Lange Nacht der Langeweile
20/12/2012
Launching a short piece of fiction and interactive Spiele upon a self-selectedly bored audience, ‘Positive Feedback’ was commissioned for Matt Lomas’ film, lecture and performance series Lange Nacht der Langeweile in Körnerpark, Berlin in December. Also featuring the work of Amos Micah Howe, Will Barrett, Matt Lomas and others, it was a moment to interrogate YAWNING and APATHY alongside discussions of Heidegger and one-sided table-tennis. Your turn.
Image courtesy of M. Lomas
Hopefully more to come from such quarters; further information about the event may be found here: langenachtderlangeweile.wordpress.com
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05/12/2012
In terms of having a mouth and ears, but not necessarily in that order, it was great to do some reading and listening at the Interrobang festival earlier this month in Clerkenwell, organised by those merry-makers at Annexe magazine. They had branded beer, book-making, sympathetic faces and a good share of rollicking.
Special thanks to Nick Murray for making warm-welcomes look easy; read more about participants and powers-that-be here, and here’s to next year’s shindig.
Annegesis
02/10/2012
September saw me scamper in a rather ungainly fashion in many directions, most memorably up here:
Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), 604 metres above Lysefjorden and the last place I saw my lungs.
But! While I was getting lost and trialling different genres of ‘bedraggled’, two new short stories have appeared online.
‘Hang-Ups’ is up at Annexe Magazine, natty purveyors of larks! and sounds! and faces!
‘And Back Again’ has found a place with Exegesis Journal; featuring articles that examine Rumi and Richardson, book reviews and a poetic treatment of the exegetical by Debra San, Issue One can be read on-site or downloaded as a .pdf.
Gnashing
29/06/2012
I have a few readings lined up for July; come along and see exactly where I fall between garbling, gabbling and goggling.
FIRSTLY!
On Tuesday 10th July, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Jim Burns and I will be reading with the good folk of Ambit journal: it’s also an open mic event, so you are firmly encouraged to bring every single piece of paper to which you’ve ever ink-committed. It’s taking place at SIX FORTY FIVE (6.45) PM at The Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon, and it’s £FREE. Far less than any éclair and so much nicer in your eyes and ears.
SECONDLY!
Fundraising for Oxfam Bookshops, I’ll be reading at an event with other throated sorts from 4’33” magazine later that week. As a useful symmetry to Ambit’s North London jaunts, this event will be in Balham – specifically, Thursday 12th July, SEVEN (7.00) PM at the Balham Bowls Club. Wittering in pleasant surrounds for good causes: bring your face and gentlest heckles.
The South Circular
29/06/2012
I have been remiss in updating hereabouts – in the meantime, I have succeeded in eating no eels but at least one battered sausage, upgraded my MPhil to PhD status and have done some readings.
But! More excitingly! In March, my short story ‘Moonlighting’ was included in the first issue of new e-journal The South Circular. Alongside work by Adrian Duncan, Shane Hulgraine, Eddie Stack and entirely lovely illustrations by Fuchsia Macaree, it’s a great venture run by excellent people. I was plum chuffed to sit within its pages. With Issue 2 available now for €3, and Issue 3 taking submissions until 16th July, please do give it a look: the Issue containing my story can be accessed by clicking the above image.
Rink-a-Dink
07/01/2012
‘Rink’ – a short story that received a kind runner-up nod in a 2011 competition and mentioned previously here – has now been added to the Notes from the Underground site, submitted as a response to Charlie Crane’s photograph of a figure skater. You can read it by clicking not here, but here. All the winning entries have been made into great text/image Photo Stories that have been hung variously in the Saatchi offices and Foyles café; keep up with the exhibition as it flares up around the nation hereabouts.
Lost Theatre
17/11/2011
Just a quick note.
Another chance to see ShadowStage’s Hang-Ups film based on one of my short stories, this time at the Lost Theatre as part of their 5 Minute Festival. If you’re around Lambeth-way in late November, please give it a wave of your eyelids.
Night and Day: States of Mind
17/11/2011
Issue 3 of Night and Day, the goddamn beautifully rejiggered quarterly online magazine from Vintage Books, features my story ‘Synaesthete, Would Like To Meet’.
With contributions from Toby Martinez de la Rivas, Rachael Allen, Anthony Gormley and Edmund de Waal (amongst others), it’s a cracking read and looks good enough to eat. Available on all possible digital devices for precisely £0.
4’33″
17/11/2011
Early November saw audio magazine 4’33″ host their first live night at the Betsey Trotwood in Clerkenwell. Stories ranged from the hysterical to the lyrical to the improbable to the Budgerigarical, and it was a real pleasure to have been asked to scramble onstage alongside the other writers.
Tremulous and bracing thanks to editor Mike Wendling for organising the event, and to the other readers: Nick Hogg, Dulcie Few, Bahar Brunton, Emer O’Toole, Gavin Inglis, Lynsey May, Kate Brown, Marcus Speh, Katy Darby, Thomas Legrand and Richard House are all names to add to your bookmarks and bookshelves. Special thanks to Katy Darby for teaching me how to carry a pint glass of wasabi peas in my pocket: it’s now going on the CV.
A recording of the night should be along soon; ever the professional, I tripped over my words a fair bit just to reassure everyone that it was live.
Concision
14/10/2011
A short story of mine has topped the list at the London School of Journalism’s bi-monthly Microfiction competition. Submissions had to use fewer than 400 characters; the Tools – Wordcount menu function has never taken such a battering.
All the winning stories can be found here.