listenTwo Minute Stories
I spoke with Chris Neilan for the excellent Two Minute Stories podcast and it got quite unexpectedly close to... not the bone but the core, the gut, the gristle. The heart. We talk short fiction and time distortion, aid agencies and war and the ways in which work writes itself on our bodies, the way stories can reach the unspeakable. With Seán Hewitt. |
Wake I recently had the pleasure of offering a new piece of writing to two artists whose work I have adored for years: the musician and sound engineer Caro C and visual artist Andrea Pazos. Together we've created a binaural and visual meditation on this place of fear and possibility in which so many of us stand. I hope it might act as a small reflection, an echo, a secular prayer, and, perhaps, a balm. Get your headphones on to experience the whole 360˚ sonic bath. Trans Writes
Before the pandemic hit the UK in March, I had begun a series of writing workshops with trans and non-binary writers in Manchester, as part of Commonword's archive project. Then, as we all know, life took a considerable turn and we found ourselves looking for alternate ways of sharing and making stories. The meeting and writing together became a kind of port in this storm and I am delighted to say that we are working towards an online sharing of some of the new work that has emerged, hopefully in July. More details soon. |
about
I'm a British-Canadian writer and artist. I've performed at many festivals and live events across the UK and beyond, solo and in collaboration with other writers, musicians and visual/digital artists. I have most recently written for the Comma Press anthology Protest! Stories of Resistance, looking at working class suffragettes and forced feeding. My stories have featured on BBC Radio 4, in Short Fiction Journal, and on the literary mapping app LitNav, with poetry appearing in numerous anthologies. My ongoing work on disability aesthetics was featured at Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters 2019. My short story collection, Jebel Marra (Comma Press, 2015), was nominated for a number of national and international awards, and I am now working on my second collection, an audio and digital short story map of Hayling Island. See below for more on that.
hayling island - stories at sea level
a digital audio map of short stories
I'm currently writing a new collection of short stories to be published as a digital audio map. Working in collaboration with composer and sound designer Caro C, digital artist (among many other things) Maya Chowdhry, and literary geographer Dr David Cooper, we are drawing on memory, experience, and geography to create a map of fictional stories set on Hayling, a small island off the south coast of England, in Hampshire. Exploring economic shift, climate change, and the ways we map our lives, the stories will focus largely on those who live at the water's edge: the skint, the canny, the ill, the queer - the people who face the wind and build lives on hope, grit and shingle. I was born on Hayling, and was two when my parents left, so part of this collection is informed by that experience of carrying borrowed memories, mapping stories of the arcades, bingos, cafes and clubs my family ran in the 70s, just as the arrival of package holidays was starting to take its toll.
This project is made possible by the generous support of Arts Council England and New Writing North, and we work in collaboration with Comma Press and their wonderful wordy jukebox, MacGuffin. Check out the press page if you want the whys and the whatnots.
I'm currently writing a new collection of short stories to be published as a digital audio map. Working in collaboration with composer and sound designer Caro C, digital artist (among many other things) Maya Chowdhry, and literary geographer Dr David Cooper, we are drawing on memory, experience, and geography to create a map of fictional stories set on Hayling, a small island off the south coast of England, in Hampshire. Exploring economic shift, climate change, and the ways we map our lives, the stories will focus largely on those who live at the water's edge: the skint, the canny, the ill, the queer - the people who face the wind and build lives on hope, grit and shingle. I was born on Hayling, and was two when my parents left, so part of this collection is informed by that experience of carrying borrowed memories, mapping stories of the arcades, bingos, cafes and clubs my family ran in the 70s, just as the arrival of package holidays was starting to take its toll.
This project is made possible by the generous support of Arts Council England and New Writing North, and we work in collaboration with Comma Press and their wonderful wordy jukebox, MacGuffin. Check out the press page if you want the whys and the whatnots.
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