>

Louise (Kavyasiddhi) Mulvey

Playwright, Short-story writer

About

I joined the Royal Literary Fund in 2023, running a Reading Round in Manchester Central Library, and a pilot scheme in schools. I’m a Writing for Life Fellow and will mentor Fellows in 2025.

I always loved reading, and the way words and stories draw us in.  In my twenties I worked in theatre, performed improvised comedy, and read scripts. That led to me advocating for playwrights and playwriting in London, Manchester and Sheffield. Eventually, encouraged by a friend, I began to write. Radio Times called my first radio play ‘a superb two voice drama…tantamount to beautiful poetry’.

I always had – still have – other jobs alongside writing: teaching adults, researching quality of life, and various admin, interviewing and helping roles. Sometimes I use my skills to share information, or publicise events. I wrote Pause for Thoughts on BBC Radio Two. It’s all about using words, to connect.

Then, several things happened and writing took a back seat.

But one consequence of the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, along with time at home, was the emergence of online networks, which renewed my writing. To date: three plays, a handful of short stories and 5,000 words of a novel.

The ideas that start as a note scribbled on a napkin, or at traffic lights are exciting – until I have to craft them into three dimensions for the stage, or make the world clear enough for a reader to see on page one.  That takes effort and persistence, courage even. But running a Reading Round proves the magic of words, even when they wait like seeds in a packet.  You don’t know who will respond, or when, but there are moments when the atmosphere in the room shifts. A mood is created, when people see that someone else knows how they feel, and has put it into words.  It can be done, and that’s my aim.