Bernard MacLaverty

Bernard MacLaverty was born in Belfast where he lived until 1975 when he moved, with his wife and four children, to Scotland. He first lived in Islay and then for a short spell in Edinburgh before finally settling in Glasgow.

MacLaverty left school with two A-levels, in English and Chemistry, which secured him a job as a lab technician in the anatomy department at Queen’s University, Belfast. He worked at Queen’s for ten years before returning to study English and training as a teacher.

He has been a Guest Writer for short periods at the University of Augsburg and at Iowa State University. He has also held posts as Visiting Writer/Professor at Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, and for a two years in the mid-eighties was the Writer-in-residence at the University of Aberdeen. Bernard MacLaverty is also a member of Aosdana, an affiliation of creative artists in Ireland.

Two years after his move to Scotland and whilst still working as a teacher his first collection of short stories, Secrets and Other Stories (1977), was published; which won the Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Bernard MacLaverty has written other collections of short-stories including: A Time To Dance and Other Stories (1982), The Great Profundo and Other Stories (1987), two anthologies of his best work, Walking The Dog and Other Short Stories (1994) and most recently Matters of Life and Death (2006).

He has also written four novels: Lamb (1980) his first novel won the Scottish Arts Council Book Award was runner-up for the Guardian Fiction Award, and has been adapted by MacLaverty for a film of the same name starring Liam Neeson (1984); Cal (1983), which has also been adapted by MacLaverty for a film starring Helen Mirran and John Lynch (1985); Grace Notes (1997) which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year and awarded the Saltire Book of the Year Award; and his latest novel, The Anatomy School (2001).

Bernard MacLaverty has written plays for television and radio, which include: My Dear Palestrina (1980), Phonefun Limited (1982), The Daily Woman (1986) and Sometime In August (1989) all of which were commissioned by the BBC.

Recently he wrote and directed a short-film, ‘Bye-Child’ which won a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best First Director and a BAFTA nomination for Best Short Film.

Other awards include Pharic MacLaren Special BBC Award for the adaptation of his own play, My Dear Palestrina, which was also a runner-up for the Pye Radio Award.

Peter Curran, the Belfast born arts and culture broadcaster, describes MacLaverty as; “…being able to use words with beautiful precision and his undestated style has made him accessible to readers from Nairobi to Norway – as well as Northern Ireland. Many of us first recognised ourselves in literature for the first time when reading MacLaverty’s work.”

Bernard MacLaverty has lived in Scotland almost as long as he lived in Ireland and has been a full-time writer since 1981. He wryly says of his occupation, “I suppose haven’t worked since 1981 and therefore I’m a writer.”