Spring 2024

My first pamphlet, Deeryard, is almost here! You can pre-order it here.

We’ll be celebrating the launch of the book on Thursday May 23 at 6:30pm, in the baroque splendor of the old Reform Club hall hidden away at the back of House of Books and Friends on King Street in Manchester. I’ll be reading and signing at the event, supported by readings from my friends, the poets Mick Conley and Lydia Unsworth. All are welcome. If you’re able to join us, you can book here – note that capacity’s limited, so early booking/arrival is a good idea to ensure you get a seat.

It’s been a long road to print for some of these pieces – the oldest ones in there were written almost ten years ago – and most of the photographs were made without the intention of ever sharing them, which makes them feel especially intimate to me. I first had the idea to put this project together back when I was newly ill with Long Covid, and my recovery has happened in parallel with the book taking shape, most recently under the hands of Lucy Wilkinson at Manchester experimental publisher Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers. Lucy is a dynamic one-woman press who hand-stitches all of the books herself, and I’ve long been a big fan of her work, so I feel very lucky to have her as a collaborator.

Deeryard, since people have asked, is an old Vermont word for a flat place in the woods where deer congregate in the winter, and it’s used in one of the poems. It’s definitely a book with its heart located somewhere between Central Vermont and the West Pennine Moors. I can’t wait to see it.

Soon after that launch, I’m hosting an in-conversation event with writer, filmmaker, performance artist and all-around ridiculously talented human Miranda July. We’ll be discussing Miranda’s new novel All Fours, a riotously funny, sharp and wild book about a middle-aged artist blowing up her life, which I cannot recommend highly enough. The talk takes place at Central Library on 11 June, and is part of Manchester Literature Festival’s spring event series – book here.

I’ve also started hosting a monthly feminist book club at House of Books and Friends. This is a friendly reading group, open to people of all genders and identities, that will be focusing on feminist classics and new classics, including works in translation. Our first session, talking about a few essential Audre Lorde essays, was an absolute pleasure. And we’ve got our books selected for the next three months: For May, we’ll be discussing Virgina Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own – tickets have just got online for this one. In June, we’ll discuss King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes (Fitzcarraldo), and in July we’ll discuss Space Crone by Ursula K. LeGuin (Silver Press).

The book club will take place on the third Wednesday of the month, and tickets for the next book club will be on sale the third Friday of the month via House of Books and Friends. Tickets are limited to 20 people each time, and it sold out quickly last month, so early booking advised.

With all this going on (and all this to read, more to the point) I’ve had little time for extracurricular reading lately, but I’ve been listening to Maria Abramovic’s riveting memoir Walk Through Walls, read by the author (as if it could be read by anyone else… there is no substitute for that voice.) And I loved watching the documentary ‘Tish’, about the legendary British social documentary photographer Tish Murtha on the BBC iPlayer.

Autumn/Winter 2023

Spear Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, showing off in the winter sunshine

Well, yikes, I don’t usually go quite this long without an update. All sorts of things have happened without any documentation or warning here – but then, if anyone is actually using this news page as a source of news they will already have gotten that it’s a slow news operation.

From a literary events perspective, it’s been a quieter time. I hosted author events with Karl Ove Knausgaard, Audur Ava Olafsdottir and Deborah Levy (again!) at Manchester Literature Festival this Autumn. Three wonderful writers, three fascinating and varied and generous conversations. But otherwise I’ve been focusing on my recovery from Long Covid and returning to teaching after a long medical leave. I’m happy to say that I’m feeling a lot better than I was. And there is more writing happening. I’ve just started sending a few short pieces out after a long break from doing this while I was either working on a longer project or not well enough to write. I’m really grateful to be able to do this again.

My pamphlet Deeryard is in production at Death of Workers press and I’m hoping to be able to announce a release date soon, but it looks like it will now be happening in early 2024. I’ve seen some designs and I’m very excited about them – Lucy at DoW makes such incredibly beautiful books and I feel very lucky to have an artist of her caliber making mine.

Reading-wise, I have just finished Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, which was recommended to me by Deborah Levy when I hosted her MLF event. I might have made a sort of Hemingway, really? face when she suggested I read it and I’m laughing at myself now because of course she was right (as I strongly suspect she always is), it’s a wonderful book of casual but profound sketches and very much worth reading, especially if you’re interested in the literary life of Paris between the wars, when there were all sorts of interesting characters hanging around.

It is also a very slender book, like another great book I read just before it, Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. This is the first book of Johnson’s I’ve read, after bumping into several of his excellent poems and short pieces over the years, and I liked it so much I’m about to start reading his Jesus’ Son. For Christmas, I think Santa may be bringing me two books I’ve been wanting for a while: Space Crone, a collection of writing on gender from my beloved Ursula K. LeGuin, and a new edition of Diana di Prima’s Revolutionary Letters, both published by Silver Press. To be perfectly honest I know Santa’s bringing them, because I am Santa in this situation. But will I actually wrap the books and put them under the tree, with a label attached saying ‘For Kate?’ Yes. Buying yourself things you really want and know you will enjoy is one of the pleasures of life and the whole thing should be celebrated (with as much curly ribbon as possible.) If you’re reading this, have a wonderful 2024.

Autumn/Winter 2022

Big news: I have written a chapbook of prose poems. It is called Deeryard and will be published in 2023 by the wonderful small press Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers. I’m so happy about this! Further updates as they become available.

Before that, I have a new essay, ‘On Addressability’, coming out in issue 4 of TOLKA, the Irish journal of experimental nonfiction which is one of my favorite new journals. Issue 4 is published in November and you can order it here at TOLKA HQ.

In the last few weeks I have mostly been in the happy condition of lying around reading George Saunders. I am hosting an in-conversation event with him at Central Library on Sunday 23 October for Manchester Literature Festival, talking about his new collection of short stories, Liberation Day, and maybe also a bit about his delightful book on reading and writing short stories via close reads of the Russian masters, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. I think there are just a few tickets left for this at time of writing, which you can nab here.

Recommended reading: Worms issue 5 (a New Narrative fanzine, be still my heart!) and the inaugural issues of The European Review of Books and Astra… 2022 was a strong one for literary periodicals. And for listening, the Borrow Box app, which allows you to download free new audiobooks to your phone via your library, without having to give any of your money to evil and disgusting multinational corporations.

It’s been a quiet time work-wise as I’ve been ill with long covid for the last 6 months. I’ve taken medical leave from my job while I rest and try to get better. I’ve had cognitive problems along with fatigue and pain. I can read comfortably most days now, which is a big improvement, but writing is slower going than before. Still, it’s happening.

Spring/Summer 2022

After a long winter of writing I’m finally emerging from my cave for a few events.

First, I will be reading at The Desert Cafe no. 1, a new event organised by small press death of workers whilst building skyscrapers. It’s an event in honour of Brenda Frazer (aka Bonnie Bremser), a writer associated with the beat movement whose work has not gotten the recognition it deserves. The press successfully crowdfunded a new edition of Brenda’s out-of-print prose writings, My True Stories which is expected soon. There will be a ltd. edition chapbook featuring work from the writers reading available at the night, which takes place in the subterranean Manchester bar Corbieres on Thursday 19 May at 8:30pm.

I will also be reading new work on Friday 8 July at The Real Story‘s New Prose Writing event during the academic conference English: Shared Futures. I’ll be performing alongside fellow Real Storyists Adam Farrer and Marie Crook, and we’ll be splitting the bill with writers from experimental press Dostoyevsky Wannabe. This event takes place at The Salutation pub in Manchester from 8-10pm, info here. It’s part of the E:SF fringe which has some more really intriguing performances on tap, check it out.

In March I organised Manchester Writers for Ukraine at The King’s Arms in Salford along with Adam Farrer and Ivan Wadeson. This fundraising event (pictured above) featured a diverse host of the city’s writers including Ukrainian refugee journalist Maria Romanenko; the screening of a powerful video address made for the night by the writers of Lviv City of Literature; and a beautiful film of a relay reading of Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan’s poem ‘So I’ll talk about it’ by writers from all of the UNESCO Cities of Literature.

As one of the people who helped Manchester win this designation it was gratifying to see what the network can do as a force for good in the world. The event was a sell-out, which was pretty remarkable for something that had just been an idea two weeks before it happened. We raised more than £600 for the DEC Ukraine appeal and for one night we made a place for people to come together in solidarity, holding the grief, horror and anger we have all been living with since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There were many reminders that there is laughter and hope even in times as dark as these – and providing space for this is a kind of work that feels important now. I was also reminded of what Hannah Arendt said, that laughter is the surest way to undermine authority. Laughter is itself a hopeful act and a weapon, and it’s a joy to see it deployed live again.

I’ll be on the judging panel for the 2022 Quiet Man Dave Prize administered by MMU Manchester School of Writing in memory of much-loved Manchester writer and theatre critic Dave Murray. Entries are now open for Flash Fiction and Flash Non-Fiction under 500 words, with £1000 going to the winner in each category. Entries close on 1 July and the winners will be announced in the Autumn. Details and entry link here.

I’ve had a few new publications since my last update:

‘Short take on the prose poem‘ in the folio twenty-eight short takes on the prose poem, periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, March 2022. This is a little essayette on writing prose poetry alongside two new prose poems, Hazard County and written in the back page of The Hearing Trumpet between 2 and 3 a.m. Sunday April 11, 2020

‘The Chorus Frogs of Junktown’, Sprout issue 2, March 2022

‘Pasaje Estrella’ (text and photography), Hotel, December 2021

The book that got me through the winter was Susan Bernofsky’s Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser. Walser is an early 20c Swiss writer of short indeterminate prose whose work I have loved since I picked up a copy of Masquerade and Other Stories, Bernofsky’s first translation of Walser, at the St. John’s College bookstore in the early 90s. If you don’t know Walser I can’t think of a better introduction – this is one of the best literary biographies I’ve ever read, and offers deep insight into his weird and wonderful writing alongside the compelling and sad story of Walser’s life.

Summer 2021

I’m happy to share the news that my current writing and photography project has won support from Manchester Independents, an artist-led funding scheme designed to showcase and support the work of independent artists and creative practitioners in Greater Manchester.

My project, Raw Milk, addresses the structural inequalities in Britain exposed by the pandemic, using my family’s experiences during this last lockdown winter as a case study. I’m really engrossed in it so I’m going to keep this update brief. At the MI site you can learn about the other artists featured and what they’re working on – lots of good stuff is definitely in the pipeline.

I have new writing and photography in The Art of Being Dangerous: Exploring Women and Danger Through Creative Expression, which has just been published by Leuven University Press (currently on offer at Blackwells). What a pleasure to appear in this lively and varied book full of revolutionary art and writing from women all over the world! The book emerged from the Dangerous Women Project at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, and it’s a delight to see how that project has been the focus for such an invigorating exchange of art and ideas over the last few years. I’ll be reading at the online book launch at 5pm UK time on Monday 12 July, will post a link here when it’s ready.

me and Anna Polonyi; image shamelessly thieved from Sarah-Jane Roberts via Twitter

I recently hosted conversations with two writers doing virtual residencies in Manchester libraries – Alicia Sometimes (at) the Portico, and Anna Polonyi (at) Central Library – these were shared on Instagram Live and you can find them archived on Manchester City of Literature’s instagram feed if you’d like to watch. I really enjoyed hearing about their work and unpicking the enigma of what a virtual residency is, at a time when it feels like many of us have been doing a virtual residency in our own lives. Until next time.

Summer/Autumn 2020

I have a new piece, ‘Horse’, in Structo issue 20. And as part of that I’ve been interviewed for Structo‘s ‘Meet the Writer’ series:

Two poems of mine appear in the latest volume of poetry journal Touch the Donkey, which is available here from above/ground press. I talked about them and my writing with editor, poet and Canadian indy publishing supremo rob mcclennan over here: TtD Supplement #172: seven questions for Kate Feld

I had a conversation with musician Tori Amos for Manchester Literature Festival’s digital-only weekend in October. What a heavenly gig that was. We talked about her book, Resistance (Hodder & Stoughton) and got deep into a discussion of creative process and the role of the artist in society, about how we’re all processing the earthshaking events of this year and continue to find and lose ourselves in (and out of) art:

I was happy to be asked to judge the 2020 Quiet Man Dave Prize in short fiction and nonfiction. Dave Murray, the quiet man in question, was one of the sweetest-tempered people I’ve encountered in Manchester’s writing world and it was a real shock when he died last year. Now his seemingly boundless enthusiasm for new writing and art lives on in the form of this prize, which has just been awarded to two wonderful writers and given a platform to the work of many more all over the world. You can watch many of the finalists reading their entries in this video, where I also talk about the judging process and read a couple of the shortlisted pieces:

Lately I’ve been reading and marvelling at Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s experimental novel A Ghost in the Throat (Tramp Press) and poet Amy Woolard’s debut collection Neck of the Woods (Alice James Books). Also, I managed to see a movie in the actual cinema before we all locked down again here in the North of England – Norweigan documentary The Painter and The Thief. Astoundingly good.

Winter/Spring 2020

Well, here we all are. Since my last update all outward facing, interacting-directly-with-people writing business has been cancelled as we are all in quarantine. Every event, performance and workshop in my diary has been cancelled. Things are deeply weird, and sometimes scary, and sometimes surprisingly okay. 

But thankfully, not every single thing has been cancelled. Spring is not cancelled, for instance. Also, I am a judge for Manchester Writing School’s inaugural QuietManDave writing prize, which remains open for entries until April 17. As we’re looking for fiction and nonfiction entries of 500 words or less, it’s a good opportunity for new writers or people returning to writing after a long break to experiment. Why not enter?

Also not entirely cancelled: publishing. I have a new piece in issue 20 of Structo, which will be out soon. This story, which I have been tweaking for a couple of years, has ended up being one of my faves so I am really happy it’s going to be in print… though it’s a funny feeling to think of it as being done.  I have some new poems coming out in the Canadian journal Touch the Donkey, too.

I want to pass on word of an interesting creative initiative: Joanna Walsh has started a new project, Zines in Dark Times, that invites writers and artists to make their own zines at home and mail them to her for a future exhibition. Personally, I’ve got a printer with a built-in scanner over here and I’m not afraid to use it. And don’t forget that we’re open for submissions over at The Real Story, so if you’ve got an essay or nonfiction piece burning a hole in your pocket send it over. Pandemic-themed writing is welcome as is the old non-pandemicky kind.

I also want to say that I’ve seen a couple of fire and brimstone posts on social media to the tune of ‘writers and artists this is what you’ve been training for! Go forth and make brilliant genius work that catalyses our spirits and captures this historical moment NOW!’ While some artists may be charging into action and creating like gangbusters in quarantine, I have a feeling that most of us have been slower off the mark. I have focused more on comfort and adjustment than being productive with my writing, and mostly what I have been doing is: making sure my kids are okay, reading escapist novels, cooking nice things and eating them. It will come.

In the meantime… reading is good, if you are able to focus on it.  So, you want a book to order from an independent bookstore or maybe borrow from the library as an e-book? (yes this is a thing! Check it out). Sure. I have loved Doxology by Nell Zink, the complete works of Willy Vlautin and The Book of Delights by Ross Gay – all have NOTHING to do with global pandemics, and I think the last one might be especially good for the soul right now. 

Autumn 2019

 

First, as it’s Autumn when all of them seem to happen, I have lots of literary events to tell you about, starting this Saturday Sept 21 when I’ll be hosting the Northern Lights Writers’ Conference at Waterside Arts Centre in Sale. This year’s keynote speaker is Jane Rogers (Mr Wroe’s Virgins) and there are talks, one-to-one sessions, workshops all day. Info and tickets here.

Next Weds, Sept. 25th I’ll be reading at Bad Language, and then on Saturday 5 October I’ll be at Flash in the Van, where myself and five other writers will be reading very short stories in a very short caravan as part of Burnley Literature Festival.

On Sunday 13 October I’ll be hosting two events as part of Manchester Literature Festival. First, at 2pm at Central Library, I’ll be in conversation with Deborah Levy, talking about her Booker-shortlisted new novel The Man Who Saw Everything and her writing life. And then at 4:30 I’ll be joining Irish essayists Sinead Gleeson (Constellations) and Emilie Pine (Notes to Self) for a wide-ranging conversation about their books, essay forms and the perils and pleasures of writing from one’s own life at the Burgess Foundation.

I’m also hosting a book launch on November 7th at Blackwells Manchester with Linda Mannheim, whose second collection of short fiction, This Way to Departures, is coming out with Influx Press. I’m reading an advance copy right now and it is a corker.

Update: On Saturday 23 November I’ll be running a writing nonfiction and short memoir workshop at LIT Macclesfield. Info and booking here. 

Since my last update I’ve published ‘Yet Also’, a hybrid essay about werewolves, suffragists and gender at The Offing, which maintains a hybrid and transgenre section called The Enumerate that I have really enjoyed rummaging around in.

I’ve also been interviewed about my writing over at Train Poetry Journal, which published some of my poetry recently. You can read the interview here.

I’ve been reading this short story by George Saunders, which made me leap out of my chair and swear at the end. I’ve been reading a wonderful book of stories and essays, Outlander, by Jane Rule. And I’ve been reading Rebecca Solnit’s The Faraway Nearby, which is one of those shining books I can’t wait to get home to. Last night I read this:

‘Writers are solitaries by vocation and necessity. I sometimes think the test is not so much talent, which is not as rare as people think, but purpose or vocation, which manifests in part as the ability to endure a lot of solitude and keep working.’

This resonates for me because I am way out in the hinterland of a long writing project. Going off for a bit to write a short thing, then emerging pretty quickly to perform it or see it published is what I have done for years, and it has its own ego-boosting motivations built in: applause, acceptance, attention, etc. etc.  Writing a longer thing is very different. No one knows or cares what you are doing. It is a lonely and often tedious business and you start to wonder why the hell did I think this was a good idea anyway? I’m gonna go back to writing short things, this isn’t for me. But somehow, you keep going, in fits and starts and long grumps and occasional sudden clicks of things falling into place.  Or at least that’s the idea. Anyway, I’m still here, enduring. I just wanted to say hi.

Spring 2019

Big news of many kinds. First, upcoming event news:  Writer Saskia Vogel and I will be talking sex, activism and the turbulent social debate around female desire at Speaking Desire, a conversation hosted by The Public Meeting. Saskia’s the author of new novel Permission (Dialogue). It’s happening at The Daisy on Tib Street in Manchester on the evening of Thursday March 7th, and tickets are £8, or £13 with a special cocktail. Booking and info here.

After that, I’m performing alongside a host of great Manchester writers at The Dark City. Part of this year’s Not Quite Light Festival,  expect readings and discussion about the city’s spookier side and its identity as the setting for gothic novels, crime writing and film noir. It’s  on the afternoon of Saturday March 30 at FiveFour Studios in Salford, more here. 

On Wednesday 3rd April I’m hosting an event with author and filmmaker Harriet Shawcross, who will be reading and discussing her new memoir Unspeakable: The Things We Cannot Say (Canongate.) It’s a book I wanted to read as soon as I read this extract in the Guardian Review, so I was delighted to be asked to host. It starts at 6pm at Waterstones Deansgate in Manchester, tickets and details here. 

In May, I’m teaching a new writing workshop focused on memory and place at Alty WordFest, and in June I have been commissioned to write and perform a new work which I can’t tell you about yet. More on these soon.

Publication news:  Train Poetry Journal has published two of my prose poems, and I’ve got a piece in the beautiful limited-edition journal ONANIA which contains writing, art and ephemera about dreams, as well as a poem in the newly designed Interpreter’s House. And one of my short prose pieces which was previously only in print has now  gone up on the new Banshee site. All can be read over here. I’ve also got a creative-critical essay forthcoming at The Offing, will post when it’s live.

Last year I had a great time reading with the lovely Max Porter and Jon McGregor at the opening of The Letters Page Vol. 3, which is chock full of fascinating letters. I am very happy that my letter is the last one in it. Well, to be fair, it kind of had to be…. look,  I’m not going to spoil the surprise, you’re just going to have to buy your own copy and read it.

Stepping down news:  Last month I handed over editorship of The Real Story to my friend Adam Farrer, a fantastic writer, editor and lover of the essay. As Adam was one of the first writers ‘developed’ by the fledgling organisation (it didn’t hurt, I promise), it seems  fitting that he’s now taking it over. I’ll miss running TRS, which I have been doing since 2011 (!!), but as my own writing is leading me away from creative nonfiction, and my teaching responsibilities have grown, it’s time to take a back seat. I can’t wait to see what Adam and his newly-enlisted collaborator, writer and editor Ebba Brooks, have in store. First up is Transition, a new TRS event at the Not Quite Light Festival in March featuring Jenn Ashworth reading from her brand new essay collection; book yer tickets.

Other than that, I’m just here writing, and not writing, and emerging every now and then to torment Rob on The End of All Things Podcast, our quasi-literary semi-regular gabfest. Here are some things I have liked reading lately: Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick. Jean Stafford’s short stories; and this interview with filmmaker Agnes Varda. Until next time.

 

 

Spring/Summer 2018

Over the last quarter my work has been fairly solitary and quiet as I’m engaged in a longer writing project but there have been a few events and publications to report.

I have new work in LUNE: A Journal of Literary Misrule, which is based at Lancaster University. For the disease-themed issue 01, this hybrid piece, ‘Star dust’,  explores love in time, transference and the malady of nostalgia via a nested trio of cover versions. Hoagy Carmichel via Nat King Cole via Patti Smith. You can read it here.

Earlier this spring another short piece of mine, ‘Peach on the Beach’, was published by Burning House Press, selected by Guest Editor C.C. O’Hanlon. You can read that here.

In May, Adam Farrer and I at The Real Story commissioned five writers working at the forefront of experimental nonfiction to create new work responding to our theme ‘In the Half-light’ for a live event during the Not Quite Light Festival in Salford. You can read the resulting texts from Maria Fusco, May-lan Tan, Joanna Walsh, Rachel Genn and Dimitra Xidous and watch films of their performances at our sold-out event on The Real Story website. It was a pleasure to work with these writers and to commission such extraordinary and original writing and performance.

In June, I wrote and performed a speech, ‘Etihad’, for Manchester Histories Festival. This was performed twice, at the launch event in the Lowry and Valette room at Manchester Art Gallery (pictured above), and the following day as part of MHF’s ‘Soapbox’ programme at All Saints’ Park. ‘Etihad’ focuses on the imprisoned UAE human rights activist and writer Ahmed Mansoor; the alliance between Manchester and Abu Dhabi; radicalism, place-making and regeneration; and how complacency becomes complicity. You can read the full text here.

I will be performing a reconfigured version of ‘Etihad’ at PechaKucha Manchester on Thursday 2 August at Fairfield Social Club. I’m enjoying the challenge of devising a more visual presentation of the work to fit the event’s format, in collaboration with Manchester design studio Dotto and activist Peggy Manning.

In recent months I’ve also had a great time performing new work at Reverb, the experimental writing and performance series at Edge Hill University,  teaching a life writing and personal narrative workshop for Altrincham Word Festival, and hosting an in-conversation event with short story writer and novelist A.M. Homes at Waterstones in Manchester.

Now: summer! After some writing time in Wales and a much-needed return to my native land, I’ll be taking up a new position at The University of Salford as a .6 Lecturer in Digital Journalism, based at Media City UK. I’m really pleased about expanding my role at such a great department, and look forward to lots more teaching. As events in the media and the wider world continue to unfold in strange and alarming directions, teaching journalism has never felt like a more important job.

In September I’m also looking forward to the publication of a new piece of mine in Volume 3 of The Letters Page, the epistolary journal edited by Jon McGregor. This journal is notable both for the sharpness of its writing and the beauty of its printed form so I’m very pleased to have work in it; find out more and order a copy here.