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Carve Spring 2013 is go

 The Carve spring 2013 issue is here, featuring the winners of the 2013 natural disaster-themed Esoteric Awards. You can read all the prize winning stories online now, including my Esoteric Award winning tale, ‘Storm in a Teacup’. And you can preview the Premium print edition here. What’s in the spring 2013 Premium Edition? The Carve Esoteric Award winning stories…

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John Hodgman’s Advice to Writers

 Watch this. What he has to say about ‘writing what you know’ is spot on. ‘You have to know what it is that is driving you to do this completely narcissistic and asocial act of creating, of forcing your thoughts and feelings upon a world that does not care. And you have to honestly figure out what it is you care about.’ I’m still working this out myself but I’ve written enough now to realise that the process itself, the act of writing is fundamental to reaching an answer. Compiling my short fiction collection and reading my work back to myself taught me much more about what it is I…

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World Book Day – Sweet Home

 This World Book Day I have been reading Carys Bray‘s brilliant Sweet Home. You may remember Carys stopped by last November, when her Scott Prize winning debut collection of stories was published by Salt, and shared her life in short fiction. I’m only a little way in to the collection but have been blown away by the quality of the opening stories, the standout so far for me being Just In Case, in which a bereaved mother borrows her next door neighbor’s baby. The steady, screwing build up of tension over the handful of pages left me visibly shaken by the end. On the basis of what I have read so far…

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That was the week that was

 The last week or so has been a bit wonderful. While I was still reeling from receiving an Esoteric Award from the brilliant Carve Magazine, I found my debut collection on the Scott Prize shortlist. Was that really only seven days ago? Since then: I’ve discovered that Storm in a Teacup earned itself a runners-up spot in the first ever Salt Short Story Prize. This means it will appear later this year in Salt’s first New Writing anthology alongside the winners and runners-up for not only the Short Story Prize but the Flash Fiction and Poetry Prize also. Looking forward to reading the other stories, flash fictions and poems. My…

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The Scott Prize 2013

 Got in from work yesterday to find my twitter feed full of lovely people congratulating me for making this year’s Scott Prize shortlist. For those of you unfamiliar with the Scott Prize, it’s an international annual prize given to debut collections of short fiction. Yes, that’s right, a prize designed to celebrate two of my favourite things, new writers and short fiction, and it’s run by the brilliant Salt Publishing. Longtime readers of this blog will know how much I have enjoyed Salt’s short fiction collections over the last few years. It is fantastic to have made the shortlist. And what a list it is: Alistair Daniel (UK) – Marriage à la…

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A New Life

 Fallen in deep love with Jim James’ solo record. Why? First off, this song and video: This song works for me on so many levels. First off the obvious love song level. But tbh right now, at this stage in my writing life, I’m sort of seeing it as all about the power of writing. starting a new piece is all about embarking on a new life on the page. And, should publication follow, then that’s a whole other ‘new life’ right there, a new life in print. a new life in the world of literature. I think that stuff makes more sense in my head perhaps than how the…

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The first condition of writing

 George Saunders needs no introduction now. Tenth of December is without doubt a contender for my book of the year and it’s only February. As well as being a writer of humane and truly engaging short fiction he gives good interview, even when the interviewer is less than articulate. Case in point, the recent Amazon Asks with George in which he talks about his process: His whole description of his writing method is wonderfully vague and intuitive. It certainly rang a bell for me, my process being largely about working out exactly what the story is trying to tell me. The answer that jumped out at me most though was…

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Carve Spring edition cover

 Further to my recent news about being named a Carve Esoteric Award winner. Here’s the cover for the forthcoming Spring Print Edition of Carve in which my story, Storm in a Teacup, will be published:   A thing of beauty I think you’ll agree. The issue is currently with the printers and will appear on bookstore shelves and subscribers’ doorsteps in March. You can subscribe to Carve or buy a copy of the Spring edition here. I’d recommend subscribing. I’ve been a subscriber myself since the Print Edition was announced last year and a reader of Carve online for a lot longer than that. My own story aside for a moment,…

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Ghosts with Shit Jobs

 Watched this last night:   It’s a cracking sci-fi movie that explores what might happen when China becomes the dominant economic power and those in the West end up doing the jobs no one in the East wants to do. It’s clever use of mockumentary style, a narrative device that not only frames the action but allows for the limited nature of some of the performances to be a non-issue, helps create a compelling sense of realism to the near future proceedings. Indeed, in places, the film borders on the disturbing, most notably the section in which the babymakers ready their ‘units’ for delivery. It is a rare thing for…

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Structo 9

 My contributor copy of Structo arrived and its beautiful wee book. vine.co/v/bnnxw3hAUFt — Dan Powell (@danpowfiction) February 6, 2013 Structo enjoys publishing work that tends toward the slipstream end of the spectrum and my story ‘Suspended Sentence’ is no exception. Issue 9 also features 13 short stories, 21 poems, two interviews (writer Stella Duffy and Bodley’s Librarian Sarah Thomas) and an essay promoting caffeine addiction. Or something like that. You can buy a copy here. It will appear online three months after publication.

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The short story as a bullet in the head.

 This video of the superb George Saunders on The Colbert Report shows the author dealing beautifully with the most annoying question you can ask someone who writes short fiction, “Why do you write short stories?” instead of huge novels. Saunders’ response in which he compares the telling of a short story to the urgency of a declaration of love made at a train station in the three minutes before the train leaves really works for me. It’s all about cramming a short stretch with the maximum emotional impact. And he also mentions the other thing I love about the short story, the fact it can leave the reader with a question…

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Carve Esoteric Prize

 I love Carve Magazine. I have felt this way since stumbling across it online in the heady days of 2008 back when I was knee deep in an Open University Creative Writing course with less than a handful of stories written, none of them published, and this blog did not exist. I read Carve online and immediately wanted to be published on their website. Fast forward to today and I am waist deep in a MA in Creative Writing, nearly neck deep into a first draft of my first novel, and last night I received the brilliant news that my story Storm in a Teacup has won an Esoteric Award in…

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Suspended Sentence published in Structo

 Structo Issue 9 launched at The Albion Beatnik in Oxford on the 27th and includes a new short story of mine, Suspended Sentence. And how gorgeous is the cover? From the Structo website: Twice a year we publish the best new short stories and poetry from all around the world alongside essays, and interviews with some of the most interesting authors working today. We print writing we love, which often tends towards the slipstream end of things. Suspended Sentence certainly tends toward the slipstream end. The story is told from the point of view of a young man convicted in a British court and subjected to a new kind of suspended sentence.…

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Looking Out Of Broken Windows @ Paraxis

 Paraxis is an online publisher of short stories and the editors, Claire Massey, Andy Hedgecock and Carys Bray are partial to the unnerving, uncanny and fantastic. The stories that appear on Paraxis are often dark, sometimes funny, but always worth reading. Their last call for submissions asked for stories featuring mirrors, windows, or walls and I am pleased to say that my submission, Looking Out of Broken Windows, was accepted and is available to read now in the latest edition. Each story published by Paraxis is presented with accompanying artwork. I am fortunate enough to have this gorgeous piece by artist Kirsty Greenwood attached to my story: Paraxis issue 4 has…

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First Novel – review

 Paul Kinder, the main character of First Novel, is the author of one novel, long out of print, and a teacher of creative writing in a university in the north-west of England. Nicholas Royle, the author of First Novel, has written six other novels along with a collection of short stories, is the editor of far too many things to list here, and a teacher of creative writing in a university in the north-west of England. In First Novel, the fictional Paul Kinder is either researching his second, breakthrough novel, or he’s killing time having sex in cars. In First Novel, the authorial Nicholas Royle, has either produced the first…

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Reading not Buying

 2012 was the year I didn’t buy any books, see here for why. Really. I did not buy any books. Well, okay, I sort of bought two but they were the cliche that proves the rule. I was given a dispensation by Mrs P to buy a copy of Stig Dagerman’s out of print collection The Games Of Night that I found in my local second hand shop, while Freaks! by Caroline Smailes and Nik Perring had been pre-ordered late in 2011 and as such (I felt) it didn’t count as a 2012 purchase, despite it arriving on my doorstep in the middle of my year of no new books. I was…

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Resolute

 I will finish the first draft of my novel. To this end I will write at least 500 words a day at least 5 days a week. I will typecast once a month bimonthly. I will read Moby Dick, 1Q84, London, A Death In The Family, Wolf Hall, and re-read The Brothers Karamazov (the largest books in my to read pile); not necessarily in that order. I will submit at least one story every two weeks. I will turn off the Internet when writing. (Freedom ftw!) I will only buy books I will begin reading in the next seven days. What will you be doing this year?

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Happy New Year

 As both you and I will likely be busy later, I thought I’d take a moment now to wish you a happy and prosperous New Year. It’s been a busy twelve months and 2013 looks to be kicking off in the same way what with my having a week or so to hand in my next MA assignment. I hope to post in a bit more detail about 2012 just as soon as I get my essay submitted but for today I wanted to share a few stats and such about the blog. Apparently danpowellfiction.com received about 11,000 views in 2012, which is nearly twice what it got in 2011. I’d like to…

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National Short Story Day 2012

 It’s the shortest day which makes it National Short Story Day. There’s lots of great stuff going on, not least over at the official website. I thought I might take a moment to recommend some of the stories and collections that have kept me entertained over the last twelve months. First off there’s the virtual bookshelf of online fiction I enjoyed this year over on my tumblr blog, The Short & Long of It. The archive features a whole host of great free to read online fiction, along with some videos and audio recordings of great readings. Reality, Reality – Jackie Kay Another quality collection from one of the very…

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