Look Again:
The surprises of inner and outer landscapes
A masterclass with Paul McVeigh and Cathy Galvin
Wednesday 2 July 2025; Zoom
7.00pm - 8.30pm; £15/£12
There are places - like this one - that are so thin that you meet yourself in the still point. No matter the past, the present or what is yet to come. There is nothing you can do but listen for the gap in the silence, the change in the wind.
Thin Places, Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Whatever their form, all stories take place somewhere. Join Belfast-born fiction writer Paul McVeigh and Coventry-born poet Cathy Galvin as they invite you to disrupt your usual writing practice and find a space to look again, and more deeply, at the all-too-familiar landscape of home.
Whatever your chosen literary form - but with a particular focus on the short story - this relaxed 90 minute session is aimed at helping you discover the still points and the surprising in the everyday. Exploring their own work and that of other writers who have inspired them, they will help you consider what lies beneath and within the landscapes we think we know.
Colleagues in the short story organisation, the Word Factory, Paul and Cathy both write across many forms and enjoy working with other writers: you can expect insight, banter, some suggested reading in advance (not essential) and some writing prompts and recommended reading to follow up in your own time.
About Cathy Galvin
Poet, editor and journalist Cathy Galvin is founder of the Word Factory and the Sunday Times Short Story Award. Her stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies, most recently The Book of Coventry (Comma Press). She is the editor of Red, the Waterstones Anthology of New Writing and The Guillemot Factory. Her journalism has appeared in national newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times, Financial Times and The Tablet. Her poetry is widely published and includes the sequences Walking the Coventry Ring Road With Lady Godiva (Guillemot Press), Rough Translation and Black and Blue (The Melos Press). Her collection, Ethnology, is due from Bloodaxe Books in 2026.
More about Cathy:
About Paul McVeigh
Paul McVeigh’s stories have been in numerous anthologies including Being Various, The Art of the Glimpse and Common People. They have also appeared in magazines and newspapers and on BBC Radio 3, 4, 5, and RTE Radio 1, as well as, on Sky ARTS. Paul co-edited the Belfast Stories anthology, edited Queer Love and The 32: Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices. Paul co-founded the London Short Story Festival and was an associate director of Word Factory. Paul’s debut novel, The Good Son, won The McCrea Literary Award and The Polari First Novel Prize. His writing has been translated into eight languages. I Hear You is an Irish Times Books to Look Out For 2025. It includes a ten-part sequence: ‘The Circus’, set around Cliftonville Circus, where five roads meet in North Belfast, the poorest and most divided part of the city. Each road leads to a different area – a different class – a different religion, where old Belfast clashes with the new around.
More about Paui:
About The Word Factory
Described by The Guardian as 'A national organisation supporting excellence in short fiction', The Word Factory a community of writers, run by writers seeking to develop the quality of their work and create exciting new platforms for the short story form. Committed to supporting the next generation of short story writers through an Apprenticeship Award scheme, it also presents live events and interviews, many of which are also captured online, on film and podcast, and in print.
More about The Word Factory:
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This work is supported by funding from
MK Community Foundation