Ahead of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, which runs in the city from Tuesday 22 to Sunday 27 April, Lisa Regan talks to Galway-based short story writer Mike McCormack about inspiration, teaching and writing favourites.

Have you been involved with Cúirt before?

I read at Cúirt 12 years ago and I was on the programming committee for six or seven years. I loved working on it.

How important do you think Cúirt is to Galway on a cultural level?

Every year, for a full week, we get to take the measure of the best of international writing. We get to listen to these writers and talk to them, find out what is in their hearts and minds. That is a rare privilege.

What are most looking forward to on the Cúirt programme?

Someone described the American writer David Means as the 'Tiger Woods of the short story'. I have heard him read before and he is a bit special. I'm curious about Rachel Cusk also. She has quietly put together a formidable body of work over the last ten years. David Harsent's poem 'Legion' is one of the best things I've read in recent years and Arkady Babchenko's story looks really interesting.

You have won numerous awards, such as the Rooney Prize and the New York Times Book of the Year Award. What first got you involved in writing?

I was always interested in writers and books and I guess I put together a few stories when I was in college. But my first piece was published in the Connaught Telegraph by Eva Bourke when I was about 22. I can still remember the thrill of going into O Gorman's and seeing my story. That was it really, my beginning as 'a man of letters' as my uncle puts it.

You have been described as 'one of the most original and important voices in contemporary Irish fiction'. Was this a long time coming?

The accolade was not long in coming but the book which prompted it definitely was. 'Notes from a coma' is a small book, just 200 pages but it took me almost seven years to complete. Now that is a long time!

You are an accomplished writer and lecturer in creative writing. Do you get as much enjoyment out of teaching as writing?

I enjoy teaching. There is a rare pleasure in seeing a student develop and find their own voice. Good and all as it is though, it pales in comparison to the relief and sense of freedom I experience when I am confident I have got a piece of work 'right'. Sometimes the feeling does not last but it is wonderful for as long as it does.