The Laureate says “MacLaverty
offers a masterclass in how to
create character, how to build
scenes by accretion of detail,
how to work with implication
and suggestion, how to write
indirectly and manages to
create more energy and more
expression by working in muted
colours and plain textures.”
Bernard MacLaverty was born in Belfast
(14.9.42) and lived there until 1975 when
he moved to Scotland with his wife,
Madeline, and four children. He has
been a Medical Laboratory Technician,
a mature student, a teacher of English
and occasionally a Writer-in-Residence
(Universities of Aberdeen, Augsburg,
Liverpool John Moore’s and Iowa State).
After living for a time in Edinburgh
and the Isle of Islay he now lives in
Glasgow. He is a member of Aosdána.
He has published five novels and six
collections of short stories most of which
are gathered into Collected Stories
(2013). He has written versions of his
fiction for other media – radio plays,
television plays, screenplays, libretti.
Blank Pages, published in August 2021,
is his sixth collection of short stories.