While the MSt blog was hibernating, MSt tutor and former student Camille Ralphs published her first collection with Faber and Faber – a thrilling landmark in an already prestigious career. Heartfelt congratulations to Camille.
We wanted to celebrate the successes in 2024 of three MSt alumni – Christine Anne Foley, Daisy Johnson and Jingan Young. Christine’s novel Bodies was one of last year’s most acclaimed debuts; Daisy’s latest collection of short stories, The Hotel, further solidified her reputation as one of the leading writers of her generation; and Jingan’s work on the hit ITV series Red Eye saw her recognised as a major screenwriting talent. We’re proud to count them among our former students here on the MSt.
Departmental Lecturer Barney Norris’s new play, Second Best, inspired by the novel of the same name by David Foenkinos, opens on January 24th at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Starring Asa Butterfield (Sex Education), the play is directed by Michael Longhurst and designed by Fly Davis, and runs till February 22nd.
Book your tickets here.
MSt alumnus Bette Adriaanse has co-written the newly published What Arts Does with Brian Eno.
What Art Does is a chance to understand how art is made by all of us. How it creates communities, opens our worlds, and can transform us.
You can get your copy here.
Hi everyone!
After a brief hiatus, the MSt blog is now back with updates from the new course team: Clare, Amal, Kate, Mary Jean and Barney. We’re kicking off with an entry from Mary Jean, our new Departmental Lecturer in Poetry. Here is what they have been reading and researching lately:
What I’m Reading Now
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
This is a mesmerizing novel which meditates on how we might respond to our world’s multiple crises (ecological or otherwise) – can we flee from them as the protagonist in the novel attempts to do by deciding to live in a convent, and is it in fact possible to keep ourselves safe from the uncomfortable truths we’d rather not look in the eye? The novel asks difficult questions about forgiveness, guilt and how one might live ethically. I loved Wood’s writing style; she has the precision of a poet and draws the reader in with sensual, atmospheric scenes.
James by Percival Everett
I found Everett’s retelling of the classic story of Huckleberry Finn deeply moving and eye-opening. Language is foregrounded in this novel: it becomes a tool for camouflage for slaves who need to appear as if they can’t read or speak eloquently to satisfy the twisted egos and expectations of their white slave owners. I also found the complex friendship between James and Huck to be honest and sincere, and it is ultimately their relationship which constitutes the beating heart of this novel. This is a book which will stay with me for a very long time.
Current Projects / Research
I am researching what ‘queer reading’ means in preparation for the 2025 LGBT+ History Month lecture which I will be giving next year at Oxford. I’ve been excited about a forthcoming book titled The Edinburgh Companion to Queer Reading (2024) and have been returning to the writings of Sara Ahmed for inspiration, particularly Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (2006). I am also working on an essay for a series in Poetry Magazine called ‘Hard Feelings’, having chosen ‘anger’ as the feeling I’d like to focus on. This is proving to be a hard essay to write indeed, but it has also been a nice excuse for me to return to interesting work by D.W. Winnicott, Alison Bechdel and Darian Leader which are enabling me to think through familiar concepts in a different light.
MSt alum Bette Adriaanse’s new novel, What’s Mine, is coming out with US publisher Unnamed Press this August.
There will be several launch events, as follows:
AUGUST 15, 6PM UK time, ONLINE: Bette joins Caoilinn in Conversation for Chicago bookstore Exile in Bookville.
AUGUST 16, 7PM, LOS ANGELES, CA: North Fig Books with Gallagher Lawson.
Details: https://northfigbookshop.com/events/?page=1
AUGUST 22, 7PM, SAN FRANCISCO, CA: The Interval at Long Now Foundation with Chelsea T. Hicks, Brian Eno, Aqui Thami and Margaret Levi.
Details: https://longnow.org/ideas/radical-sharing/
AUGUST 25, SAN FRANCISCO, CA: The Internet Archive.
Details: find details on www.betteadriaanse.nl soon
“WHAT’S MINE is a surprising and deep work with a persistent quiet momentum carrying the reader back-and-forth in time and space across the slivers of four interlocking lives. It is totally engaging.”
—BRIAN ENO
“Bette Adriaanse is becoming a major literary novelist in the best European tradition. She has the down-and-out life experiences of the early Orwell, the desperate humor of Flann O’Brien, the prose immediacy of Beckett, and the avalanche of bureaucracy of Kafka. WHAT’S MINE is a stellar achievement of depicting the absurdist brutality of contemporary urban capitalism where nothing but narcissism and arbitrary outcomes rule.”
—ALAN N SHAPIRO
MSt alumnus Martin Jago’s poetry collection, Photofit, is published in the UK today. More information about the book is available here: http://www.pindroppress.com/books/Photofit.html
MSt alum Sam Moore’s new book, Search history, is now available from Queer Street Press (https://queerstreetpress.com/Menu).
Orion Fiction has acquired MSt alum Aisha Hassan ‘s début novel The Boy Who Built Lahore and one other title in a six-figure deal. Charlotte Mursell, publishing director, pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights from Hellie Ogden at Janklow & Nesbit UK in under 24 hours. US rights have been sold at auction to Alison Callahan at Simon & Schuster and translation rights have sold at auction in Spain (Almuzara) and the Netherlands (Mosaiek). Orion will publish in May 2025. See https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/rights/orion-fiction-pre-empts-hassans-heartbreaking-debut-in-six-figure-two-book-deal for more information.
Alum Ryan Bernsten’s book 50 States of Mind: A Journey to Rediscover American Democracy is being published in the UK and the states with Bite-Sized Books. Ryan began the work as his year two project on the course.
50 States of Mind: A Journey to Rediscover American Democracy is a work of travel nonfiction in the style of Alexis de Tocqueville that takes readers on a long and winding journey through all 50 states to explore the complexities of today’s America. Leading with the desire to listen and overcome preconceived notions, Bernsten ultimately offers a hopeful vision for the future of America as he embarks on a search for meaning and reflects on what it means to be American. The companion podcast “50 States of Mind,” featured in Condé Nast Traveler, showcases live interviews from the journey and is available on all podcast platforms.
One can download the audiobook on Audible with a free trial or credit, or save 10% on Lantern Audio’s website with code ListenFirst10. One can also pre-order the US hardcover here (released June 2023) or order the UK paperback or ebook on Amazon. Visit 50statesofmind.org for more info.
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