For Banbridge-based poet turned novelist, Paul Jeffcutt every life has a story worth telling.
Whether journaling to make sense and keep note of everyday occurrences or crafting a crime novel where two people find love in the most unlikely of circumstances, Paul finds a way of encapsulating the beauty within ordinary people living extraordinary lives.
It’s an approach that has earned him widespread recognition.
In the last 20 years, Paul has racked up a total of 33 awards from poetry competitions in Ireland, the UK and the USA, with his work appearing in literary journals across Australia, Austria, Canada, Ireland, Britain and America.
Most recently, he has turned his hand to fiction, winning the Irish Writers’ Centre International Debut Novel Competition 2025 with ‘Brick Town’.
Yet behind the accolades lies a writer whose interests remain firmly rooted in everyday experience.
Speaking to Armagh I, Paul said he started writing at a young age. Like many, he dropped it temporarily in his youth, but always journaled.
Later, when the pen had firmly been taken back up, he joined a writer’s group in Belfast, where he was living at the time.
He had no formal training, no expert assistance. He writes how he wants to and revels in the fact that it’s “proved quite successful”.
His source material comes from an eclectic range of places including news reports, exhibitions, diaries, journals, broadcasts, obituaries, public notices and even snippets of conversation passed on by word of mouth.
“They are not necessarily personal to me,” he explains. “They can be stories that have happened to other people. Some of them are about events from the world. They are very varied.”
His most recently published poetry collection ‘True’, as reviewed by Kevin Higgins is summarised, “All the human condition, in its glorious difficulty, is here: the spiritual, the erotic, cancer, politics and history.”
Paul’s desire is to ensure readers have an “emotional connection”, to be “inspired”.
The Belfast-based writer’s group did much to build his confidence. This, he encourages any burgeoning writer to consider.
“When you start off you are copying people that you like and trying to emulate them,” he said. “But after a while you build up your own style that is distinctive and authentic to you.”
Among the writers who shaped his early development were Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney, both poets known for their ability to find significance in everyday life. Their influence can still be seen in Paul’s attention to ordinary people and overlooked stories, though his work has now developed a character all of its own.
Said Paul: “You’re exposing your own self and and it feels dangerous, but you have to do that. Then you submit your work, and have to bear the pain of rejection. That’s all part of being a writer, I’m afraid.”
Having taken all of the feedback over the years “on the chin”, Paul has now turned his hand to prose.
Three years of commitment, determination and sheer toil have resulted in the now award-winning ‘Brick Town’, which Paul is now aiming to secure a publisher for.
Describing the work that goes on behind the scenes in novel writing, he recalled a famous quote by Thomas Edison, “one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration!”
“Writing a novel is a big undertaking in comparison to writing a poem,” he explained. “You could finish a poem in three weeks with a fair wind but a novel, if you make changes, it has a knock on effect and can take much longer.”
His advice for anyone laying the foundations for a story of their own, “The first thing is… do it… write. The second thing is, go to a creative writing group and see what other people do, show people your work and get feedback on it. You have to get feedback.”
Fiction now occupies much of his writing time. He writes almost every day and has already begun work on a second novel.
In many ways, however, the transition feels less like a departure and more of an expansion.
“The poems I wrote that I enjoyed were more like little stories,” he says. “I’ve just expanded out into doing narrative-based things.”
Of his new novel, he added: “I have had to put it down for a while because I needed to do a bit of work on the one that won the award to get it published!” he laughed.
Those locally interested in learning more about Paul’s work are in for a treat!
He will be making an appearance at Tandragee Library on Tuesday June 23 at 6.30pm for an “entirely free” open ‘Meet the Author’ event, where he will read from ‘True’.
More information on Paul’s collection, life and works can be found via his website here.
