Lucy Caldwell

FRSL
Born1981 (age 41–42)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
OccupationPlaywright and novelist
NationalityIrish
EducationStrathearn School
Alma materQueens' College, Cambridge; Goldsmiths College
Genreplaywright; novelist
Notable worksLeaves; The River
Notable awardsGeorge Devine Award
Susan Smith Blackburn Award
Richard Imison Award
BBC National Short Story Award

Lucy Caldwell FRSL (born 1981) is a Northern Irish playwright and novelist. She was the winner of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award and of the 2023 Walter Scott Prize.

Biography

Born in Belfast in 1981 in what she later described as into

one of the darkest and most turbulent years of the Troubles: the year the hunger strikes began, when within a few months Bobby Sands and nine others died; when things seemed to be spiralling irrevocably out of control.[1]

She studied at Strathearn School and later at Queens' College, Cambridge, graduating with a First-Class Degree, and Goldsmiths College, London. Caldwell left the city she had always considered "boring, introverted" in 1999,[1] but later declared: "yes, it's true: I do love this city, and I do love these streets, and I am proud to be from here."[1]

In June 2004, Caldwell's first short play, The River, was performed at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and subsequently the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The play won her the PMA Most Promising Playwright Award. Caldwell spent time as writer-on-attachment to the National Theatre in 2005.[2] Her first full-length play, Leaves, won the 2006 George Devine Award, the 2007 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the BBC Stewart Parker Award. In 2007 it was produced by the Druid Theatre Company,[3] and directed by Garry Hynes. The play premiered in Galway before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre.[4]

Her second full-length play, Guardians, premiered at the 2009 HighTide Festival in Halesworth. Reviewing the production, critic Michael Billington wrote: "[Caldwell] writes with real power about lost love. I was much moved."[5] Notes to Future Self was produced at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March 2011, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh. It was described in The Stage as "Brave, beautiful, and quite extraordinary".[6]

Caldwell's first novel, Where They Were Missed, set in Belfast and County Donegal, was published in February 2006[7] and short-listed for the 2006 Dylan Thomas Prize.[8] It was described by Vogue as "a debut reminiscent of Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden and Trezza Azzopardi's The Hiding Place.

Caldwell's second novel, The Meeting Point, centred on a young Irish missionary couple who journey to Bahrain, was published in February 2011 by Faber. It was described by the Sunday Times as "Compelling, passionate and deeply resonant",[9] and by The Guardian as "haunting... compulsively readable".[10]

Caldwell's radio play, Girl From Mars, broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2008, won the Irish Playwrights' and Screenwriters' Guild Award ("ZeBBie") for Best Radio Play and the BBC's Richard Imison Award for best script by a writer new to radio. In their verdict, the judges said:

This is a gripping and powerful depiction of the effect on a family when one sibling goes missing. The beautifully-told story begins when a body is found and the remaining daughter returns to be with her family while they await identification. Girl From Mars is moving and emotionally taut. It veers away from sentimentality and felt personal and believable. The structure is complex – combining three different timescales – and uses radio to its full potential, using many techniques including voice-overs, dialogue, text messages, and voice mail. The story has a shades-of-grey resolution about the way a person's life can tragically stop short – and this is echoed in the subtle way the writer ends her own play too.

In 2012, Caldwell was the recipient of a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Her novel, All the Beggars Riding, published in 2013, was shortlisted for both the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and the Fiction Uncovered selection and was chosen as Belfast's One City One Book.

Caldwell won the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award for "All the People Were Mean and Bad".[11]

In 2022, Caldwell published These Days, a fictionalized account of the Belfast Blitz, revolving around the lives of two sisters. The book won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction in 2023.[12]

Novels and plays

Novels

  • Where They Were Missed (Faber, 2005) ISBN 9780670916054, OCLC 62475550
  • The Meeting Point (Faber, 2011) ISBN 9780571272815, OCLC 663441515
  • All the Beggars Riding (Faber, 2013) ISBN 9780571270552, OCLC 815364539
  • Multitudes: eleven stories (Faber, 2016) ISBN 9780571313501, OCLC 949756278
  • These Days (Faber, 2022), 2023 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

Stage plays

  • Leaves (2007) ISBN 9780822223283, OCLC 436843820 ; Chapel Lane, Galway, transferring to the Royal Court (Upstairs), London
  • Carnival (2008) produced by Kabosh at Edinburgh Festival Spiegeltent
  • Guardians (2009)
  • The Luthier (2009) Origin Theatre Company as part of the New York 1st Irish Festival
  • Notes to Future Self (2011) at Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company
  • Hier Soir, Demain Soir (2012), commissioned by the Comédie de Valence, for Festival Ambivalence(s)

Radio plays

  • Girl from Mars (2008) BBC Radio 4
  • Avenues of Eternal Peace (2009) BBC Radio 4
  • The Watcher on the Wall (2013) BBC Radio 4

Awards and honours

References

  1. 1 2 3 Caldwell, Lucy (2 January 2007). "Belfast revisited: Lucy Caldwell returns to a brighter city". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  2. ↑ "Culture Northern Ireland Profile: Lucy Caldwell". Culturenorthernireland.org. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  3. ↑ "Leaves at Druid Theatre Workshop". Druidtheatre.com. 17 April 1985. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  4. ↑ "Leaves at Royal Court Theatre". Royalcourttheatre.com. 9 April 2007. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  5. ↑ Michael Billington (5 May 2009). "Theatre review: Guardians/Muhmah, The Cut, Halesworth". The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  6. ↑ Pat Ashworth (8 March 2011). "Notes to Future Self". Thestage.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  7. ↑ "Edition details". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "Dylan Thomas Prize 2011 shortlist is announced". BBC News. 20 October 2011.
  9. ↑ "novelist and playwright". Lucy Caldwell. Archived from the original on 31 May 2011. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  10. ↑ Stevie Davies (5 March 2011). "The Meeting Point by Lucy Caldwell – review | Books". The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  11. 1 2 Flood, Alison (19 October 2021). "Lucy Caldwell wins BBC national short story award for 'masterful' tale". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  12. 1 2 Salt, Rebecca (15 June 2023). "Lucy Caldwell wins 2023 Walter Scott Prize for These Days -". The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  13. ↑ "Novelist and Dramatist Lucy Caldwell Awarded Rooney Prize 2011". Trinity College, Dublin. 26 October 2011. Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
  14. ↑ Flood, Alison (28 June 2018). "Royal Society of Literature admits 40 new fellows to address historical biases". the Guardian. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
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