One of Elif Shafak’s selected writers for the International Literature Showcase
“Lucy Caldwell’s words across discipline and form open compelling and unforgettable worlds with such sensitivity and humanity, they challenge us to rethink what we thought we knew.”
– Elif Shafak
Mother-of-two, reader of everything, writer of novels, short stories, plays
Lucy Caldwell was born in Belfast in 1981. She has written 3 novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, a collection of short stories, and is the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber, 2019). Awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, George Devine Award, Dylan Thomas Prize, Imison Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Award, Commonwealth Writers’ Award (Canada & Europe), Edge Hill Readers’ Choice Award, a Fiction Uncovered Award, and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.
“Beautifully crafted, and so finely balanced that she holds the reader right up against the tender humanity of her characters.” Eimear McBride, on Multitudes
“An under-hyped Irish writer? They do exist. Multitudes is her debut collection, and it’s brilliant. Like Joyce’s Dubliners, it begins with stories of childhood, moves through adolescence, and ends with stories of maturity.” Kevin Power in the Sunday Business Post
“A writer of rare elegance and beauty, Caldwell doesn’t just get inside her characters’ minds. She perches in the precarious chambers of their hearts, telling their stories truthfully and tenderly.” Lucy Scholes, The Independent, on The Meeting Point
“This is what theatre should be: close, personal, emotional and unapologetically human… if you don’t jump from your seat in applause at the final curtain, please check your pulse, and anything else you deem critical in making you human.” Telly Halkias, American Theatre Critics Association, on Three Sisters
“Heartbreaking… gripping… raw.” Irish Independent, on All the Beggars Riding
As Brexit looms, and the state of Northern Ireland’s borders looks parlous, it feels more important than ever to be forging new European and international relationships; to be starting conversations and finding common ground. I can’t wait to find new readers, and writers new-to-me to read.
Bibliography
Novels
- Where They Were Missed, Viking, 2006
- The Meeting Point, Faber, 2011
- All the Beggars Riding, Faber, 2013
Plays (published)
- Leaves, Faber 2007
- Notes to Future Self, Faber, 2011
- Three Sisters, after Chekhov, Faber, 2016
Radio dramas (all broadcast on BBC Radio 4)
- Girl From Mars, 2007
- Avenues of Eternal Peace, 2009
- Witch Week, 2012
- The Watcher on the Wall, 2013
- Quicksands, 2015
- Dear Baby Mine, 2016
- Mayday, 2017
- Martians, 2019
Short stories
- Multitudes, Faber, 2016
As editor
Being Various: New Irish Short Stories, Faber, 2019
Various
Other short stories have been variously published, most recently in The Penguin Book of the Contemporary Short Story (Penguin, 2018), The Glass Shore: Female Writers from the North of Ireland (New Island, 2016), Granta 135: New Irish Writing (Granta, 2016), The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers, (New Island, 2015) Belfast Noir (Akashic Press, 2014) and All Over Ireland: New Irish Short Stories (Faber, 2015)
Contact Lucy
Personal
Website: www.lucycaldwell.com
Twitter: @beingvarious
Agents
For fiction: Peter Straus at RCW Literary Agency, [email protected]
For drama, Harriet Pennington Legh at Troika Talent, [email protected]
Publisher
Faber publish my novels, short stories and plays. Publicist is Maria Garbutt-Lucero, [email protected]
Image credit (c) Eamonn Doyle
