The Comma Press Podcast

Award-winning author David Constantine discusses his latest collection of mesmerising short fiction

The fifth episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, host and Comma Press Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with acclaimed author M. John Harrison, writer and filmmaker Adam Scovell and writers and critics Andy Hedgecock and Jennifer Hodgson.

Recorded remotely via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our four guests discussed the influence of the British landscape on not only M. John's work, in relation to his latest collection of selected stories (Settling the World) but also the wider British SFF canon, from H. G Wells to Susanna Clarke. As well as how British SFF writing has been adapted for the screen, endings and closure in modern fiction and much more...

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England.

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Show notes:

Settling the World by M. John Harrison

Climbers by M John Harrison

J G Ballard

Ann Quin

Phenomenology

Psychogeography

Hauntology (Jacques Derrida)

‘The Door In The Wall’ (H. G. Wells)

‘The Stains’ (Robert Aickman)

‘English eerie’ Essay by Robert Macfarlane https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/10/eeriness-english-countryside-robert-macfarlane

‘A View from a Hill’ (M. R. James)

‘The Signalman’ (Charles Dickens)

Holloway by Robert Macfarlane

‘Candyman’ (Clive Barker)

‘The Birds’ (Daphne du Maurier)

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Further watching:

Ben Wheatley's A Field in England (trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRRvzjkzu2U

Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General

The Wicker Man

Holloway (short film): https://celluloidwickerman.com/2015/07/06/short-film-holloway-robert-macfarlane/

The fourth episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, guest host and co-editor of the Europa28 anthology, Sophie Hughes, is in conversation with contributors Kapka Kassabova and Janne Teller about Comma's recent anthology, Europa28: Writing by Women on the Future of Europe, a Hay Festival Project.

Recorded remotely via Zoom due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, our three guest discussed writing about Europe amidst an ongoing refugee crisis, a global pandemic and in a nationalistic, post-Brexit world - what can we learn and take forward. They also discussed the impact and dangers of technological innovation, and what the world would be like without social media and 'bad news' culture.

Show notes:

Border by Kapka Kassabova

War by Janne Teller

Hay Festival Wales

Thomas Piketty

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England.

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

The third episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with contributors and academics about Comma's best-selling anthology, Palestine + 100: Stories from a century after the Nakba, the first ever collection of science fiction from Palestine. Guest in this episode are Palestinian author and journalist Rawan Yaghi, editor of the anthology and translator Basma Ghalayini, Barbara Dick who holds a doctorate from Durham University on Modern Arabic Science Fiction and Lancaster University's Lindsey Moore, who specialises in post-1948 literature of the Arab world within postcolonial studies.

Show notes:

1. 47SOUL – Gamar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yECo9LBojZo

2. The Second War of the Dog by Ibrahim Nasrallah https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/25/ibrahim-nasrallah-wins-arabic-fiction-prize-novel-dystopian-extremists-second-war-of-the-dog

3. The Secret Lift of Saeed the Pessoptimist by Emile Habibi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Saeed:_The_Pessoptimist

4. Rhetorics of Belonging by Dr Anna Bernard https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjk1v

5. Larissa Sansour (Space Exodus) http://www.larissasansour.com/exodus.html

6. The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190612-the-book-of-disappearance/

7. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi https://oneworld-publications.com/frankenstein-in-baghdad.html

8. Mustafa Mahmoud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Mahmoud

9. Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/utopia-by-ahmed-khaled-towfik-6132395.html

10. Gaza Writes Back https://justworldbooks.com/books-by-title/gaza-writes-back/

11. The Book of Gaza (Comma Press) https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-book-of-gaza/

12. The Lord Arrived from the Spinach Field by Sabri Moussa

13. The 99 comic book series by Naif Al-Mutawa

14. Arablit.org

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

The second episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with contributors and academics about Comma's best-selling anthology, Iraq + 100: Stories from a century after the invasion, the first ever collection of science fiction from Iraq, edited by the award-winning author Hassan Blasim. Guest in this episode are Iraqi author Anoud (pseudonym), Sinead Murphy, who holds a PhD in contemporary Arab science fiction in English translation, and Annie Webster, a Wolfson PhD candidate at SOAS working on post-2003 Iraqi literature.

Show notes:

1. Iraq +100

2. Hassan Blasim – The Iraqi Christ

3. Kahramana

4. Banthology

5. South Park

6. 1001 Nights

7. The Palestinian Novel by Bashir Abu-Manneh

8. BBC Two’s Civilisations – S1E1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05xxsmp

9. H. G. Wells – The Shape of Things to Come

10. “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.” – George Orwell

11. Ahmed Khaled Towfik – Utopia

12. Palestine +100

13. An interview with Saleem Haddad (Palestine +100) on OpenDemocracy https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/reimagining-palestine-future-interview-saleem-haddad/

14. Sinan Antoon – The Book of Collateral Damage

15. Hassan Blasim – The Corpse Exhibition (Penguin North America) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/313242/the-corpse-exhibition-by-hassan-blasim/9780143123262

Sorry for some quiet audio in parts!

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

The first episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast introduces the theme of this new series - FUTURES.

In this opening episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with esteemed sci-fi writer Adam Roberts, the University of York's Amanda Rees who is currently researching the history of the future, and MMU's own Amy Chambers, who specialises in film and visual culture.

Show notes:

1. Iraq +100

2. The John Wyndham Archive https://libguides.liverpool.ac.uk/library/sca/wyndham

3. The Stanley Kubrick Archive https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/library-services/special-collections-and-archives/archives-and-special-collections-centre/the-stanley-kubrick-archive

4. Star Trek (the original series)

5. Dr Lisa Garforth https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/lisagarforth.html#background

6. Star Trek: Discovery

7. Doctor Who

8. Joan Haran’s ‘Imaginactivism’ https://adanewmedia.org/2017/10/issue12-haran/

9. Fredric Jameson

10. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

11. Logan (2017)

12. The Twilight Zone

13. It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

14. The Fractured Europe Series by Dave Hutchinson

15. Men in Black (1997)

16. Starship Troopers (1997)

17. Jules Verne

18. H. G. Wells

19. Patrick Moore sparks UNESCO debate

20. Unsettling Scientific Stories http://unsettlingscientificstories.co.uk

21. Black Panther (2018)

22. Captain Marvel (2019)

23. The Big Bang Theory

24. Mae Jemison

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Hosted by Ra Page of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story.

Jacob Ross is a novelist, short story writer, editor and creative writing tutor. His crime fiction novel, The Bone Readers won the inaugural Jhalak Prize in 2017. His latest book is Tell No-One About This, a collection of stories written over a span of forty years, and more than a dozen new ones. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, the Olive Cook, Scott Moncrieff and Tom-Gallon Literary Awards. Jacob is Associate Fiction Editor at Peepal Tree Press, and the editor of Closure, Contemporary Black British short stories. Jacob is the author of 'Bed 45', a short story inspired by the New Cross Fire and following unrest included in the Protest: Stories of resistance anthology.

Stephen Reicher is a professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an academician of the social sciences. Broadly his research interests include the issues of group behaviour and the individual-social relationship. He is currently working on a Leverhulme funded project (jointly with Nick Hopkins of Lancaster University) looking at the impact of devolution on Scottish identity and social action in Scotland.

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

Note: Sorry about some sound quality issues in the first 10 mins and one of the guests having a cold!

1. Protest: Stories of Resistance https://commapress.co.uk/books/protest-stories-of-resistance-1

2. New Cross Fire http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/18/newsid_2530000/2530333.stm

3. Linton Kwesi Johnson

4. 'Bed 45' single story eBook https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bed-45-story-Brixton-Singles-ebook/dp/B079LQ14JC/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=bed+45&qid=1563268987&s=digital-text&sr=1-4

5. Black People’s Day of Action https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/britain/fight-racism/4337-ao200516

6. Brixton Riot 1981 - https://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/april-11-1981-brixton-riots-leave-more-than-300-people-injured-11363974876698

7. Swamp 81 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4854556.stm

8. Kettling - confinement by police of a group of demonstrators or protesters in a small area, as a method of crowd control.

9. Nottingham Riots (1976) http://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/august-30-1976-racial-tensions-run-high-as-notting-hill-carnival-ends-in-riots-11364000534127

10. Mark Duggan and the Tottenham Riots (2011) https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest

11. The Scarman Report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3631579.stm

12. Stephen Lawrence and the Macpherson report https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/22/macpherson-report-what-was-it-and-what-impact-did-it-have

13. Brixton 1981 & Tottenham 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/09/tottenham-2011-brixton-1981

14. Food poverty in modern Britain https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/21/britain-hunger-food-poverty

15. C. L. R. James

16. St Paul’s Riots (1980) https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/st-pauls-riots-37-years-17634

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Hosted by Ra Page of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story.

Stuart Evers is the author of a number of novels and short story collections, and writes about books regularly for The Guardian, The Independent and The Observer.

Michael Randle has been involved in peace work as an activist and academic since registering as a conscientious objector to military service in 1952. He was a member of the Aldermaston March Committee which organised the first March at Easter 1958. He has a PhD in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford.

Mai Chatham was born in London but now lives in Manchester. She joined CND in 1957, influenced by her parents who were founder members of the Chingford branch. She joined them on the first Aldermaston march & subsequently founded the Chingford YCND group & was on the YCND national committee. She has been involved in non-violent direct action & arrested several times and also served a very short prison sentence. She’s still active in my local peace group & a member of CND.

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

Notes:

1) Gandhi’s Salt March https://www.history.com/news/gandhis-salt-march-85-years-ago

2) The CND Logo https://cnduk.org/the-cnd-logo/

3) Peace News https://www.peacenews.info/

4) Harry Mister https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/feb/06/guardianobituaries.politics

5) Suez Crisis https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/suez-crisis

6) Partisan Coffee House https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/22/cafe-cnd-new-left

7) New Left Review https://newleftreview.org/

8) Hugh Brock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Brock

9) Children of Hiroshima (1952 film) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044497/

10) Pat Arrowsmith https://cnduk.org/60-faces-pat-arrowsmith/

11) Anti-Polaris demos at Holy Loch https://cnduk.org/peoples-history-of-cnd-protesting-on-holy-loch/

12) ‘The Blind Light’ by Stuart Evers (single story eBook) https://amzn.to/2GewFwO

13) Spies for Peace http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/civildisobedience/spiesforpeace/spiesforpeace.html

14) Committee of 100 https://cnduk.org/peoples-history-of-cnd-the-committee-of-100/

15) War Resisters International https://www.wri-irg.org/en

16) March to Aldermaston (1959 film) http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/533592/index.html

17) Eliza Manningham-Buller https://www.mi5.gov.uk/eliza-manningham-buller-baroness-manningham-buller

18) Stansted 15 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/16/migrants-deportation-stansted-actvists

19) Faslane 365 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/oct/02/nuclear.scotland

20) Youth protests against climate change https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2019/mar/15/climate-strikes-2019-live-latest-climate-change-global-warming

21) The Coming War on China by John Pilger (2016 film) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6197028/

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Hosted by Zoe Turner, Publicity & Outreach Officer of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story.

Michelle Green is a British-Canadian writer. Her short story collection, Jebel Marra, was published by Comma Press and is based on her own experience as an aid worker in Darfur.

Elizabeth Crawford is the author of The Women's Suffrage Movement: a reference guide 1866-1928 (1998), The Women's Suffrage Movement: a regional survey (2013) and much more.

Helen Antrobus is a museum curator and historian. She is former programme officer at the People's History Museum and is one of the hosts of the F' Yeah History podcast,

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

Notes:

1. The Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage https://spartacus-educational.com/WmanchesterS.htm

2. The Free Trade Hall Meeting https://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/free-trade-hall-meeting-13-october-1905-the-beginning-of-the-militant-campaign-for-votes-for-women/

3. The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-Social-and-Political-Union

4. 1910 Conciliation Bill https://spartacus-educational.com/Conciliation.htm

5. 1913 Male Suffrage Bill https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/britain1906to1918/usefulnotes/g4cs3s4u.htm

6. 1913 Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act, popularly known as the Cat and Mouse Act https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/unesco/cat-and-mouse-act/

7. Emily Davison http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/davison_emily.shtml

8. Art and Suffrage https://francisboutle.co.uk/products/art-and-suffrage/

9. Represent! Voices 100 Years On exhibition https://phm.org.uk/exhibitions/represent-voices-100-years-on/

10. The 1981 Irish hunger strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Irish_hunger_strike

11. Can one do evil without being evil? https://aeon.co/ideas/what-did-hannah-arendt-really-mean-by-the-banality-of-evil

12. Selina Martin http://selina-martin.blogspot.com/p/time-as-suffragette.html -

13. 100-year anniversary of the Representation of the People Act in 2018 https://celebratingvotesforwomen.campaign.gov.uk/

14. Annie Kenney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Kenney

15. Preface to 'Leaves of Grass' by Walt Whitman - https://www.bartleby.com/39/45.html

16. Rhoda Garrett https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoda_Garrett

17. Lady Constance Lytton http://www.historiamag.com/lady-constance-lytton-suffragette/

18. Hannah Mitchell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Mitchell

19. Lucy Minnie Baldock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Baldock

20. David Lloyd George on women and the war (1918) https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/aug/22/women-first-world-war-lloyd-george

21. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the suffragists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Union_of_Women%27s_Suffrage_Societies

22. Women Asylum Seekers Together in Greater Manchester.

https://www.wastmanchester.com/

23. Stand by your trans https://happyvalleypride.com/news/stand-by-your-trans/

24. Intersectionality/intersectional feminism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Hosted by Ra Page, Founder & CEO of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story.

Martyn Bedford is an award-winning British novelist and literary critic. he has written five novels for adults and three for young adults. His short story collection, Letters Home, was published by Comma Press in 2017.

David Waddington is Professor of Communications and Co-Director of the Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University. He continues to publish widely on the policing of public order, industrial relations in the coalfields, and the sociology of Britain's mining communities.

Craig Oldham is a British designer. He is the founder of indie press Common Practices and Creative Director of Rough Trade Books, as well as a Campaigner for the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign.

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

1) Protest stories of resistance https://commapress.co.uk/books/protest-stories-of-resistance-1

2) Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign https://otjc.org.uk/

3) ‘The charge of the heavy bridge’ by Tristram Hunt in The Guardian, 2006 https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2006/sep/04/features5

4) ‘The scandal of Orgreave’ in The Guardian, 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/18/scandal-of-orgreave-miners-strike-hillsborough-theresa-may

5) Arthur Scargill and the Battle of Saltley Gate (BBC, 2012) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-16982257

6) In Loving Memory of Work: a visual record of the UK miners’ strike 1984-85 https://www.inlovingmemoryofwork.com/

7) Thatcher government policing tactics (Telegraph, 2017) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/09/margaret-thatchers-government-feared-miners-strike-inquiry-would/

8) ‘The lies binding Hillsborough to the battle of Orgreave’ by Ken Capstick in The Guardian, 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/05/lies-bind-hillsborough-battle-orgreave

9) Bristol riots of 1831

10) 1986 Wapping dispute, The Independent, 2016 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/wapping-dispute-30-years-on-how-rupert-murdoch-changed-labour-relations-and-newspapers-forever-a6826316.html

11) ‘Orgreave families: we want full, Hillsborough-style inquiry’ The Observer, 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/29/orgreave-families-hillsborough-style-inquiry

12) David Waddington’s publications archive (Sheffield Hallam) http://shura.shu.ac.uk/view/cv/d=2Ep=2Ewaddington=40shu=2Eac=2Euk.html

13) Billy Elliot (2000 film)

14) Pride (2014 film)

15) Jeremy Deller – The Battle of Orgreave http://www.jeremydeller.org/TheBattleOfOrgreave/TheBattleOfOrgreave_Video.php

16) Celebrating the unsung heroes of the miners’ strike (The Conversation) http://theconversation.com/we-are-women-we-are-strong-celebrating-the-unsung-heroines-of-the-miners-strike-92448

17) Lesley Boulton and the iconic photo of Orgreave (BBC Sheffield) http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2009/03/02/lesley_boulton_orgreave_photo_feature.shtml

18) ‘Rock on Tommy’ by Martin Jenkinson, The Guardian, 2012 (obituary) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jul/01/martin-jenkinson-obituary

19) ‘Brixton riots - in pictures’, The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/brixton-riots-in-pictures-2266287.html

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Disclaimer: Please forgive some vibration/static in this recording due to some passionate fist banging on the table, also the host’s pesky cough! Also please tune in next week when we will have an ALL FEMALE PANEL.