1. Interview with Paul McVeigh, Guest Director for the
London Short Story Festival
Paul McVeigh is the Guest Director of the London Short Story Festival. He co-
founded The Scarecrow Theatre Company and the Armada Theatre Festival,
which took place in Belfast, Derry and Dublin simultaneously. He is Associate
Director at Word Factory, the UK's leading short story literary salon, and is a
judge for short story competitions and prizes. His short story blog gets 40,000
hits a month, where he has interviewed authors including Kevin Barry and
George Saunders. Paul's short fiction has been published and journals and
read on BBC Radio 5. His novel 'The Good Son' was out with Salt Publishing in
April 2015 to wide critical acclaim. @paul_mc_veigh
So, the London Short Story Festival is all set for the 18th of this month and
you've got an absolutely stellar line up, from Ben Okri to Carys Davies. What
else can you tell us?
Well, thanks! We love the line up too and there are some amazing writers coming to
the festival this year. Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award-winner Kevin Barry
coming over from Ireland, BBC National Short Story Award-winner DW Wilson flying
in from Canada and Laura van den Berg flying in from the USA to make her UK
reading debut. The events are themed so short story lovers and writers can hear and
discover more about the process behind the writing of the short stories they
love.There are masterclasses, nearly all sold out so get in quick, and free workshops
with literary magazines like Ambit and the Creative Writing MA at Birkbeck.

2. What was the inspiration for the London Short Story Festival and how did it
move from idea to reality?
The inspiration came from a love for the short story form and seeing a space for a
focal point for it in the capital. It was to celebrate the wonderful talent in the UK and
around the world and provide an opportunity for a celebration and investigation of the
form. I had a long standing relationship with Spread the Word and when I joined
them as a guest programmer for a season we got really excited about the idea of
creating the festival during my time there. With Spread the Word's crucial role as
London's writer development agency and vast experience in creating large scale
projects investing in writing of all forms and my background in the short story through
my blog, Word Factory and being a writer myself, the timing and combination of skills
and passion was just perfect.
What is it about the short story that makes it worth celebrating?
The short story offers a piece of fiction that gets close to perfection. A writer can
refine and polish the raw materials of the story until it shines. The brevity required
can give a story a laser-like delivery that can get right to heart of the reader or
illuminate a transformative moment in time of a character's life for us to consider and
reflect upon. It is a form in its own right and needs to be preserved especially when
the incentives for writers, particularly financially, seem to be getting worse year by
year.
The short story has seen something of a boom in recent years, why do you
think this is?
This issue is debatable (see Chris Power's wonderful essay on this at Thresholds)
but certainly in terms of short story writers winning international prizes there was a
string of successes a year ago. Perhaps, writers and the literary world are reacting to
the lack of financial reward for short story writers and feared it would discourage
writers from working in the field? Perhaps it's a reflection of our times and the form
fits our electronic age and the speed with which we live our lives. In our daily battle
with time, short stories may provide a slice of fiction we can squeeze into our day.
If you could have speakers from the past, who would you have and why?
Oh so many. How about Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, Frank O'Connor to
name a few... They were masters of the form.

3. What advice would you give aspiring short story writers, hoping to get
noticed?
Read. The more you read the better you write. The better you write the more
likelihood you will get noticed.
Finally, what about the London Short Story Festival are you most excited by?
Saturday night's Modern Voices with Jon McGregor, May-Lan Tan and Laura an den
Berg is a dream line-up. Kevin Barry is a wonderful writer and watching him read is
an unforgettable experience. Last year, the atmosphere in Waterstones Piccadilly
was electric. Something I hadn't thought of was that many short story lovers who had
been online friends and peers all met in person for the first time at the festival.
Watching our Twitter and Facebook pages I can see plans being made for the same
thing this year. Brilliant to think the festival is bringing writers and short story lovers
together.
Interview by Rupert Dastur/The Short Story/5th
June 2015