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/
books
First Assignment – Influence?
My poetry bookshelves..about half the collection built up over 25 years…. I am really struggling with the simplest thing. The first assignment for Creative Writing M.A. is straightforward enough : Identify one writer whose work has been in some way influential to the development of your own creative writing practice. Discuss one or…
Farm-Hand’s Radio – Complete available as pdf
I found that the auto-print facility in google chrome means I can create a full pfd of the collection to share. Not formatted to avoid page breaks but all of it is there . It is also available online at this URL: https://shaunbelcher.com/writing/?page_id=117 Farm-Hand’s Radio Complete PDF also available at Scribd:
Daily Short: Arthur Machen – The Red Hand and Poundland
The wonders of Poundland…..one of my favourite current book trawling locations where the cheap Wordsworth anthology above was available for yes a pound. Today’s gem is a tale from 1895 by Arthur Machen who thanks to Wikipedia I now know has been an influence on a diverse range of writers including John Betjeman, Javier Marias,…
Keeping the Aspidistra Flying – Self Promotion
Will Self paraded his verbal skills with a reading at NTU on Saturday which proved that there is some content behind the bravado, solipism, debauchery and sheer profligacy. Looking at SELF’s career it hard to find an entry point such is the sheer weight of verbiage trundled ad nauseum across every promotional page available. The…
Daily Short: John Romano – King of the Wild Frontier
Available online here: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/king-of-the-wild-frontier-0000346-v21n6 I recently picked up the Fiction issue of Vice magazine. http://www.vice.com/magazine/21/6 Recommend these annual issues all of which are available online. They have a tendency to lean toward the Lad/Ladette market but contain some interesting works. Especially from the film/fiction crossover area. This year’s issue also contains Nabokov’s unpublished Lolita screenplay and…
My Book Grid: 1975- present
Interesting exercise came out of class last night. Hard to recall some of this and I genuinely cannot remember reading anything but web design manuals and music magazines for at least five years at NTU…scary.. Feel like Rumpelstiltskin.
Creative Writing reading list…
Thursday was the induction day at Clifton. Rory Waterman, David Belbin, Georgina Lock and Andrew Taylor introduced themselves to the students and the course structure was laid out. I was impressed with the layout and I have quite a lot of work to do…deadlines are good as I would default to laziness if did not…
Starting with short stories…
Decided to concentrate on short stories to start with…my favourite poets Burnside and Carver both write short stories too….some of these I collected 20 years ago…about time I read them! Thanks to Jez Noond for some more recent additions to the que including Grace Paley and Amy Hempel. Some obvious missing collections here..D.H.Lawrence..Richard Ford, Russell Banks,…
1985 Carver Short Stories……my most important purchase?
Some time in 1985 or 1986 possibly during a very cold winter, as I recall sheets of ice around a phone box on Plymouth Hoe, I purchased a new book in a Plymouth bookshop. This is significant because I very rarely purchase anything at full price having been trained in second-hand shops from art school…