A. J. Ashworth

A picture in the green room at The Dylan Thomas Centre

It was great to read at The Dylan Thomas Festival in Swansea last Saturday (November 3rd) with fellow Edge Hill Prize shortlistees Rowena Macdonald and Zoe Lambert. After a lovely introduction from Dylan Thomas Centre Literature Officer Jo Furber, I was first up and read ‘The Rings of Saturn’, the last story in my collection. Rowena followed with sections from her story ‘Brian, McMurphy and Sally Too’ and Zoe came last with a reading of her story ‘Down Duchy Road’. Instead of a formal q and a in the auditorium, it was nice to go into the bar with members of the audience and chat more informally – answering questions about our inspirations and backgrounds over a glass of wine or two. The three of us then had to dodge hailstones as we headed away from the centre and into the early evening. I kept an eye out for Mr and Mrs Pugh from ‘Under Milk Wood’ while I was there but sadly didn’t see them. Perhaps next time, you never know…

The cover of ‘Still’

Something nice happened this week – I won a competition with my first ever piece of flash fiction.
I entered the Negative Press/Foyles short story competition for stories inspired by a photograph from artist-photographer Roelof Bakker’s art project ‘Still’ (other photos and the stories inspired by them appear in a book called ‘Still: Short Stories Inspired by Photographs of Vacated Spaces‘, which is available to buy now). Ten writers were shortlisted in the competition, including my good pal Gill Blow, and it was very nice to find out this week that I’d won. You can read the story and also see the photograph that inspired it on the Foyles website here. The competition was judged by Roelof Bakker, Foyles local marketing manager Lisa Bywater plus authors Nicholas Hogg and Evie Wyld (both of whom contributed to the ‘Still’ book). And Evie Wyld said some very nice things about the story too: ‘It was the voice that attracted me and Nicholas Hogg to this one. Her story is strong and understated at the same time.’
My piece, ‘Piano’, can be seen in the Foyles cafe gallery as part of a ‘Still’ exhibition until the end of November.

Unthology 3, which features my story ‘The Monolith’, is now available here for pre-order on Amazon. The collection is described as ‘lit up tales for dark times’ and features work by writers David Rose, Philip Langeskov, Ashley Stokes, Sarah Dobbs, C. D. Rose and many more.

Here’s a little more about it: ‘Its eighteen stories describe sticky predicaments, testing choices and reluctant confessions: a publisher surveys the changing literary scene while losing an age-old mob war; a man finds himself trapped by his own perfectionism in a forbidding meat-processing factory; a strange black monolith appears in a back garden somewhere in the north of England.’

Rachel Connor

I’m interviewed by writer (and wonderful cook) Rachel Connor over here today as part of her ‘Literary Sisters’ series. I know Rachel from when I attended an Arvon course at Lumb Bank a couple of years ago (where she works) and she welcomed us all with the most delicious cakes. Being a huge cake fan, friendship was inevitable really. Anyway, have a read and leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning a copy of my book too. While you’re there have a look at the other ‘Literary Sisters’ (writers past and present) and why not buy a copy of Rachel’s novel ‘Sisterwives‘? I really enjoyed it – it’s an intriguing insight into the lives of two women who live in an isolated religious community and are married to the same man. There’s some beautiful language in the book and I found it be quite a page-turner as I wanted to know how the difficulties the women faced were going to unfold. It would be worth keeping Rachel on your radar too, if she isn’t already, as she is set to have afternoon play on Radio 4 in the future. Very exciting indeed.
Continue reading “An interview and other news”

Continue reading “‘Up here, we’re fierce friends with the sea’ – an interview with Jen Campbell, author of ‘The Hungry Ghost Festival’”

Many congrats to my publishers Salt, who are today celebrating their first ever Man Booker Prize longlisting with Alison Moore’s forthcoming novel ‘The Lighthouse’. This is a great boost for Salt and, I have to say, much deserved – Jen and Chris Hamilton-Emery are a great, hard-working couple, and nice to boot, so I’m thrilled for them. Alison’s novel is up against the likes of Will Self, Nicola Barker and Michael Frayn and is out in a couple of months. You can pre-order it now via the Salt website here or via Amazon here. Congratulations, Alison, Nicholas Royle (Alison’s agent) and Salt… and fingers crossed for the shortlist!

The lovely people at Salt – publishers of my collection – have just launched three new literary awards called The Salt Prizes. The prizes aim to find the best new writing from around the world with categories available for best single short story, best piece of flash fiction and best poem. The winners will receive a cash prize as well as publication in a new anthology called The Salt Anthology of New Writing (other selected finalists will also be published in the book). The prizes launched on July 1st, with submissions being accepted until the closing date of October 31st. To find out more about the prizes and how to enter click here. This is a great opportunity for all writers no matter what stage of their career they’re at, so why not give it a go? If you enter you’ll also receive a voucher for 30% off any book in Salt’s online shop – even more of an incentive. Good luck!

Me with Jen Hamilton-Emery

Many congratulations to Sarah Hall, who won this year’s Edge Hill Short Story Prize and Readers’ Prize – read all about it here. I had a very nice evening at the ceremony, which took place at the Free Word Centre in London, where I met Sarah as well as fellow shortlistees Zoe Lambert, Rowena Macdonald and Tessa Hadley. It was also lovely to meet my publisher, Jen Hamilton-Emery of Salt, as well as a couple of the judges, Graham Mort and Rhiannon Evans, Edge Hill organisers Ailsa Cox and Carys Bray and chat with writers Elizabeth Baines (a fellow Salt writer who also wrote about the evening here) and Adam Marek, who has a new collection, ‘The Stone Thrower’, out soon with Comma Press. Sadly, there was no prize or prize money to take home but it was still very nice to have been shortlisted and to take part in the evening.

I just wanted to pay tribute to the late, great Ray Bradbury, who died earlier this month, by sharing a link to one of his stories – ‘The Pedestrian‘. This is a story that was read out to us in high school, presumably as part of an English class, more than 20 years ago now. And it’s such a memorable tale that it has stayed with me ever since. As for the story, it’s very simple – a man out for a solitary walk on a dark, frosty night is stopped by a patrolling police car and interrogated. And that’s it. Yet, there is so much more going on here than just that. Judge for yourself by reading it, if you don’t already know it. And if lines like this aren’t beautiful writing then I don’t know what are: ‘There was a good crystal frost in the air; it cut the nose and made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside.’ Wonderful.

Congratulations to the three people who have each won a copy of my book via the books and reading website Goodreads. Copies will be with you soon – but please be patient as they’re travelling from the UK (and you’re scattered around the globe). Thanks to the thousand or so people who clicked to try and win a copy.