My best writing however, comes from a place of contentment, a place in nature – a calm sort of high is what drives my pen. So as to mania and creativity, I would concur with Jeanette Winterson – in Why be Happy when you could be Normal? – that madness does not inspire, but that creativity is the means by which one defeats madness. Creativity was a slow ladder out of it all.
Tracey Rhys reads two of her Bathsheba poems from Issue Twelve of The Lonely Crowd. The Lonely Crowd · Tracey Rhys reads ‘Bathsheba In Eden’ And ‘Bathsheba’ Tracey Rhys’ first pamphlet, Teaching a Bird to Sing (Green Bottle Press, 2016) was longlisted for the Michael Marks Award in 2017. Her poetry has been exhibited at The Senedd…
Rachael Smart: Firstly, congratulations on Love Stories for Hectic People, a collection which excavates love in all of its forms. It is tender and wounding, erotic and transporting, it takes both regular and extraordinary moments in love and offers up brief narratives that are oblique and always unflinching. Your former collections, Pelt and The Cartography…
Truth and Fiction in Story-Telling When I was a young, confused graphic design student, in the long-ago days of collage and drawing boards, I remember train rides across Sydney to art college. I remember the obsessions of a late, damaged teenagehood involving the death of a child, years of classical piano, Tchaikovsky LPs, warped discotheques…
Lauren Mackenzie discusses ‘Free Love’, her short story in Issue Twelve. You can listen to Lauren read the story here. ‘Free Love’ is one story from an interconnected collection called That Sky That Sky which I am currently writing about a family set in Australia and Ireland over the last fifty years. The idea for…
Elizabeth Baines reads an extract from her short story, ‘The Words He Said’, published in Issue Twelve. See the site tomorrow for Elizabeth’s short essay on the composition of the story. Listen to Elizabeth read an extract from the story here. ‘The Words He Said’ is a story about the years-long consequences of a single…
Elizabeth Baines reads an extract from her short story, ‘The Words He Said’, published in Issue Twelve. See the site tomorrow for Elizabeth’s short essay on the composition of the story. The Lonely Crowd · Winter Readings ‘The Words He Said’ by Elizabeth Baines Image by Jo Mazelis.
Lauren Mackenzie reads Free Love from Issue Twelve of The Lonely Crowd. The Lonely Crowd · Winter Readings: ‘Free Love’ by Lauren Mackenzie Image by Jo Mazelis.
Richard Smyth discusses his new short story in Issue Twelve. I’ve never been to Greenland. I spent a week in Inverness when I was ten (1458 miles away), which I think is the closest to Greenland I’ve been, unless you contend that the fractionally closer cultural connections of Stockholm, where I took a city-break in…
Laura Morris reads an excerpt from ‘Foot and Mouth’, her short story in Issue Twelve of The Lonely Crowd. The Lonely Crowd · Winter Readings: 'Foot and Mouth' by Laura Morris Laura Morris’s fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and featured in the Honno anthologies Safe World Gone and All Shall Be Well. She’s…
Our Guest Non-Fiction Editor Catherine Wilkinson reads her short story, ‘Grey Wizard’, originally published in Issue Ten. The Lonely Crowd · Winter Readings: ‘Grey Wizard’ by Catherine Wilkinson Catherine Wilkinson was first published in Issue 11 of this publication with her story GREY WIZARD. Introduced as ‘an exquisite painterly story concerning the death of a…
Mark Blayney discusses ‘Plainsong’, his new short story in Issue Twelve. My friend Dennis is obsessed with building a model of St Paul’s Cathedral out of matchsticks. This might seem a rather pointless endeavour, but think about your own obsessions, if you have any. I’ll wager they’re not too closely aligned to reason or logic.…
Jonathan Gibbs discusses his short story in Issue 12. You can listen to Jonathan read the opening of the story here. ‘A Prolonged Kiss’ has since been shortlisted for the prestigious Sunday Times / Audible Short Story of the Year Award. ‘A Prolonged Kiss’ is a story that was a long time coming. It grew…
Jonathan Gibbs reads an extract from ‘A Prolonged Kiss’, featured in Issue Twelve of The Lonely Crowd. The Lonely Crowd · ‘A Prolonged Kiss’ By Jonathan Gibbs Jonathan Gibbs is the author of ‘Randall’ (Galley Beggar Press) and ‘The Large Door’ (Boiler House). His short stories have been anthologised in Best British Short Stories…