, Yvvette Edwards, Catherine Johnson and Irenosen Okojie

– 18.00-19.00 Kate Summerscale: The Wicked Boy

– 19.00-20.00 Reality Skewed with Paul Ewen and Adam Biles

– 20.00-21.00 Brix Smith Start

– 21.00-22.00ish… The Galley Beggar vs Influx with Adam Biles, Preti Taneja, Paul Stanbridge, Juliet Jacques, Courttia Newland and Irenosen Okojie

The Good Son Review – Pank Magazine

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A wonderful review of The Good Son by Cath Barton in Pank Magazine. You can read the whole thing here.

“Paul McVeigh navigates the choppy sea of Mickey’s shifting experiences and rapidly-changing emotions with skill and verisimilitude. (he) traces the physical geography of Ardoyne with as much precision as he depicts the geography of the human heart.  As a reader you run up and down those streets with Mickey, onto the wastelands where kids sniff glue and bombs explode unpredictably. He navigates the tricky first person narrative style with assurance and peoples the story with vivid characters… they step off the page…

Mickey Donnelly deserves to take his place in the litany of boy literary heroes. Paul McVeigh’s prose sings from page one in the accents of the North Belfast streets, and is rich in detail. While The Good Son does not have the same breadth, it has something of the spirit of Dickens or Zola, transformed for our times. Gritty realism with a human face. Not only is it hugely enjoyable, but it also conveyed to me more of the atmosphere of the Troubles than any number of factual accounts.”

That Killer First Page – Lancaster May 7th

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PaulMcVeigh short story‘That Killer First Page’ – my class on that crucial short story opening, goes to Lancaster on May 7th. You’ll find out what competition judges and journal editors look for in a short story and how to avoid the rejection pile.
 
This class has sold out in Bath, Belfast, Brighton, Cork, London and Melbourne. You can book your tickets here.
Here’s the copy…

That Killer First Page 

You’ll find out what competition judges and journal editors look for in a short story and how to avoid the rejection pile. You’ll write a short piece and get feedback on that crucial story opening. In a form where every word counts, get tips on staying focused on your story and where to start the action. You’ll also look at submission opportunities; how to find them and where you should be sending your stories.

About Paul

Paul McVeigh’s debut novel ‘The Good Son’ is currently Brighton’s City Reads and was shortlisted for The Guardian’s ‘Not the Booker Prize’. His short fiction has been published in journals and anthologies and been commissioned by BBC Radio 4. He has read his work for BBC Radio 5, the International Conference on the Short Story in Vienna, Belfast Book Festival, Wroclaw Short Story Festival and Cork International Short Story Festival the last 2 years. He has represented short stories in the UK for The British Council in Mexico and Turkey.

Paul’s short story blog shares writing opportunities and advice has had over 1 million hits. He’s interviewed short story masters like Kevin Barry, Elizabeth McCrackin and George Saunders. Paul is co-founder of London Short Story Festival and Associate Director at Word Factory, the UK’s leading short story literary salon. He is also been a reader and judge for national and international short story competitions. Completely Novel says that Paul is one of the 8 resources that will help you write a prize-winning short story.

Reviews for his writing:

“Heartbreaking..gripping” The Guardian

“A work of genius.” Pulizter Prize-winning short story writer Robert Olen Butler.

“Absolutely loved it.” Jackie Kay

“Beautiful and very moving.” Booker shortlisted Alison Moore
“Its such a clever story, gentle, poignant, emotionally straight as a dart.” Vanessa Gebbie
“(one of) Ireland’s most exciting and talented writers.  Incredibly moving; poignant but utterly real, funny and beautifully observant.” BBC Radio 4
“Paul McVeigh’s story stands out. Funny, moving, poignant. Brilliant.” Metro Newspaper

Comments for this class:

“Practical, insightful application of knowledge to writing.”
“Fantastic! Practical, targeted advice like this is wonderful!”
“This was my fav course yet! Informative, entertaining, and engaging. Hard to beat!”

Places are limited to 20. For unwaged discount please email paulmcveighwriter@live.co.uk