The Irish Times

Irish Writers Centre July 19

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Hope to see some of you tomorrow at 7.30pm.

Tickets via Eventbrite: €5 / €3 | Tickets on the door: €7

(glass of wine included)

The Irish Times Book Club in association with the Irish Writers Centre present:

The Good Son – Paul McVeigh in conversation with Martin Doyle and the Irish Times Book Club

A writer to be championed… utterly engaging… vivid, fresh and brought fully to life… written with a sharp eye and a big heart, The Good Son will establish Paul McVeigh as an important new Irish voice — Lucy Caldwell

About the book

Mickey Donnelly is smart, which isn’t a good thing in his part of town. Despite having a dog called Killer and being in love with the girl next door, everyone calls him ‘gay’. It doesn’t help that his best friend is his little sister, Wee Maggie, and that everyone knows he loves his Ma more than anything in the world. He doesn’t think much of his older brother Paddy and really doesn’t like his Da. He dreams of going to America, taking Wee Maggie and Ma with him, to get them away from Belfast and Da. Mickey realises it’s all down to him. He has to protect Ma from herself. And sometimes, you have to be a bad boy to be a good son.

About the author

Paul McVeigh’s work has been performed on stage and radio, published in print and been translated into 7 languages. He began his career as a playwright in his home town, Belfast, before moving to London where he wrote comedy shows, which were performed at the Edinburgh Festival and in London’s West End. The Good Son (Salt), his first novel, was Brighton’s City Reads for 2016, shortlisted for The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and is currently a finalist for The People’s Book Prize and longlisted for The Polari Prize. It was shortlisted for The Guardian’s ‘Not The Booker’ Prize in 2015 and chosen by The Literary Platform to be part of The UK-Russia Year of Language and Literature. He won The McCrea Literary Award in 2015.

– This event will be recorded in front of a live audience for the Irish Times Book Club podcast so please arrive promptly.
– Whether you’ve read the book or not, come along on the 19th and join in the conversation. The book will also be available for purchase at the event.

Book your ticket for Irish Times Book Club now >>>

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.

 

 

The Good Son The Irish Times Book Club Choice

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Some exciting news. The Good Son has been chosen by The Irish Times as their Book Club choice for next month, July. During the month there will essays & reviews by authors & my UK and foreign publishers, and interviews with me. It will culminate with a live event in Dublin at The Irish Writers’ Centre where I’ll be interviewed by Martin Doyle, assistant literary editor of The Irish Times on July 19 at The Irish Writers’ Centre.

What have you got to look forward to?

The original, 17 yr old, short story The Good Son is based on.

Maybe even a lost chapter never before published…

Contributions from…

Lisa McInerney – winner of the Bailey’s & Desmond Elliot Prize

Laura van den Berg – who Salon.com calls ‘the best young writer in America’

Alison Moore – Booker-shortlisted author of The Lighthouse

Lucy Caldwell – winner of the Dylan Thomas & Rooney Prize among many others

Paul Burston – author of 7 novels & founder of The Polari Salon & Prize

Sarah Hutchings of City Reads Brighton

Danielle McLaughlin – short story wonder and New Yorker contributor

My agent Carrie Kania and publisher Jen Emery-Hamilton & more…

It’s going to be a wonderful month.

New Book Cover

Currently finalist for The People’s Book Prize & 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
ELLE Magazine Best Books of 2015
The Irish Independent Top Reads of 2015
One of 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Irish Writers Pay Tribute To Bowie

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I join Julian Gough, Joseph O’Connor, Edna O’Brien, Roddy Doyle, Eimear McBride and more in personal tributes to David Bowie from Irish writers in The Irish Times.

Here’s an extract from my contribution. Head over to The Irish Times to read it all and the contributions from some amazing writers.

“I’ve always had guides when it came to music and I remember the when and where of every significant artist for me. As a young boy my older brother played me Al Green in our bedroom. In secondary school a friend led me to Kate Bush. I remember who introduced me to Nina Simone at a summer camp, Bessie Smith in the common room at college, Billie Holiday at university digs and David Bowie on the A406 in London.”

This is a photograph I saw for this first time recently.

What a loss.Bowie

 

Trip to Turkey with The British Council

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I’ve been invited to Turkey in February to represent the UK in the field of short stories. Last year I was lucky enough to travel to Mexico thanks to the British Council. I read at events, went on TV and radio and met Mexican authors like Monica Lavin (we did an interview for The Irish Times).

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Monica Lavin

 

I also wrote an article for The British Council’s Voices blog “Is it better to be a short story writer or a novelist?”.

I’m a big lover of the short story and set up a blog a few years ago sharing articles, interviews and submission opportunities. I joined the wonderful Word Factory which has become the UK’s leading short story salon and am now the Associate Director. I went on to be the co-founder of the London Short Story Festival with Spread the Word in 2014.

Me, Deb Levy, SJ Naude, Marina Warner, Cathy Galvin

Me, Deborah Levy, SJ Naude, Marina Warner and Cathy Galvin at London Short Story Festival

 

I love meeting other writers and working with authors from different countries. I’ve always wanted to go the Istanbul too – I hope I get to visit there on my trip. A great piece of news to start the year. Hope yours is starting well too!

My Q&A with bestselling Mexican author Monica Lavin in The Irish Times

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I met Monica Lavin on a trip to Mexico recently with The British Council. A huge star over there she is also a beautiful person. It was a pleasure to do this Q&A with her.

Q&A with bestselling Mexican author Monica Lavin about turtle dung, short stories versus novels, memory and migration

(Here’s just a little snippet…. head over to The Irish Times to read more.)

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Why the love for short story writing?

Because I read wonderful stories as a teenager: Chekhov, Bradbury, Hemingway, Cortazar, Borges, Rulfo. Latin American writers’ books were fresh, the writers were alive. That gave another dimension to what I had read before. When I was a child I thought all writers were dead people. Maybe that is one of the reasons I could not picture myself as one, even though I had been writing stories since I was 13 years old. I did not how to become a writer.

Does your writing have anything to do with your scientific background?

I think science and writing have to do with the desire to know. Science deals with objective truth, literature with relative truth. El Quijote taught us that. The short story aesthetic has more to do with mathematical equations – they have to be balanced: nothing extra, nothing missing. I love the silence of the short story.

Why did you started writing novels?

I always felt there was a question behind each short story – what if…? Now I know it is more than that, and what I thought would be a short story commanded several questions. I was dealing with multidimensional characters, several situations. I was in the grounds of the novel, and I plunged in. Now I write both. Short story writing is a way of thinking, so I always write them. I love the risk of both.

Don’t forget to check out the rest…. here.