We read because we want to experience lives and emotions beyond our own, to learn, to see, with others’ eyes. Join us as Kit De Waal and Paul McVeigh engage in a lively discussion of the short story writing of working-class writers across the UK and Ireland. This event will be moderated by Deirdre Walsh.
Please do join us. You can check out the rest of the programme here.
The Launch of the 32: An Anthology of Working Class Voices – and Kit de Waal and Paul McVeigh: Why We Need More Diversity in Publishing
The 32 Launch Introduced by Kit de Waal and Editor Paul McVeigh with short readings from the Northern Irish contributors Riley Johnston, Dr Michael Pierse and Marc Gregg.
The 32 is the Irish version of ‘Common People’ anthology edited by Kit de Waal. It has 16 established Irish working class voices including Roddy Doyle, Kevin Barry, Lisa McInerney and Daniel McLaughlin, as well as, 16 new writers from across the island of Ireland. The anthology aims to go some way towards highlighting the lack of access working class writers have to the publishing industry.
This event will also include a free wine reception and refreshments. and is supported by The Irish Secretariat and Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
The launch will include a conversation between two of our leading authors who have championed working class writers discuss the challenges faced by people from less affluent backgrounds in getting into print and how they can be overcome. They will discuss the lack of diversity in publishing and the importance of promoting a wider range of voices in literature. The event will consider why the books industry still so white, middle-class and male and what steps can we take to make publishing more inclusive.
Paul McVeigh is the editor of The 32 – an upcoming collection of essays and memoir, bringing together sixteen well-known writers from working class backgrounds with an equal number of new and emerging writers from all over the island of Ireland. He’ll be in conversation with two of the featured authors Lisa McInerney and Michael Nolan.
Here’s me on RTÉ One with Sean Rocks announcing that The 32: Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices extends the deadline to MAY 15 – we’re looking 16 new writers from all over the island of Ireland.
“Are you a new or emerging writer from a working class background? Would you like to be published alongside an Impac Award-winner, a Booker Prize-winner, two Sunday Times Short Story Award-winners, a senator, playwrights and poets? What about a professional development programme with the help of leading publishers and the Irish Writers Centre.”
Plus – come along to West Cork Literary Festival and take my novel course. You’ll also get to see amazing writers like… Roxane Gay, Cynan Jones, Eimear McBride & Paul Muldoon.
Did you know that Northern Ireland is the only region in the UK that has no writer development agency? It meant working class writers from NI couldn’t apply to be part of Kit de Waal’s ‘Common People’ anthology. ‘The 32’ anthology is here to redress this. Please pledge.