My story Contract was chosen for #StorySunday in London’s fantastic Litro magazine in Dec 2016.
Click the link here to go to the story. (I love old-skool internet days.)
…. Clives tries desperately to fit in with the caring & whimsical atmosphere of his new office job
August kicked off with a mini-reading-tour of London with Mike McCormack. A huge thanks to Anthony Cartwright for instigating the idea, and for interviewing us both nights.
Mike & I read from our respective books Solar Bones and Greetings, Hero. Anthony himself has a new novel Iron Towns … “Once the furnace heart of industrial England, now the valley is home only to fading dreams.”
So August 2nd we met up at fabled Bookseller Crow-on-the-Hill in Crystal Palace. “Twee, kowtowing, conventional it ain’t,” it says on their website. More than a bookshop, Crow-on-the-Hill is an independent force on the books scene – they even hold writing classes there. Big thanks to Jonathan and staff there.
Anthony Cartwright on the left. None of us gave much thought to photographs, so this is the only shot from Crow … and unfortunately only Mike’s knee is in it.
Next night the three of us descended on the Quaker Bookshop, Friends House, Euston road. Different crowd, different atmosphere, different conversation. McCormack sparked an animated discussion about the underappreciated role of engineers in shaping the world. There were also some words about the largely-forgotten tradition of Irish gothic fiction.
Mike McCormack reading at the Quaker bookshop.
Myself reading.
And the day after that, I headed up to Norwich for a pre-launch event of The End at UEA’s Enterprise centre. Fifteen stories inspired or sparked off by fifteen of Nicolas Ruston’s scratch paintings. This is The End my friends. And it comes with a black wax seal.
Brought out by Unthank Books who are a powerhouse of extraordinary fiction and bring out a semi-annual state-of-the-art of UK short fiction. They call it the Unthology series, and Unthology 8 came out recently.
Mike McCormack and myself are teaming up for a mini-tour of London, with two dates signed up at bookshops.
I’m immensely grateful to Anthony Cartwright for playing a key role in instigating the readings. His own fourth novel, Iron Towns, came out in May.
Anthony will be discussing the books with us on the nights:
Mike McCormack is an award-winning novelist and short story writer from Mayo. His previous work includes Getting it in the Head (1995), Notes from a Coma (2005), which was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award, and Forensic Songs (2012). In 1996 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and in 2007 he was awarded a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship.
His latest novel Solar Bones came out recently.
Anthony Cartwright has worked in factories, meatpacking plants, pubs and warehouses and with London Underground. His debut novel, The Afterglow won much acclaim – and a Betty Trask Award in 2004. His second novel, Heartland, was published by Tindal Street in May 2009 and praised by Jonathan Coe, David Peace, Catherine O’Flynn and DJ Taylor amongst many others. It was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and was a Book at Bedtime on BBC Radio 4. How I Killed Margaret Thatcher, a bitter-sweet comic novel that captures the intensity of early 1980s Britain through the eyes of an unusual 9 year old Black Country boy, was published in 2012. His latest novel is Iron Towns.
I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Anthony Cartwright for taking an interest in the book and proposing the readings to bookshops he knows. I don’t know Anthony personally and have never met him, so it all came as a great surprise to receive such a boost out of the blue. I hope to equalise the debt – and I don’t mean by endless FB postings recommending Anthony’s books.
I hope one day to pass on the goodwill and be able to offer a debut writer whose book I have admired (perhaps one that hasn’t a big PR campaign behind it), an unexpected helping hand.
Absolutely thrilled to have received an invitation to the West Cork Literary Festival!!! My spot is on Tuesday, July 19th.
Looking forward to running into lots of newer writers such as Caitriona Lally, Gavin McCrea, Danielle McLaughlin, Tom Morris, Lisa McInerney, Joanna Walsh, and Paul McVeigh plus some of the more established writers such as John Banville, Lia Mills, and Zadie Smith. (Just to pick out a few I’m familiar with, there are lots more on the programme).
It’s in Bantry, Co. Cork, from July 17th – 23rd. Full programme here
“From the outside we speak of ‘characters’ with characteristics more or less fixed. But from the inside there is only the world.”
The first interview about my debut short story collection Greetings Hero. With poet & journalist Joe Horgan.
In this issue of The Honest Ulsterman.
On the table in Hodges Figgis
The definitive Irish Examiner review of Greetings, Hero.
It’s the only review I’ve gone back to read several times.
An earlier version of this review appeared on Dec 8th 2014. For reasons unknown, The Examiner decided to run it again, and the reviewer apparently revised it.
I like this new sentence in it:
The characters here are linked by their incredulity towards official narratives; belief in any “central source of validation” is forever beyond their reach.
Big stack of signed copies are on the tables in Hodges Figgis.
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Irish Times Q+A
