A Series of Short, Sharp Shocks
Mann can turn out one immaculate line after another – nowhere is a case in point, worth the cover price alone, death scene too, closest to classic poetic form, subtle, obtuse and devastating, in little more than a single sentence… There is an important voice coming up through the cracks here — like a female Blake, Ms Mann wanders the rotten streets of London (and other grim towns) and aches through her characters — homeless wench, past-it tart, would-be train platform jumper, Loo attendant of the Year, zimmer framed octogenarian… women fearing ageing or already aged and done.
Marek Kazmierski reviews Melissa Mann‘s Baby, I’m Ready To Go.
Crossing the Boundaries of European Fiction
It is a very exciting time for European fiction with a lot of voices emerging, from the Balkans to Scandanavia to the Baltic countries, and this emergence is evident in the courageous creative risks taken by the stories in BEF2010. This collection arrives at the same time as the continent organises itself on a post-national political level, allowing, one hopes, future muscle in terms of cultural promotion and protection of social rights.
John Holten on Best European Fiction 2010.
Five for: Scott C. Rogers of Black Coffee Press
By Caleb J Ross. 1) Why did you decide to start Black Coffee Press, originally? Some might say the landscape is cluttered with too many publishers already, and that one more is just white noise. How do you break through this noise? I was tired of being rejected. No, seriously. I started BCP with the […]