In the mid 1980s I worked at a Tottenham Lane public library which had a small fire and books were smoke damaged and to be binned. I salvaged and still own a hardback copy of Fires as above by Raymond Carver. Then I considered myself a Carveresque poet rather than a short story writer. In…
short stories
The Leash: My first short story
My first ever short story. Originally published online January 2015 as part of a failed M.A. in Creative Writing at NTU that I walked away from. The Leash We cannot start from what we do not know we can only start from what we know The leash to the greyhound tightened around her red raw…
The last great White Elephant
In 1986 or thereabout I bought the Carver stories above from a shop in Plymouth whilst visiting my sister. It was the start of my obsession with all things ‘Americana’. I moved on via Granta’s Dirty Realism collection to a whole series of American authors including Lorrie Moore, Bobbie Anne Mason and then backwards towards…
Southern Writers at NC 1: Flannery O’Connor’s Visual Imagination
The self-portrait and the state official version.. http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/study-sessions-women-writers-us-south The first session in Nottingham Contemporary’s season of Southern Writers organised by Graham Caveney was excellent and not only was it a pleasure listening to Richard H. King speak about Southern Writing but there was the added pleasure of meeting the crime novelist John Harvey and his…
Back to the Future: Off the leash or fishing for words?
My favourite Carver photo on Russian River 1972 As I mentioned in last post the last three years have been difficult…that an understatement. After my Fine Art M.A. I tried to disengage with art school research and politics and reset my compass entirely to reconnect with my writing past. I was lucky enough to be…
Burning Books – Horseshoe Press Pamphlet #2
I have added two poems from the mini-pamphlet to a new revised edition of ‘Buying Time – Poems 2016’. It now entitled ‘Burning Books’ Poems 2016-17 and is available via ScribD below and via the Horseshoe Press website http://www.horseshoepress.co.uk/ As the blurb said in 2016…and I have no reason to change in fact things seem…
Burning Books : where did it all come from…
Having self-published the latest pamphlet in an intentionally ongoing series ( I aim to publish a ’round-up’ pamphlet twice a year from now on) here some author’s notes on the poems. The latest is ‘Burning Books’ Horseshoe Press Pamphlet No. 2 and I thought I’d try and describe what influenced the poems and…
My First Short Story: The Leash
My first ever short story. The Leash We cannot start from what we do not know we can only start from what we know The leash to the greyhound tightened around her red raw hand. Across the river the lights of the car factory flickered and bounced in the water and she finally let go….
The story I never told..until now…
I have waited 22 years to talk about this….there are many reasons for that. I hope this page explains all of them and offends no-one but truth will always be stranger than fiction. I dedicate the page to Daisy and Ivo Belcher. https://shaunbelcher.com/coppard/
First fiction for work-shopping: ‘Flying Fish’
The first chapter involves all of the above 🙂 I have finally after 30 years of thinking about it produced 2000 words of prose fiction which a relief as I had built up a mental block of ever actually doing it because I have been so immersed in art and poetry. The document has…