‘Everything you write requires a portion of your soul, I think, to make it live’

Lucy Caldwell, whose collection Multitudes was published yesterday, opens up about it and her adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters to fellow Belfast writer Paul McVeigh

(from The Irish Times)
Lucy_Caldwell_portraitWere you always going to be a writer?
It seems so – I wrote my first “novel”, “the robin’s party”, when I was 4½. My Mum says that before I could even write I would ask her to fold pages up to look like books, and tell her what words I wanted in them. I made a programme recently about the Brontë siblings – who were half-Irish, as people often forget – and was digging around in my parents’ attic in search of my own “juvenilia” (not to glorify it with such a word!) and I found boxes and boxes of the “books” and “magazines” I used to make for my sisters, thick chronicles of our imaginary worlds and the genealogies … Read more

Cyprus Avenue

cyprusOn April 1, BBC broadcast Cyprus Avenue, one of the stories from Lucy’s anthology Multitudes. The story was read by Laura Pyper and the programme was produced by Heather Larmour.

Cyprus Avenue tells of a chance meeting at the airport awaiting an increasingly-delayed flight sees a young couple discover they have childhood histories – and family tragedies – in common, growing up on the streets of East Belfast, experiences which have defined every aspect of their lives, not least their relationship to the city they once called home. But as they journey back to Belfast, to their families and to the reminders of the past, they slowly begin to look to the future.

‘Cyprus Avenue’ is included in Lucy’s forth-coming debut short story collection ‘Multitudes’ to be published by Faber on 5th May

… Read more

Granta 135: New Irish Writing

Granta New Irish WritingGranta 135 is a snapshot of contemporary Ireland, which shows where one of the world’s most distinguished and independent literary traditions is today. Here international stars rub shoulders with a new generation of talent from a country which keeps producing exceptional writers.

This issue features Lucy Caldwell imagining forbidden first love in Belfast; Kevin Barry on Cork, ‘as intimate and homicidal as a little Marseille’; an exclusive extract of Colm Tóibín’s next novel, about growing up in the shadow of a famous father; fiction from Emma Donaghue about Victorian Ireland’s miraculous fasting girls; and Sara Baume describing the wild allure and threat of the rural landscape.

Also featuring fiction from Colin Barrett, John Connell, Mary O’Donoghue, Roddy Doyle, Siobhán Mannion, Belinda McKeon, Sally Rooney, Donal Ryan and William Wall; poetry from Tara Bergin, Leontia Flynn and Stephen Sexton; photography by Doug DuBois, Stephen Dock and Birte Kaufmann; with original portraits … Read more

“Three Sisters” at the Lyric

threesistersAs part of the Vivid Faces season at the Lyric Theatre, Lucy Caldwell was  commissioned to create a modern resetting of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. This new version, which will have its world premiere at the Lyric in October 2016, is to be directed by Selina Cartmell.

 

Vivid Faces

The Lyric Theatre  announced its Spring – Autumn 2016 season, entitled Vivid Faces: Eight plays exploring the nature of identity. The plays, which will be performed between April and November, include the world premieres of three new works by local writers, a co-production with the Young Vic in London of Conor McPherson’s new play (also a world premiere), and plays to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme.

More information about Vivid Faces can be had at the Lyric Theatre website.… Read more

RTÉ Liveline Top 10 Books of 2015

As part of Joe Duffy’s roundup of the 10 best books of 2015 – as voted by listeners to RTÉ Radio – playwright Peter Sheridan spoke about The Long Gaze Back, an anthology of short stories by Irish women writers edited by Sinéad Gleeson. He singled out Lucy Caldwell’s story ‘Multitudes’ for particular praise. Listen to the excerpt from the programme here.… Read more