‘…, I must talk about my body as black, and my body as male, and my body as queer. I must talk about how our bodies can variously assume privilege or victimhood from their conflicting identities’.[1]  ‘It is 2004. Terrifying stories have been leaking out about the violent homophobia on the island. … In 2006 … More Edinburgh Book Festival reissue: ‘…, I must talk about my body as black, and my body as male, and my body as queer. I must talk about how our bodies can variously assume privilege or victimhood from their conflicting identities’.  What truths does my body withhold? Reflecting on Kei Miller’s (2021) ‘Things I Have Withheld: Essays’.

‘People don’t live like that anymore… and so the literary salon has been snuffed out, and become almost extinct like the maiden aunt and the man of letters’.[1] Should we mourn the Crichel Boys? Reflecting on Simon Fenwick’s (2021) The Crichel Boys: Scenes from England’s last literary salon, London, Constable (Little, Brown Book Group). Somehow, … More ‘People don’t live like that anymore… and so the literary salon has been snuffed out, and become almost extinct like the maiden aunt and the man of letters’. Should we mourn the Crichel Boys? Reflecting on Simon Fenwick’s (2021) ‘The Crichel Boys: Scenes from England’s last literary salon’.

‘Your hearts were joined, beating in unison, but then they fractured, blood pooling and spilling in the darkness, and then they broke and that was that really’. [1] From cliché to experience at times ‘when language fails us’ in Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water, London, Viking (Penguin Books). How transferable is the experience of oppression … More ‘Your hearts were joined, beating in unison, but then they fractured, blood pooling and spilling in the darkness, and then they broke and that was that really’. From cliché to experience at times ‘when language fails us’ in Caleb Azumah Nelson’s ‘Open Water’

‘ … “I sold myself,” he said in a low voice, looking at the table, “To men….// “That night, he went on, the man who had picked him up forced him to do things he didn’t want to do. The man was English. He drove an expensive car. A Lexus. It was black’. [1] The … More ‘ … “I sold myself,” he said in a low voice, looking at the table, “To men….// “That night, he went on, the man who had picked him up forced him to do things he didn’t want to do. The man was English. He drove an expensive car. A Lexus. It was black’. The art of making stories correspond quite queerly in the portmanteau novel: Rupert Thomson’s (2021) ‘Barcelona Dreaming’

‘Art and the art world have at times been intimidating, elitist, frustrating, overtly academic, impenetrable, frightening even’. : How aim to highlight the ‘flip side’ of art and the art world: ‘joyous, exhilarating, incredibly EXCITING, encouraging, poetic, and the best kind of challenging’. [1] Reflections on Russell Tovey & Robert Diament ( 2021) talk ART, … More ‘Art and the art world have at times been intimidating, elitist, frustrating, overtly academic, impenetrable, frightening even’. : How Russell and Robert aim to highlight the ‘flip side’ of art and the art world: ‘joyous, exhilarating, incredibly EXCITING, encouraging, poetic, and the best kind of challenging’. Reflections on Russell Tovey & Robert Diament ( 2021) ‘talk ART’

‘…, I should acknowledge my own experiences, professional and personal, although in my own case these merge, since I never learned to make a distinction between the ‘academic’ and ‘personal’ approaches’.[1] : Unpacking Mary Ann Caws’ ‘case’ with reflections on her 2019 book Creative Gatherings: Meeting Places of Modernism London, Reaktion Books. Mary Ann Caws … More ‘…, I should acknowledge my own experiences, professional and personal, although in my own case these merge, since I never learned to make a distinction between the ‘academic’ and ‘personal’ approaches’. : Unpacking Mary Ann Caws’ ‘case’ with reflections on her 2019 book ‘Creative Gatherings: Meeting Places of Modernism’.

‘We’ll tek our mighty stance again’: Looking at Alex Wheatle (2020) Cane Warriors London, Andersen Press Ltd. It’s possible that this novel will never be considered for major prizes in literary fiction, like the Booker, since it is written, as Jimi Famurewa says in his interview with the author for The Guardian as ‘a taut, … More ‘We’ll tek our mighty stance again’: Looking at Alex Wheatle (2020) Cane Warriors London, Andersen Press Ltd.

Subject to another revision perhaps ‘exteroceptive consciousness is predictive work in progress, the aim of which is to establish ever deeper (more certain, less conscious) predictions as to how needs may be resolved’.[1] Reflecting on Mark Solms (2021) The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness London, Profile Books Ltd.  & a FutureLearn … More ‘exteroceptive consciousness is predictive work in progress, the aim of which is to establish ever deeper (more certain, less conscious) predictions as to how needs may be resolved’. Reflecting on Mark Solms (2021) ‘The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness’ & a FutureLearn course by Mark Solms and The University of Cape Town What Is A Mind? Just completed (25/06/21).

Graphic Reflections on Dante’s Inferno in 1930s USA. Steve reflecting on the Original Art Edition of Art Young’s 1934 Inferno republished in 2020 by Fantagraphic Books, Seattle. I feel strange about how and why I bought this book. I have a friend who loves graphic novels and I was keen to find a supplement for … More Graphic Reflections on Dante’s Inferno in 1930s USA. Steve reflecting on the Original Art Edition of Art Young’s 1934 ‘Inferno’ republished in 2020 by Fantagraphic Books, Seattle.

‘… a time of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, of angry bodies assembling in the streets’.[1] Reflecting on Olivia Laing (2021) Everybody: A Book about Freedom London, Picador [Pan Macmillan] – UK edition; New York & London, W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. – USA edition. Sometimes the simplest ideas get neglected – like that holding Olivia Laing’s … More ‘… a time of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, of angry bodies assembling in the streets’. Reflecting on Olivia Laing (2021) ‘Everybody: A Book about Freedom’

Note: Revised 25th June. I am inclined to think better of this piece now. ‘… instead lean over the mouth of a sewer, convincing yourself you are breathing in a flowerbed’;[1] ‘the swiftness of flight without the materiality of the wings … without incarnating it in a body’.[2] Reflecting on Marcel Proust (translated by Charlotte … More ‘… instead lean over the mouth of a sewer, convincing yourself you are breathing in a flowerbed’; ‘the swiftness of flight without the materiality of the wings … without incarnating it in a body’. Reflecting on Marcel Proust (translated by Charlotte Mandell) (2021) ‘The Mysterious Correspondent: New Stories’