Editing Bernard MacLaverty

{{Short description|Northern Irish writer}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name             = Bernard MacLaverty
| image            = 
| image_size       = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = 
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1942|09|14}}
| birth_place      = [[Belfast]], [[Northern Ireland]], United Kingdom
| death_date       = 
| death_place      = 
| occupation       = Novelist, playwright, screenwriter, short story writer, librettist
| education        = Holy Family Primary School
| alma_mater       = [[St Malachy's College]]<br>[[Queen's University Belfast]]
| notableworks     = ''Lamb'' (1980) <br/> ''[[Cal (novel)|Cal]]'' (1983), <br/> ''[[Grace Notes]]'' (1997), <br/> ''The Anatomy School'' (2001), <br/> ''Midwinter Break'' (2017)
| website          = {{URL|http://www.bernardmaclaverty.com/}}
| portaldisp       = 
| language         = English
}}

'''Bernard MacLaverty''' (born 14 September 1942) is a Northern [[Irish people|Irish]] fiction writer and novelist. His novels include ''[[Cal (novel)|Cal]]'' and ''[[Grace Notes]]''. He has written five books of short stories.

==Biography==
MacLaverty was born in no. 73 Atlantic Avenue in the Newington area of north [[Belfast]],<ref name="toner">Aine Toner, [https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/author-bernard-maclaverty-i-dont-know-why-but-when-i-start-to-create-belfast-peeps-around-the-corner/a1356433294.html "Author Bernard MacLaverty: 'I don’t know why, but when I start to create, Belfast peeps around the corner'"]. ''Belfast Telegraph'', 29 May 2025. Retrieved 29 May 2025</ref> [[Northern Ireland]]. He was educated at [[Bellshill|Holy Family Primary School]] in Newington and then at [[St Malachy's College]]. After school, he studied at [[Queen's University Belfast]] where he worked as a medical laboratory technician; later he showed [[Seamus Heaney]] some poetry he had written, prompting the renowned poet to advise MacLaverty to stick to short stories.<ref name="toner"/> He lived in Belfast until 1975, when he moved to Scotland with his wife, Madeline, and four children (Ciara, Claire, John and Jude). He initially lived in [[Edinburgh]] and then the island of [[Islay]] before settling in the [[Glasgow|West End of Glasgow]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Biography |url=http://www.bernardmaclaverty.com/biography |website=Bernard MacLaverty |access-date=20 August 2021}}</ref>

He was writer-in-residence at the Universities of [[University of Aberdeen|Aberdeen]], [[Liverpool John Moores University|Liverpool John Moores]], [[Augsburg University|Augsburg]] and [[Iowa State University|Iowa State]]. He was the Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence in the Celtic Studies Department of [[University of St. Michael's College]], a college at [[University of Toronto]], in October 2007.<ref>{{cite web|title=SMC Sponsored Programs - Celtic Studies - Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence Program: University of St Michael's College|url=https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/students/celtic-artist-in-residence/#Bernard_MacLaverty_writerOctober_2007|website=stmikes.utoronto.ca|accessdate=28 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929000921/https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/students/celtic-artist-in-residence/#Bernard_MacLaverty_writerOctober_2007|archive-date=29 September 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Work==
MacLaverty is the author of five novels and seven short story collections. His [[Debut novel|first novel]] ''Lamb'' was published in 1980. It is about faith, relationships and love. It was followed by ''[[Cal (novel)|Cal]]'' in 1983. This is an examination of love in the midst of violence. ''[[Grace Notes]]'', which was published in 1997, was shortlisted for the [[Booker Prize|Booker Prize for Fiction]]. It is about the conflict between a desire to compose and motherhood. ''The Anatomy School'' (2001) is a comedic [[Coming-of-age story|coming-of-age]] novel.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Maher |first1=Eamon |title=Bernard MacLaverty: a novelist with a Catholic sensibility |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/bernard-maclaverty-a-novelist-with-a-catholic-sensibility-1.3918087 |access-date=16 November 2023 |work=The Irish Times |date=10 June 2019}}</ref> 

He has also written six collections of short stories, the contents of which are mostly in ''Collected Stories'' (Cape, 2013).

MacLaverty wrote a screenplay for ''Cal'' in 1984, which was picked up for production by [[Goldcrest Films]]; [[Helen Mirren]] and [[John Lynch (actor)|John Lynch]] starred in [[Cal (1984 film)|''Cal'']] (1984), and [[Mark Knopfler]] composed the film soundtrack, also called ''[[Cal (soundtrack)|Cal]]''. The film was entered into the [[1984 Cannes Film Festival]], where Mirren won the award for [[Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]]. It was received well by critics,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cal {{!}} Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cal |access-date=2024-08-04 |website=www.rottentomatoes.com |language=en}}</ref> but lost money in the box office on the order of –£118,000 net profit.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Eberts |first1=Jake |title=My indecision is final |last2=Illott |first2=Terry |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=1990 |page=656}}</ref> He also adapted ''Lamb'' for the screen; [[Liam Neeson]] and [[Hugh O'Conor]] starred in ''[[Lamb (1985 film)|Lamb]]'' (1985) and [[Van Morrison]] composed the soundtrack.

MacLaverty has written versions of his fiction for other media – radio plays, television plays, screenplays and libretti. In 2003 he wrote and directed a short film ''Bye-Child'' (BAFTA-nominated for "Best Short Film") and more recently wrote libretti for Scottish Opera's Five:15 series ''The King’s Conjecture'', with music by Gareth Williams, and ''The Letter'' with music by Vitaly Khodosh. For Scottish Opera in 2012, and again with music by Gareth Williams, he wrote ''The Elephant Angel'', an opera for schools, which toured Scotland and [[Northern Ireland]].

==List of published works==

'''Novels'''
* ''Lamb'', Cape / Blackstaff Press (1980)
* ''[[Cal (novel)|Cal]]'', Cape / Blackstaff Press (1983)
* ''[[Grace Notes]]'', Cape / Blackstaff Press (1997)
* ''The Anatomy School'', Cape / Blackstaff Press (2001)
* ''Midwinter Break: A Novel'', W. W. Norton & Company (2017)

'''Short story collections'''
* ''Secrets & Other Stories'', Blackstaff Press (1977)
* ''A Time to Dance & Other Stories'', Cape / Blackstaff Press (1982)
* ''The Great Profundo & Other Stories'', Cape / Blackstaff Press (1987)
* ''Walking the Dog & Other Stories'', Cape / Blackstaff Press (1994)
* ''Matters of Life & Death & Other Stories'', Cape (2006)
* ''Collected Stories'', Cape (2013)
* ''Blank Pages and Other Stories'', Cape (2021)

==Critical reception==
There have been several extensive assessments of his work including:
* Rankin Russell, R. (ed.) (2014). ''About Bernard MacLaverty: New Critical Readings''. Bloomsbury Academic. (191 pages)
* Rankin Russell, R. (2009). ''Bernard MacLaverty''. Bucknell University Press, Contemporary Irish Writers Series. (175 pages).

[[Colm Tobin]] described '‘Midwinter Break'' as 'a work of extraordinary emotional precision and sympathy, about coming to terms – to an honest reckoning – with love and the loss of love, with memory and pain...this is a novel of great ambition by an artist at the height of his powers’.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tobin |first1=Colm |title=Midwinter Break |url=https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/bernard-maclaverty/midwinter-break.htm |website=Fantastic Fiction |access-date=16 November 2023}}</ref>

His work has received multiple awards including being nominated for the [[Booker Prize]] in 1997 for ''[[Grace Notes]]''. His novel ''Midwinter Break'' was the winner of the Bord Gáis Novel of the Year in 2017 and was shortlisted for the [[International Dublin Literary Award]]. Other awards were the Pharic McLaren Award for the best radio play from Radio Industries of Scotland for 'My Dear Palestrina' and the Jacobs Award for best play from Radio Telefis Eireann for television production 'My Dear Palestrina' in 1981, the London Evening Standard Award for best screenplay for 'Cal' in 1984 and the Bronze medal for screenplay of 'Lamb'; also voted best film by the youth jury and by the ecumenical jury, Lucarno Film Festival in 1987.

==Awards==
* 1988 - 'Scottish Writer of the Year'
* 2005 - The Lord Provost of Glasgow’s Award for Literature
* 2018 - Hennessy Literary Hall of Fame
* 2018 - Sunday Herald Culture Awards Best Writer Award 2018

* He is a member of [[Aosdána]], the Irish arts academy.

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
* [[List of Northern Irish writers]]
* [[List of members of Aosdána]]
* ''[[The Dawning]]''

==References==
<references />

==Further reading==
* Parker, Geoffrey (1983), ''An Interview with [[Brian Moore (novelist)|Brian Moore]] & Bernard MacLaverty'' in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), ''[[Cencrastus]]'' No. 14, Autumn 1983, pp.&nbsp;2 – 4, {{issn|0264-0856}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.bernardmaclaverty.com/ Official website]
* [http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Literature/MacLaverty.aspx Bernard MacLaverty] at [[Aosdána]]
* {{IMDb name|0533735}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120220233630/http://literature.britishcouncil.org/bernard-maclaverty Bernard MacLaverty] at British Council, Literature site
* [http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/release.php?id=751 "Award-winning author to teach Creative Writing at Aberdeen"], University of Abberdeen, 27 October 2006
*** [http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/learning/getwritingni/wh_maclaverty.shtml Writing page] BBC Northern Ireland

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maclaverty, Bernard}}
[[Category:1942 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Alumni of Queen's University Belfast]]
[[Category:Aosdána members]]
[[Category:Male novelists from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:People associated with Glasgow]]
[[Category:People educated at St Malachy's College]]
[[Category:Writers from Belfast]]
[[Category:Scottish novelists]]
[[Category:Scottish short story writers]]
[[Category:Male short story writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:20th-century male writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:21st-century male writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:20th-century short story writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:20th-century novelists from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:21st-century short story writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:21st-century novelists from Northern Ireland]]