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Chicago here I come!


Long time no blog. I’ve had a busy time of it. My 2014 was full of readings and promotions for my debut short story collection, The Scattering – which in July got itself shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Prize. I really enjoyed the Edge Hill prize-giving ceremony in Farringdon, London. It was a chance to meet the judges and other shortlisted writers and of course the winner, John Burnside, of whom I am, and have been for a while, an enormous fan.

Later in the year I spent a lot of time working on three plays shortly to be published by Samuel French. And in the gaps I worked on my novel, which I hope to complete shortly! Then around October of last year I learned that I had been nominated amongst 33 other Irish writers of fiction (from a list of 120) for the inaugural Irish Fiction Laureate. That is an honour indeed.

My current project is 'Belfast Girls in Chicago'. My play is slated to open on May 16th (an auspicious date for me as it is my dead mother’s birthdate) and run for four weeks at the Den Theatre, Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago. It is to be presented by the marvellous all-female theatre company, Artemisia. And I am going to be there for at least some rehearsal and opening night. Regina Buccola, Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Languages at Roosevelt University in Chicago, wrote a remarkable feature about the play, referring to it as ‘a materialist feminist play in the tradition of Caryl Churchill’s Fen’. Here’s a link to Buccola’s article:

http://www.artemisiatheatre.org/2014/11/artemisias-american-premiere-of-belfast.html

I am thrilled that Belfast Girls is to get its American premiere in this particular city. Chicago's appetite for the new and cutting-edge is legendary; it gave a start to many plays - such as Ibsen's Ghosts - when other towns were too timid to premiere them. It's also the home of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and of one of my absolute favorite writers, Tracy Letts. Chicago really is a theatre town and I simply cannot wait to go there!

I am still talking to various people about Belfast Girls for the screen. These things take ages but I hope something will move on it this year. I and a very talented (female) UK director have great plans for this story. Treatments and pitches have been written! There are not many fictional stories set during the Famine (excluding Channel 4 sitcoms) that explore how women in particular fared during this period, so the story is still attracting a lot of interest. And if you happen to be in London on January 28th, there is a reading at RADA, at 62 Gower Street, at 7pm, as part of the 100 Plays: Women at Rada reading series (the series opens with work from April de Angelis on January 14th), to which you are all cordially invited. Let me know if you are coming by emailing your details to: jaki_mac@hotmail.com.





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