Kath McKay

Kath Mckay teaches creative writing at the University of Hull. Her stories have won awards in the Bloomsbury, Fish International and Ilkley Literature Festival short story competitions, and have been broadcast on Radio 4. They appear in anthologies by publishers such as Arc, Crocus and Kingston Press, and in magazines such as Red Ink, and Metropolitan. She has had several Arts Council Awards for short stories. Articles on short story writers Flannery O’Connor, Tim Winton and Ron Rash are in Thresholds short story magazine. She has also delivered papers at conferences on Liverpool Irish short story writers, William Trevor, Flannery O’Connor, and Hull writers.

Kath will have a new poetry collection, Collision Forces, out in 2015, and in 2014 published a short poetry collection telling the Bees with Smiths Knoll. She has also published a novel with the Women’s Press, and a full poetry collection with Smith Doorstop, which won the Poetry Business competition. She has gained awards in other poetry competitions. Her poetry is in Mslexia, Magma, Brand, Eborakon, the Rialto, Smiths Knoll and other publications.

She did post-grad study in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, and has taught for Goldsmiths, various University of London colleges, Leeds University, Bradford University and the WEA. She has also mentored writers in Africa, and has worked with Finnish writers on a tri-lingual publication.

At present she also works on collaborative projects with the Humber Writers, published by Kingston Press.

Credentials

Kath McKay in 60 seconds

When did you start writing?

4 Liverpool, as soon as I could write.

What do you love about short stories?

The resonance, the way they pulsate and keep giving meaning. The shock to the system, the 'ah'.

Do you write in other forms?

Poetry. A novel. Reviews. Articles.

What distracts you from writing?

Reading the paper, emails, reading, anything if I let it.

Outside of writing, what are your other passions?

Watching films. Cycling. Swimming. Dancing.

What is your favourite book?

Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor, or The Turning by Tim Winton.

Who are your favourite writers?

Flannery O'Connor, Tim Winton and Ron Rash.

Where is your dream location?

No particular place, although a swimming pool is always handy.

What one item would you put into Room 101?

Those train announcers who repeat everything twice and tell you to remember to take all your belongings. They make me want to scatter mine everywhere.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Read, write, read, write.