new writing...

There is shortly to be some non-me-me-me activity on this blog (I hear you cheer!) but for the moment, sorry, still me, in brief - delighted to have had a poem longlisted for The Rialto's Nature poetry competition! Also delighted to have a new piece of oddness up on Visual Verse (which is such a lovely 'zine, why don't you have a go?), another outing for an older flash on FlashFiction.net and four stories on MexicoCityLit in advance of my work trip to Mexico (more on that soon!) - and, for the next 30 days (perhaps?) me reading newly-commisioned food-related flash fiction and poetry -  in the fine and wonderful company of Simon Panrucker and Barny Houghton -  on Michael Rosen's Radio 4 show, Word of Mouth!

Reading at Word of Mouth, April 3rd, Bristol

Sir Paul Nurse and Poetry

(Cross-posted with the Bristol University Science Faculty blog)

Photo: Royal Society

There were two great events held here in Bristol last night, one at the University and one at the Bristol Old Vic, and I was hoping against hope that I would find a connection between them to make this blog post flow! And... what do you know? I did. The first was Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, Nobel Prize winner, geneticist, president of Rockefeller University New York... all-round very very interesting scientist and excellent talker-about-science! He was giving the Sir Anthony Epstein lecture at the Wills Tower, in the largest, cathedral-like space, which was packed to the rafters... His topic was "Great Ideas in Biology" and he was quick to point out that these weren't THE great ideas in biology but his pick of great ideas... although he felt that most people would agree on 4 out of the 5.

So, what were his great ideas? Well: The Cell, The Gene, Evolution by Natural Selection, Life as Chemistry (and Physics) and the fifth, possibly contentious one, Biology as an Organized System, by which he meant looking at the biological networks and how they are structured, looking at the flow of "information", at the system as an information carrier.

It was all fascinating stuff, some of which I already knew a bit of, but always good to be reminded what a chromosome is, for example... with some great slides and historical perspective! I was then heading to a poetry event, so, I hear you ask, how are the two connected?? Well, it was at Great Idea Number 3, which you would assume centred around one Charles Darwin. But no, in fact Sir Paul wanted to focus on Charles' grandad, Erasmus, who was the first to talk about evolution (Charles later supplied the vast quantities of data to prove it). Not only that, apparently Erasmus - who was a colourful figure, so large that he cut an oval out of his dining table so he might sit rather nearer to his supper, and fathered 14 children - was a poet, at one time "one of the best known poets in England"! And not only that, he wrote much of his scientific reports in blank verse! (See Jenny Uglow on Erasmus Darwin's poetry in The Guardian). The Poetry Foundation gives us his poem, The Botanic Garden, and here is an excerpt:

 “You taught mysterious Bacon to explore

Metallic veins, and part the dross from ore;

With sylvan coal in whirling mills combine

The crystal’d nitre, and the sulphurous mine;

Through wiry nets the black diffusion strain,

And close an airy ocean in a grain.—

Pent in dark chambers of cylindric brass,

Slumbers in grim repose the sooty mass;

Lit by the brilliant spark, from grain to grain

Runs the quick fire along the kindling train;

On the pain’d ear-drum bursts the sudden crash

Starts the red-flame, and death pursues the flash.—

Fear’s feeble hand directs the fiery darts,

And strength and courage yield to chemic arts;

Guilt with pale brow the mimic thunder owns,

And tyrants tremble on their blood-stain’d thrones.

Stirring stuff! Now the poets I went to see after this lecture, Luke Kennard and Tom Philips,  did not deal directly with biology but I feel that Erasmus D would have enjoyed the evening, which moved from a searing critique/love poem about Portishead to a tale of the Murderer being taken for a haircut. I was immensely impressed by the whole event, organised monthly by Word of Mouth -  highly recommended if you are in the vicinity!

So, an evening of poetry, biology and biological poetry, what more could I have wanted?

Roundup of news

While we're all waiting for the Sean O'Faolain longlist to be published - soon, soon! - here's some news from me. First, I've just had an audio story accepted by the brand new audio magazine 4'33, which refers to roughly the minutes it takes to read a 1000 word story. The mag is looking for "edgy, engaging stories about modern life" of under 1000 words, and they've accepted me reading my flash story, Vegetable, Mineral, which was joint winner of the Biscuit Flash Fiction competition and a runner up in the PANK 1001 Awesome words comp last year (this year's comp now open) and will be published in PANK in September. It wasn't a story I'd ever read out before, it is mostly dialogue and I wasn't sure it would work. Anyway, the editor seemed to think it did, will let you know when it's available - do check out 4'33, it sounds (ha!) wonderful!

I've also got a new story, Einstein Plays Guitar, in the next issue of an excellent print mag A Capella Zoo, out soon.  Talking of lit mags that want your short stories, I had a request so I've turned my Ever-Growing List of UK & Irish lit mags into a PDF for you to enjoy offline. Click here and take it home. 115 mags and counting...

And if you think that since I don't have another 849 stories to read I'm just lazing around, painting my toenails, here's a heads-up of my events for September. Taking a deep breath:

Sept 1st: I'm sharing the bill at Word of Mouth at the Thunderbolt in Bristol at 8pm with songwriter Richard Burley. I'll be reading flash stories, he will be singing, and great fun will be had by all!

Sept 15th: There's Science in My Fiction... And Poetry, 7pm: Along with my science-loving writer friends Brian Clegg and Sue Guiney, I'm running a science-inspired fiction and poetry Open Mic night at the British Science Festival in Birmingham. Come along and read your sci-lit to win great prizes, including champagne and a subscription to Focus magazine - and much glory! It's free! Details here.

Sept 16th/19th: Frank O' Connor Short Story Festival, Cork, Ireland, Sept 16th 7.30pm: I'm delighted to be reading together with two excellent writers shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, Robin Black and Belle Boggs. I'll be warming up the crowd with some short shorts.... and then on Sept 19th I'll be presenting the Sean O'Faolain award to the winner just before the Frank O'Connor award is announced. Nailbiting stuff. The festival line-up is extraordinary: Claire Keegan, TC Boyle, Ben Greenman, Karen Russell, David Constantine, Tess Gallagher, Laura van den Berg, David Vann, Louis de Bernieres.... wow. Check out the brochure.

And yes... there is more.

Sept 23rd: I'm running a workshop on research-inspired fiction at Bristol University's Engage public engagement conference, looking at conveying research - and science in particular - to different audiences through fiction. I'm quite into that sort of thing, in case you hadn't noticed! I'll be talking about lots of my favourite science-inspired novels and stories, and we'll be doing a bit of writing too.

...and straight afterwards...

Sept 24th: An Electric Flash: My great friend Vanessa Gebbie and I are bringing the smallest of wonders to England's only Short Story Festival, Small Wonder, in Charleston. We will be talking about flash, reading flash stories and generally extolling the virtues of extreme brevity!

Looking further ahead, I've got some plans for a Bristol event for National Short Story Week...

and then in 2011 I am thrilled to announce that I will be teaching an Arvon Foundation course on the short story together with the most fabulous Sarah Salway (who is up a mountain right now), at The Hurst! When Arvon asked me, I got quite emotional, because the two Arvon courses I went on were life-changing experiences. I only hope we can attempt to pass that on.  Our guest that week will be Jim Friel. It's going to be amazing.

Ok, so that's pretty much it. I'm quite exhausted just writing that, but immensely excited. It's ALL short stories, and some are even sci-lit. How lucky am I??! Hope to see some of you there, somewhere. Going to lie down now for a bit, save my energy.


ADDENDUM:

Two more bits of niceness: just got invited to read at the UK's first literary festival in a shed! (I have a very short story set in a shed, will try that one out).  And... my grant money from the Arts Council has just been paid in! Now I really have to get to work.