writing class

International Short Story Conference

/ Paul McVeigh Writer / Leave a comment

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.

Tuesday 17 June, 2025, 14:00-17:00

Paul McVeigh – The Art of the Powerful Short Story Narrative

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. 

Thursday, June 19, Session V: 11:00 AM-12:30 PM

V.A (MOD SUITE 4): Moderator: Kimberly Gentles. 

Writers: 

Paul McVeigh 

Éilís Ni Dhuibhne 

Judith Nika Pfeifer 

Showcasing Publications and How to Make it Work.

Saturday, June 21, 2025 – 1:30 – 3:30 pm

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.  

Teaching 2 Day Workshop at Listowel

/ Paul McVeigh Writer / Leave a comment

2 Day Workshop: How to Get Noticed with Paul McVeigh

About this event

How to get your work noticed

You’ll find out what competition judges, anthology and journal editors and publishers look for in a short story and how to avoid the rejection pile. You’ll learn how 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 work.

Paul had edited a journal, three anthologies and judges many international prizes as well as won some himself.

  • Paul McVeigh is an adjudicator for The Kerry Group Novel of The Year 2024.

Please be aware that all events at Listowel Writers’ Week will be recorded and photographed for promotional and archival purposes. Your presence constitutes consent to be filmed and photographed. Thank you.

Listowel Writer’s Week: where readers celebrate, and writers find their flow

Listowel Writer’s Week is Ireland’s oldest literary festival, and one of its most prestigious. Famously hospitable, the beautiful North Kerry town of Listowel is internationally renowned as a wellspring of literary inspiration and heritage. The 2024 Listowel Writer’s Week festival programme, exploring the theme Mother Nature, has been curated by the poet Martin Dyar.

Book here.

More about Paul McVeigh

Paul’s debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize, The McCrea Literary Award and was shortlisted for many others including the Prix de roman Cezam. His short stories have appeared in The Art of the Glimpse, Being Various: New Irish Short Stories, The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly as well as, on RTE Radio, BBC Radio, and Sky Arts. He edited the Queer Love anthology and The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices. His writing has been translated into seven languages.In 2023, his play, Big Man, won an Irish Times Theatre Award and his ten-part short story series, The Circus, aired on BBC Radio 4.Paul co-founded the London Short Story Festival and is associate director of Word Factory ‘the UK’s national organisation for excellence in the short story’ The Guardian. He has judged the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Royal Society of Literature’s V. S. Pritchard Short Story Prize, Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition and The Interantional Dylan Thomas Prize among many.

Teaching at John Hewitt Summer School

/ Paul McVeigh Writer / Leave a comment

Write Short Stories that Stand Out at The John Hewitt Society, Monday 24th, Tuesday 25th and Thursday 27th July.

One of my few teaching gigs this year. Snap it up quick.

“In this course you will find out what competition judges and anthology & journal editors
look for in a short story. You will get tips on where to start the action and how to grab the reader’s attention, as well as opportunities for submission, how to 昀椀nd them and where you should be sending your stories.”

Book here.

Click to access JHSS_2023_WEB_01.pdf

That Killer First Page at Birmingham Lit Fest

/ Paul McVeigh Writer / Leave a comment

That Killer First Page – with Paul McVeigh

8th October, 10am-12noon, The Exchange.

“Short stories are where a lot of writers start, and short story competitions are enormously valuable to an emerging writer.

You’ll find out what competition judges and journal editors look for in a short story and how to avoid the rejection pile. 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.

Paul McVeigh is co-founder of London Short Story Festival and Associate Director at Word Factory. He’s been a reader and judge for national and international literary competitions and prizes. He had also edited four anthologies and reviews for the Irish Times and the TLS.”

Book here.

You can still listen to my short story ‘Dady Christmas’ on BBC Radio 4 here.

The Good Son 3rd Editon
You can buy here

Winner of The Polari First Novel Prize

‘A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.’ Donal Ryan

‘Raw, funny and endlessly entertaining’. Jonathan Coe

Inaugural Word Factory Writer-In-Residence

/ Paul McVeigh Writer / 2 Comments

“It is a huge delight to be working with award-winning novelist and short story writer Paul McVeigh as our inaugural writer-in-residence. At a time of such distance from each other, we wanted to be able of offer you the chance to work either one-to-one or in small groups with one of the most powerful voices in contemporary literature. With just a few places left, don’t miss his workshop on making abandoned ideas work on September 22nd. One-on-one slots are also available over the next few months.”

You can check out all the ways to get involved here.

Teaching My First Class in Dublin

/ Paul McVeigh Writer / Leave a comment

DATE AND TIME

Sat 13 October 2018 10:30am – 4:30pm

LOCATION

Brooks Hotel, 62 Drury Street, Dublin

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.

Focus:
How to get the attention of competition judges and editors
Writing fiction with emotional impact
Writing that killer first page
How to edit your story
Where to send your work

Paul McVeigh’s short fiction has been published in anthologies and journals inc. The Stinging Fly and Faber’s ‘Modern Irish Writing’. Stories have been commissioned by BBC Radio 3, 4 & 5 and Sky Arts TV. He was shortlisted for Irish Short Story of the Year 2017 at the Irish Book Awards. His short story blog shares writing opportunities and advice and gets 40,000 hits a month and has had over 2 million views. He’s interviewed short story masters like Kevin Barry, Elizabeth McCracken and George Saunders for The Irish Times. Paul co-founded the London Short Story Festival and is Associate Director at Word Factory, the UK’s national centre for excellence in the short story. He is a reader and judge for national and international short story competitions including, in 2018, the Sean O’Faolain Prize, the Edge Hill Prize and the International Dylan Thomas Prize. He is also the current fiction editor at Southword Journal where he recently commissioned Kit de Waal and twice Booker shortlisted Deborah Levy.

This event sold out in Adelaide, Bali, Bath, Belfast, Cork, Galway, Kuala Lumpur, Lancaster, London, Melbourne & Singapore.

“I emerged from the sleepy hamlet of my writing infancy last Saturday and was sky-rocketed, hurricaned, tsunamied, autobahned and g-forced out of my head by Paul McVeigh’s “That Killer First Page” Masterclass at Waterstones, Piccadilly. He’s on top of his game, gives instinctive, constructive criticism and in a few short hours, had conveyed the essence of how to make a story compelling and unputdownable from the first few lines. Get on one of his courses if you can.”

Reviews for his short stories:
“Beautiful and very moving.” Booker shortlisted Alison Moore
“How moving and stunning that story is. It’s so raw and incredibly human.” Costa shortlisted Jess Richards
“(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

Paul’s debut novel The Good Son’ won 2 awards and was shortlisted for a further 5.

‘A work of genius…’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Olen Butler

“Both dancing and disquieting, complex and vivid, I devoured it in a day, but I’ve thought about it for many, many more.” Bailey Prize-winner Lisa McInerney The Glorious Heresies’

‘A triumph of storytelling. An absolute gem.’ Donal Ryan

PaulMcVeigh short story

My class ‘Those Killer First Chapters: Getting the attention of agents and editors’ is back. Waterstones Piccadilly, London, July 2.

/ Paul McVeigh Writer / Leave a comment

My class ‘Those Killer First Chapters: Getting the attention of agents and editors’ is back. Waterstones Piccadilly, London, July 2.

Thank you and congratulations Felicia Yap: “I attended Paul’s workshop two weeks before I went on submission. A truly enjoyable day and I learnt a lot. Sometimes, a single technical idea can make a real difference to our journeys as writers. I came away from Paul’s workshop with not one but several exciting possibilities. And yes, THE DAY AFTER YESTERDAY did get lots of attention merely two weeks later!” Selling for a 6 figure sum.

Click for more information and tickets.

Missed My Sold Out Class in Bath? Try Brighton Oct 10.

/ Paul McVeigh Writer / Leave a comment

‘That Killer First Page’, my class on the short story, has now sold out in Bath on Oct 17. It’s been quite a run… sold out in Belfast, Cork, Waterstones Piccadilly and Writers Victoria, Melbourne, where it broke records by selling out in 20 minutes!

If you missed your chance in Bath you could always try Brighton. I’ll be teaching the class for New Writing South writer development agency on October 10. Click here to find out more.

PaulMcVeigh short story

Don’t forget I’m judging the Penny Dreadful Novella Prize alongside Sarah Baume and Colin Barrett and am the sole judge of the Bare Fiction Short Story Prize.