The first of our Summer Postcard Series sees Belfast-born writer Lucy Caldwell reading an extract from her short story ‘Here We Are’.
‘Here We Are’ was first published in Lucy’s debut short story collection, Multitudes (Faber, 2016). One of her most popular stories, it was subsequently reprinted in Belfast Stories (ed. Paul McVeigh and Lisa Frank, Doire Press, 2019) and in The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories (ed. Sinéad Gleeson, New Island, 2020). The story can also be read in translation in Catalan (Univers, 2019, trans. Esther Roig), Spanish (Catedral Books, 2019, trans. Angelica M. Ripa) and Polish (Pauza, 2021, trans. Aga Zano).
Lucy’s second short story collection, Intimacies , was published in May 2021 by Faber, to critical acclaim; the Sunday Times calling it “an unmissable book from one of Ireland’s most essential writers,” the Guardian hailing it as “outstanding”, the Financial Times and the Bookseller as “exquisite”, and Kevin Power, writing in the Irish Independent, “Eleven perfect stories, each one powerfully moving, empathetic, passionate, eloquent – apparently simple, actually profound […] Every one of these stories is faultless. There is a stunning, original talent at work here: a sharp political mind, a precise observational eye, and an extraordinary capacity for empathy.” Lucy’s new (4th) novel, These Days, about the Belfast Blitz, will be published by Faber in March 2022.