Efacis “Lucy Caldwell blessed our grey and rainy Monday morning – a true dreich day, just like the one mentioned in her short story “Here we are” – with a captivating reading on her life and work. A classroom full of students was taken along on a fascination trip across her childhood in Belfast, her move to England as a student, and her first steps as a writer. Reading excerpts from some of her stories, engaging with student questions and musing about the power of litany in the music of Van Morrison, and, as Louis MacNeice famously put it, “the drunkenness of things being various,” she managed to entertain her audience all throughout the reading, sending everybody home with the reassuring thought that no matter what others tell you, your own stories really do matter.” (Lara Dutry on the morning session)
“In a morning lecture on the 24th of February, the Northern Irish author Lucy Caldwell was invited to present her successful collection of short stories Multitudes and her newest collection Intimacies, creating a wonderful opportunity for us to get in touch with her life and work. Her reading was very insightful, not only focusing on her past and her inspiration to write these stories, but also inspiring us to start writing ourselves. She explained what motivated her during her writing process, and demonstrated the immense effect you can create in your writing with just minor differences in detail. This lecture was an amazing experience where we became acquainted with a brilliant writer and her fascinating vision on literature and identity.” (Julia Matvij on the morning session)
“On Monday evening, we attended a reading by the amazing Irish author Lucy Caldwell, who captivated all of us with her enthusiastic and inspiring anecdotes and a beautiful excerpt from her new short story collection. She told us that throughout her life she always negotiated the world through reading, and in my opinion, she most definitely does this through writing as well.” (Kelsey Dewulf on the reading in Waterstones)
“Lucy Caldwell’s reading at the Brussels Waterstones store was the perfect way to heat up and face the dreich, as she herself described it, February day. While the wind and rain were playing outside, her voice transported us right into Belfast. She showed us the city through her eyes, using her own voice to create a collection of short stories that united it. By telling how she got to writing the stories, you could not help but feel the itch to pick up your own pen. She assured everyone present that it is exactly in the moments of big, important discourse that one should write about the things they do not see in those discourses. Creating the literature that you always felt lacked in the current world of literatures. We all have a voice, and we should use it to create what we feel we need today.” (Ariëlle Decroix on the reading in Waterstones)
