Issue Nine of The Lonely Crowd features four new poems by Martina Evans. Here, Martina reads one of those poems, ‘You Can’t Go Out Like That’, exclusively for our website. Don’t miss Martina reading these poems alongside selections from her new book Now We Can Talk Openly About Men at our event at Little Man…
It was the Morrisons in Hastings that lit the fire of my obsession. Not the supermarket itself but the space outside the place: the car park. Ashamed to say now, but I didn’t notice its wonder at first. I was like all the others who tramp to and from their cars without paying due attention,…
George Eliot said that the novel, ‘like crystalline masses … may take any form, and yet be beautiful; we have only to pour in the right elements – genuine observation, humour, and passion.’ I have always loved the way Eliot angles this image of crystal masses: the freedom it accords to the novelist. Her remark picks up my memory of schoolgirl experiments in the chemistry lab: we left a dish containing a solution of chemicals; when we came back a week later, it had branched into a multifaceted cluster of crystals, in a structure amazing to the imagination.
Issue Nine of The Lonely Crowd features four new poems by Martina Evans. Here, Martina reads one of those poems, ‘Nighttown’, exclusively for our website. Don’t miss Martina reading at our event at Little Man Coffee Co. on May 10th, from 7pm. © Martina Evans, 2018. Image © Jo Mazelis, 2018.
Ty Mawr Wybrant (William Morgan’s birthplace) You carry the emptied acorn cup like an offering, one palm steadying the other, keeping it raised, level with your nose; studying it with giantwide eyes as though the vacant chrysalis still cherishes life and you might witness its spell. Your mother convinces you to let it snuggle up…
When I sit in Phil and Julia’s kitchen Shrimp arrives, quietly padding around. Julia always says the same two things: she does like men. She’s a terrible flirt. Now she adds: she’s very old. Shrimp pushes her nose towards my flies gently, just once, and then looks soulfully into my face, and I gaze back,…
One flame on the budget candle In the extravagant candelabra – Savings must be made somehow… …then stage left, three girls, posh voices – Fuck it! Let’s go. We could go to Brum. We could get off at Hereford. You’re just so funny. She’s a right laugh. What’s that? I don’t know – my…
In February I went to visit the artist Shani Rhys James to talk about her work ahead of her forthcoming exhibition in London. I had been asked to write the introduction to the catalogue so I was excited to see both the new work and her workspace. I arrived at Welshpool station to find Shani…
Photos © Michou Burckett St Laurent. Many thanks to Vinny Casey at The Workman’s Club for all his help setting up the event.
Christopher Cornwell
We’ve an event in Dublin on March 8th, 7pm at The Workman’s Club in Dublin, featuring readings from recent issues (7 and 8) of The Lonely Crowd. We’ve an electrifying line-up of writers for the evening and you can find out a little bit more about them here: June Caldwell worked for many years as…
John Lavin Nuala O’Connor is one of the most talented and prolific Irish writers of the new millennium, having published five short story collections, three novels and three poetry collections in little more than ten years. Joyride to Jupiter, her fifth short story collection, was published this year to considerable acclaim in Ireland and it…
Dan Coxon Ask five writers what it is that makes a great short story, and you’ll probably receive five different answers. Some will focus on form, others on characters, or plot. Some will be all about the language. If there’s one point that they’ll all agree on, it’s that a short story should be concise.…
Philip Gross reads ‘Knife’ from Issue Eight of The Lonely Crowd. Philip Gross is a poet, librettist and writer for children. He won the T.S. Eliot Prize 2009 with The Water Table, and Wales Book of The Year 2010 with I Spy Pinhole Eye. Deep Field dealt with his Estonian refugee father’s final years and…