Last month I was honoured to be in the audience as the Northern Irish poet Michael Longley received the 2017 PEN Pinter Prize, and to hear his address, ‘Songs for Dead Children: Poetry in Violent Times.’ The entire event, including Longley’s speech, is available to listen to online.
The speech is a generous and lyrical discussion of how poets and artists can respond, with the appropriate outrage and humanity, to violent acts. Longley makes a eloquent point about the importance of literature to the ideas of free speech and democracy: Continue reading “Michael Longley on Poetry and Propaganda”
We're All Puritans Now
Its Banned Books Week, a time for all the family to gather round the dinner table to discuss free speech and censorship. One book that often comes up in such conversations is Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, which was the subject of a famous obscenity trial in the 1960s.
I have been reading the Wikipedia page for the trial, and found this marvellous section on the testimony of academic Richard Hoggart, who was subjected to a snide cross-examination by the prosecuting barrister, Mervyn Griffith-Jones: Continue reading “We're All Puritans Now”
Quoted in the Guardian, condemning homophobic publishing laws in Russia
A few years ago the Russian government introduced a set of ridiculous regulations on how art can be produced in the country. It prohibited swearing in films and TV shows, and mandated that books containing LGBTQ content be sold in plastic wrappers.
Insisting that such books are packaged like this introduces a stigma. It places LGBTQ literature into the same conceptual category as pornography which makes it less likely that readers will buy the books, or that readers will have the books bought for them.
Naturally, this affects book sales for Russian publishers, and some have taken extreme steps to avoid having their books placed in the stigmatised category. Last week, fantasy author Victoria Schwab revealed that her Russian publisher had bowdlerised the translation of her Shades of Magic series. Continue reading “Quoted in the Guardian, condemning homophobic publishing laws in Russia”
US edition of 'The Mammoth Book of the Mummy'
Yesterday I was delighted to take receipt of my author’s copy of the US edition of The Mammoth Book of the Mummy. It’s edited by Paula Guran and published by Prime Books.
Writing on This Is Horror, Jake Marley says that Guran has “curated an anthology that could do more for mummy fiction than anything in the past decade, and is sure to bind and capture the imaginations of readers”. He also had this to say about my novella, which is included in the anthology:
Nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, Robert Sharp’s The Good Shabti takes readers from a slave’s experiences in the court of King Mentuhotep to a Crichton-esque sci-fi future where science is being used to give new life to the dead. Fascinating in story and tone, Sharp carries readers through two fascinating worlds to an unexpected and deeply satisfying conclusion.
Thanks Jake! Continue reading “US edition of 'The Mammoth Book of the Mummy'”
Quoted in The Bookseller Condeming a Visa Refusal
Why is UK government denying @edbookfest visas to Iranian authors for 3rd year in a row? https://t.co/arCOlWvkwz via @thebookseller
— Nick Barley (@nickbarleyedin) July 20, 2017
An Iranian childrens’ book illustrator Ehsan Abdollahi has been denied a visa to visit the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Publishers have branded the decision “disgusting”.
The Bookseller broke the story and I’m quoted in Heloise Wood’s report, commenting for English PEN. Continue reading “Quoted in The Bookseller Condeming a Visa Refusal”