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foregroundmusic: every right to be Angry

 The one silver lining of nearly a decade of bollarding austerity? The only positive that seems to be emerging from the cluster frustration that is Brexit? Britain seems to have a barrage of bands emerging that are angry because they have every right to be. These have been seeing heavy rotation in my ears: Squid…

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‘a tissue of significances’

 More thoughts on something read in pursuit of my PhD thesis. (The verb ‘pursuit’ seems apt and amusing here, like I am chasing this thing down, the thing itself always within sight but out of reach). This, from ‘Understanding Fiction’, made my insides chime and resonate: ‘…a piece of fiction is a tissue of significances,…

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it’s no use worrying about Time

 Both in the novel edits I am neck deep in and in the short stories I have been both studying and writing myself, I have been worrying a lot about time lately. Which probably explains some of why I love this particular reading of Frank O’Hara’s poem ‘Animals’ right now: Zadie Smith recorded on voice…

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Helvetica for the 21st century

 As a bit of a typeface geek, the release of a new Helvetica for today’s devices is something I had to note here. From the press release: ‘Every letter, number, punctuation mark and symbol in the family—nearly 40,000 in all—has been redrawn, analyzed and tested for improved legibility and performance. The result is a better…

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Black hole, son!*

 This week saw the first image of a black hole being shared with the world. Image: BBC NEWS Tickles me that, as this image was powering across the the news and social media, I was busy listening to William Basinski’s On Time Out of Time, ‘50 minutes of drone atmospherics that uses exclusive source recordings…

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When It’s Human Instead of When It’s Dog

 Amy Hempel’s work holds a special place in my personal canon of short story authors. I first discovered her stories when beginning to write my own. This was back in 2009 and I was grabbing up every recommendation of quality short stories that I could. I forget how I first heard of Amy Hempel, but…

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Your mother

 Last month was Women’s History month and I was thrilled to see that a poem from last year’s First Story anthology by the excellent Judgemeadow Community College was shared across social media. ‘Your mother’ is a great example of the creativity and soul of the students who produced ‘I right Inglish more goodlyer then u.’…

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Trouble Come Down

 The sad news of the passing of Shawn Smith found me today. This track from his Satchel days has lived with me since my Uni days (the first time). ‘Who’s gonna show the fortitude?’ And this, from a little later, has always stirred me. ‘You never know until you stop…just carry on.’ Much will be…

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The more things change

 Currently reading all round the topic of the short story to fill in the gaps of knowledge lingering in my noggin. Aspects including but not limited to: defining the short story, aspects of craft, historic development of the form, and structural theory. Bliss Perry devotes a chapter to the short story in A Study of…

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The End of the Beginning

 The end of my first year as a full-time PhD student in Creative Writing passed in a blur. It was a landmark in my studies that seemed double-weighted given the focus of my research-led creative project: the endings of short stories. Depending on when you are reading this, I am fast approaching or have battered…

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2018 in Books

 A little later than usual, here’s my reading of 2018. Might appear a little thin on the ground but in part that is due to the chunk of reading undertaken for my PhD and the fact that, due to my slackness in adding to this post through the year, I have been working from memory…

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Writing goodlyer Inglish

 For much of the last year, I have been working as a First Story writer-in-residence at Judgemeadow Community College in Leicester. This has involved delivering 16 workshops over the last eight months or so, along with a visit to the First Story Young writers’ Festival in Oxford. The staff and students have been an absolute…

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My Granddad knows

 I am thrilled to be able to share that a poem by one of the brilliant young writers from my First Story residency group at Judgemeadow Community College is featured on this week’s Friday Story here.   Raasmiya’s poem was written during one of my workshops earlier this year, in response to Malika Booker’s poem…

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Hive Young Writers Festival

 This coming Saturday, April 14, I will be delivering a short story writing workshop and takin part in a discussion panel as part of Hive Young Writers Festival in Rotherham. From the website: ‘The festival is a chance to network, hear from professional writers, meet like-minded young writers, perform & of course, write! Everyone is…

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The London Magazine Prize-giving Ceremony

 Last Tuesday saw me heading down to London for The London Magazine Short Story Prize-giving Ceremony. I had this to say as my train left Grantham station: Suited, booted and on train to big smoke for the @TheLondonMag short story prize giving. First time in ages that I’ve worn a suit. — Dan Powell (@danpowfiction)…

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