April Wheeler Is My Literary Hero
“I still had this idea that there was a whole world of marvellous golden people somewhere…”
Transparent Ghosts
I had a conversation with an old man who was a stranger a few weeks ago. He told me he had fought in the war. I asked him if the ...
The Plucker, Re-Reading & Christmas
Every Christmas, for four years, I received a different book by Gerald Brom. The first was The Plucker, which is – as I ...
Re-Reading AM Homes: Music For Torching
I dated a guy who once told me that only boring people get bored. Never become bored, he said, there’s too much to do – read, write, watch, explore. Only ...
Re-Reading AM Homes: The End of Alice
I’m ashamed to admit, it was the cover that intrigued me. I enjoyed the simplicity of it, the minimalist feel. The butterfly was in a jar.
Essay Saturday: Read Out Loud
I’m waiting for my turn to read, sitting in a large room full of people, holding their copy of the anthology. Some of them are members of the University I ...
Essay Saturday: Rejection Letters and Brutal Honesty
Rejections come at night. When you’ve had a good day, sitting down to watch a good film, you get an e-mail and it’s that literary magazine letting you know that, ...
Let’s talk about the day we will die
“So, do you consider yourself Atheist?” I said, “No, I’d consider myself Agnostic. The idea that we die and that’s it, is too bleak to consider. I want to believe ...
Normal Boys Don’t Ask So Many Questions
Photo Credit: Strevo via Flickr
Part III: Is Queer Fiction about doing something different?
I
Paris, 2013
I’m twenty-one. Alone and cold, I step off the Megabus onto ...
Arts & Culture, On Writing, The Litro Blog
Cigarettes & Coffee: Our Writer Perception
Tortured beasts, addicted to alcohol and drugs, full of whimsy and imagination, conjuring creations with their gut, their anger, using their addiction, their coffee and cigarettes, their absinthe and hallucinogenic ...
Real Boys Don’t Think About Thinking So Much
I’m standing outside the dorm rooms. It’s nearly the night, the sky a heavy blue, the trees turning black, the street lamps have come on.
Are We Writing Pornography?
From Wetlands to The Time Traveler’s Wife, sex is a big part of many of our lives and it is, indeed, all around us, whether in a pornographic or erotic ...
Tough Boys Don’t Read About Boys Kissing Boys
I can relate, I can understand but I’m not being allowed to see anything, read anything, experience anything that I want to experience in real life.
The Freaks Live in Suburbia
That’s where we come in, we’re watching through the writer, seeing them as freaks because that’s how they’re portrayed.