KATIE MARIE

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Writing the grotesque body with Heather Parry

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Gothic Horror at its finest

Today I want to share with you a podcast put out by the National Centre for Writing, which is a Literature House in Norwich, the UK’s first UNESCO city of Literature and commonly known as the City of Stories.

I am a volunteer at the National Centre for Writing and really believe in its mission and the opportunities it affords people.

They also run the Writing Life Podcast, in the episode I’m sharing with you today author Heather Parry discusses writing the grotesque body and reimagining gothic tropes.

Writing the grotesque body with Heather Parry

Below is a link to the full podcast catalogue.

Family and Caribbean folklore: Celeste Mohammed on Ever Since We Small – The Writing Life

In this episode of The Writing Life, Trinidadian writer Celeste Mohammed reflects on the role of family, mythology, and Caribbean folklore in her writing.   Celeste has been a lawyer since 2001 but she has been telling stories all her life. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, in 2016, she graduated from Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction). Her debut novel Pleasantview won the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Ahead of its publication in the Caribbean and the UK, a story from her current novel-in-stories Ever Since We Small was shortlisted for the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.   She sat down with her friend and fellow Trinidadian writer Ayanna Lloyd Banwo to discuss Ever Since We Small, a powerful novel-in-stories in which survival, resilience and self-discovery are passed down through generations of an Indo-Trinidadian family. Together, they explore her use of the short story form to create an intricately woven tapestry of stories, Caribbean folklore, and the book's themes of belonging, resistance, and legacy.
  1. Family and Caribbean folklore: Celeste Mohammed on Ever Since We Small
  2. Writing dystopian fiction: Matt Greene on The Definitions
  3. Writing speculative fiction: Choo Yi Feng on ecology, world building, and creating mysterious characters
  4. Poets in conversation: John Osborne & Lewis Buxton on performance, humour, and place
  5. New year, new writing goals: Julia Crouch on getting started, finding inspiration, and writing what excites

I’d love to hear what you think, please comment below.