2017

Still can't get over the fact that this is where I'll be working come April 2017. Such excitement.

The Next Review

Very excited to have my story C O U P L E in the latest edition of The Next Review. If you want to have a read you can pick up a copy in Foyles or from the website here.
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Clarice Lispector

Discovered these beautiful images of a young Clarice Lispector in Venice with her camera and now I can think of little else. I now intend to spend the rest of her birthday devouring her writing.

Their mysteries could only meet if one surrendered to the other: the surrender of two unknowable worlds made with the trust by which two understandings would surrender to each other.

Her body soothes itself with its own slightness compared to the vastness of the sea because it’s her body’s slightness that lets her stay warm and it’s this slightness that makes her a poor and free person, with her portion of a dog’s freedom on the sands. That body will enter the limitless cold that roars without rage in the silence of six o’clock. The woman doesn’t know it: but she’s fulfilling a courage. With the beach empty at this morning hour, she doesn’t have the example of other humans who transform the entry into the sea into a simple lighthearted game of living. She is alone. The salty sea is not alone because it’s salty and vast, and this is an achievement. Right then she knows herself even less than she knows the sea. Her courage comes from not knowing herself, but going ahead nevertheless. Not knowing yourself is inevitable, and not knowing yourself demands courage.

– Clarice Lispector

Coming soon.

Best Small Fictions 2017

Honoured that my short story 'B-R-E-A-K' has been nominated for the Best Small Fictions 2017 anthology. The anthology will be guest edited by the incredible Amy Hempel, which only makes it even more exciting to have been nominated. In the excitement I've found myself re-reading her work and her brilliant interview with The Paris Review.

Most of the time you don’t really hear it. A pulse is a thing that you feel. Even if you are somewhat quiet. Sometimes you hear it through the pillow at night. But I know that there is a place where you can hear it even better than that. Here is what you do. You ease yourself into a tub of water, you ease yourself down. You lie back and wait for the ripples to smooth away. Then you take a deep breath, and slide your head under, and listen for the playfulness of your heart.

– Amy Hempel, 'Tub' 

Ways of Seeing

The Golden Decade