Paddy Richardson recalls her Burns tenure: ‘[The] year was highly significant in my development as a writer. I was astounded to be offered this opportunity, and I drew confidence from that. Best of all, though, it gave me what all writers long for: enough time, funding, and the space to work consistently on projects that I’d tried to fit within the demands of work and family.
I worked on and mainly completed “The Company of a Daughter”, and a collection of short stories, “If We Were Lebanese”. I gained a lot in terms of working out the process of writing a novel; how the first draft is always tough for me and the main object is to make it as full and comprehensive as possible, but to also push on to finish it so I have something solid to work with. The year also reminded me of how essential writing is to me, and the memory of how fulfilling it was influenced my later decision to become a full-time writer
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