June 2013
Finished copies of The Trip to Echo Spring have arrived! It will be published on 1 August. You can pre-order a copy here. Can't wait? There are a few signed preview copies in Heffers in Cambridge.
Recent reviews include Rebecca Solnit's The Faraway Nearby, Sarah Schulman's Gentrification of the Mind, I Remember by Joe Brainard, Here and Now by Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee, Field Notes From A Hidden City by EstherWoolfson and Sheila Heti's How Should A Person Be.
I've also recently written essays for the Observer on Riot Grrl and for Aeon on the place of plants in our culture, medicine and art. And you can watch my Charleston discussion with Sigrid Rausing and Patrick McGrath on trauma and creativity here.
And a bit of happy news: I was awarded a Travelling Scholarship by the Society of Authors as part of their 2013 Authors' Awards.
Spring 2013
I'll be doing various Echo-related events this spring, including Cambridge Wordfest on 13 April, the Aye Write Festival in Glasgow on 19 April, the Lewes Monday Literary Society on 29 April and the wonderful Charleston Festival on 23 May.
I'm also teaching two workshops: Looking, Walking, Remembering at Charleston on 24 May and Landscape Writing at Cambridge Wordfest on 12 April.
Winter 2012
My new essay for Aeon on art, sex, loneliness, NYC, David Wojnarowicz and the Hudson piers is now up here. It's a sneak preview of many of the issues & themes that will crop up in the new book, The Lonely City.
Autumn 2012
Recent pieces include a column on the month's best books for Prospect, a review of Sara Maitland's Gossip from the Forest in the Observer, and an essay on ash dieback, Hurricane Sandy, M.R. James, giant spiders and ruptured children for the Junket. I also reviewed Cynthia Carr's astonishing biography of David Wojnarowicz, Fire in the Belly, for the Statesman.
Summer 2012
To the River has been shortlisted for the Dolman Travel Book Award.
I've written about my favourite airport for the Guardian here.
Recent reviews include Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan for the Statesman and Katherine Angel's Unmastered for the Observer.
I'll be reading from To the River in Belgium on 31 August at Zin in Zomer, an arts festival in Hasselt, and again in Lewes on 26 September.
June 2012
I'll be reading and discussing landscape with poet Jean Sprackland at the London Review Bookshop on Thursday 28 June. Details and tickets here. On 26 May, I chaired an event at Charleston festival with Ronald Blythe and Robert Macfarlane. We talked about memory, landscape, ghosts and their beautiful new books. You can listen to it here.
May 2012
To the River has been shortlisted for the 2012 RSL Ondaatje Prize, awarded for a distinguished work of literature evoking the spirit of a place.
I've written a 100th birthday appreciation of John Cheever for the New Statesman, as well as a guide to the South Downs of Eric Ravilious and the Bloomsbury set for the Guardian.
On 30/31 May I'll be teaching a couple of all-day workshops at Charleston Festival on writing and walking, with inspiration and technical tips from Frank O'Hara and Virginia Woolf. Both of these notably original writers used walking – be it city strolls or rural tromps - as ways of stimulating their work, and we'll be looking at Woolf's diaries and O'Hara's lunch poems to see how these fertile strategies might be applied to our own creative productions. Advance booking is recommended as places are very limited.
Spring 2012
I'm very happy to announce that I've just been awarded a Sigmund Strochlitz grant from the University of Connecticut to work on Frank O'Hara's letters. I've also recently written another short piece for Teenage, on Two of Us, a 1980s queer-positive film by the BBC.
'The Lonely City', my essay on de Chirico, Edward Hopper and aesthetics of loneliness in Manhattan is in the spring edition of The Junket.
I'll be reading from John Berryman's Homage to Mistress Bradstreet at Poetry at Blacks on 10 Jan and from To the River at The Book Stops Here on 13 Feb.
Winter 2011
I've just written a short piece about my years as a riot grrrl for my friend Matt Wolf's Teenage project (his film, an adaptation of Jon Savage's book, is out next year). Recent reviews include Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones and a book of the year toast to Wayne Koestenbaum's magnificent Humiliation.
Autumn 2011
I'm spending autumn in New York, researching The Trip to Echo Spring. A report of my adventures is in the New Statesman. A couple of dates on my return: I'll be reading at Richmond Literature Festival on 25 November and the Festival of Ideas in Bristol on 1 December. I'll also be guest lecturing on Exeter University's Writing, Nature and Place MA on ways of approaching place-specific writing.
August 2011
On 20 August, I'll be in conversation with James Runcie at the amazing Beyond Borders festival at Traquair House in Scotland, discussing landscape, memory and identity. I'll also be talking to Joan Bakewell about landscape at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 22 August as part of her Key Ideas of the 21st Century series.
June/July 2011
June kicks off with the Telegraph Hay Festival on 3 June and the Yellow-Lighted Festival in the Cotswolds on 4 June. Later in the month, I'll be reading at the Steyning Live Lounge in Sussex on 21 June and the CMP Festival in Brighton on 9 July. I've also written a piece for the Observer magazine about why I spent my early twenties living feral in a bender in the Sussex countryside.
April/May 2011
I'll be interviewed by Jenni Murray on Woman's Hour on 27 April. You can listen again here.
First reading of the season is with Leo Benedictus at the i Literary Salon in the Hendrick's Horseless Carriage of Curiosities on Satuday 28 May at 1pm. That's followed by Charleston Festival on 29 May, where I'll be in conversation with Alexandra Harris, author of Romantic Moderns, and the art historian Frances Spalding.
You can read my guide to New York's best literary hotels in Condé Nast Traveller here.
February 2011
To The River will be published in the Netherlands by De Bezige Bij, also the Dutch publisher of WG Sebald and Virginia Woolf.
December 2010
I've just been awarded a fellowship at MacDowell, the oldest artists' colony in the United States, to work on my second book, The Trip to Echo Spring. I've also received grants from the Arts Council and the Authors' Foundation to travel around America in the spring of 2011 in the footsteps of Tennessee Williams and Raymond Carver. I'm thrilled by both these opportunities, and extremely grateful for the generosity and support of MacDowell, the Arts Council and the Authors' Foundation.
July 2010
I've started writing for the New Statesman; reviews include the latest novels by Benjamin Markovits and Nicholas Shakespeare. I've also been recommending spooky summer reads for the Observer, as well as reviewing the brilliant Nicola Barker. And there's a whole slew of other stuff - Nancy Mitford and Michael Chabon among them - here.
Recent reviews include Meg Rosoff, Tobias Wolff, Jane Gardam, William Burroughs and Janice Galloway, not to mention a bizarre history of literary hoaxes. I've also profiled Stephanie Meyer, the squeaky-clean vampire queen, for the Observer, as well as previewing hot books to look out for in 2010.
I'm delighted to announce that the non-fiction book I'm currently working on, Going Under, and my second book, The Trip to Echo Spring, have been bought by Canongate.
Summer 2017
Reviews: This Young Monster by Charlie Fox
Essays: women & surrealism, queer British art, David Hockney, John Berger
9 June: Queer and Trans Writing at Goldsmiths
29 June: Not Here launch at the Horse Hospital
3 July: Ways of Seeing: Revisiting John Berger at Tate Modern
5 July: Refugee Tales at the ICA
20 July - 5 August: Writer in residence reading series, Monteverdi, Tuscany.
Spring 2017
Hot news: David Wojnarowicz's extraordinary and deeply timely memoir Close to the Knives is being republished in the UK on 2 March, with a new introduction by me. I'll be talking about his life and work:
14 March: with Philip Hoare, Chantal Joffe and Gareth Evans at the LRB Bookshop
15 March: United States of Resistance with Max Liu at Waterstones Gower Street
30 March: Wojnarowicz extravaganza of readings and performance at the Horse Hospital with David Hoyle and Ali Smith.
Reviews: Emily Witt's Future Sex, Tim Murphy's Christodora, Michelle Tea's Black Wave, 5 books of a lifetime.
19 Jan: in discussion with Eileen Myles at the LRB (listen again here)
6 March: The Art of Non-Fiction at the British Library with Lara Feigel and Hisham Matar
23 March: The Eccles British Library Writer's Award Festival at the British Library
25 March: The Lonely City book club at the Royal Academy
25 April: Hunter College Distinguished Writers Series, New York City
Winter 2016
I profiled Rauschenberg in advance of the Tate retrospective
1 Dec: Courtauld Institute, talking about the life and legacy of David Wojnarowicz
A few copies of Shipwreck, my collaboration with artist David Dernie, are still available. It's a signed edition of 100, available here for £20. All proceeds go to Médecins Sans Frontières.
Autumn 2016
Shipwreck, a collaboration with artist David Dernie, runs at the Ruskin Gallery in Cambridge from 3-19 November.
Vanished into Music, my Radio 4 documentary about the composer Arthur Russell, airs on Radio 4 at 11.30 am on 27 September. Listen again here.
The Lonely City has been shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and the Goodreads Best Books of 2016 (vote here)
I also interviewed the brilliant Ali Smith. And Funny Weather, my Frieze column, is now online (1, 2, 3).
7 October: Durham Book Festival
9 October: London Literature Festival, with Teju Cole and Megan Bradbury
12 October: Manchester Literature Festival
July 2016
Two new pieces: Orlando, erasure and trans heroines and the wild life of Georgia O'Keeffe.
May 2016
Lately I've written about David Wojnarowicz's extraordinary memoir, reviewed Katie Roiphe's The Violet Hour, got to grips with conceptual art and told Frieze how I became a writer. I'm also judging this year's Frieze Writer's Prize: enter here.
You can also watch my conversation with Maggie Nelson about The Argonauts.
17 May: 5X15, talking about I Love Dick with Chris Kraus
20 May: Charleston Festival, Sussex, with Julia Blackburn
25 May: London Review Bookshop, talking about The Argonauts with Maggie Nelson
26 May: International Literature Festival, Dublin
9 June: Whitstable Biennial, with Brian Dillon
14 June: Shakespeare & Co, Paris
30 June: Pages of Hackney, London
4 July: Refugee Tales, Faversham
12 July: 5X15, Television Tower, London
29 July: Port Eliot, Cornwall
9 October: London Literature Festival, with Teju Cole and Megan Bradbury
12 October: Manchester Literature Festival
Spring 2016
Amazing reviews are pouring in for The Lonely City. It's published on 3 March and I'll be doing a UK and US tour. You can read a gigantic extract in the Observer and an interview with the wonderful Charlie Porter here.
25 Feb: Salon North, Harrogate International Festival
1 March: London Review Bookshop, in conversation with Brian Dillon
4 March: British Library, in conversation with Ali Smith + drinks reception
8 March: Barbican Open Salon, in conversation with Andrew Graham-Dixon
14 March: Kramerbooks, Washington DC
15 March: Community Bookstore, Brooklyn, in conversation with Laura Miller of Slate
16 March: McNally Jackson, New York, in conversation with Dan Fox, editor of frieze
18 March: Brookline Booksmith, Boston
23 March: Book Soup, Los Angeles, in conversation with Maggie Nelson
New essays: Goodbye to Bowie and a reconsideration of Joseph Beuys
And in March, I'll be joining the wonderful frieze as a regular columnist. To celebrate, I made them a playlist, featuring Warhol, Wojnarowicz and a few others: watch here.
Winter 2015
I wrote about my year of reading for the Millions.
Other recent pieces include a review of I Love Dick by Chris Kraus, a profile of Truman Capote, a love letter to the British Library and an essay on the difficult business of separating art from life .
Autumn 2015
In Frieze Masters: an essay on E1027, Eileen Gray's lost modernist masterpiece.
In the New Statesman: reviews of William Finnegan's surf memoir, Barbarian Days, and Edmund de Waal's porcelain pilgrimage, The White Road.
In the Guardian: Lou Reed's complicated life.
17 November: I'll be talking about The Lonely City at Bristol's Festival of the Future City. Tickets here.
Summer 2015
Two new essays: Agnes Martin, the abstract artist who disappeared into the desert, and Joseph Cornell, pioneer of assemblage art, collector, autodidact, pastry-lover & white magician.
Events/teaching:
23 May: In conversation with Esther Freud at Charleston.
28 May: In conversation with Elizabeth Day at Waterstones Piccadilly.
4 June: In conversation with Jon Day at Hatchards Piccadilly.
8 June: Teaching one week residential Arvon course on non-fiction. More info and booking here.
Spring 2015
I've been working on this for a while: a Guardian long read on the internet and loneliness.
Two new essays on visual art: Richard Diebenkorn and the colours of California in the Guardian, and a profile of brilliant, charismatic Sarah Lucas for the New York Times.
Two reviews: Atticus Lish's debut nove, Preparations for the Next Life and Maggie Nelson's magnificent The Argonauts.
In May, I'm collaborating with writer Helen Macdonald and artist Sarah Wood on A Murmuration, an exhibition about bird watching and surveillance at Brighton Festival. You can hear me discussing it on Start the Week.
Winter 2014
I'll be giving a lecture on my forthcoming book, The Lonely City, at the British Library on 26 January. Tickets here. I'll be talking about the book and the research process, and giving a few sneak previews of the contents too.
Last piece of the year: a love letter to Frank O'Hara, Joe Brainard and the New York School in the Guardian.
The Trip to Echo Spring is out now in paperback in the US. It's also one of New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of 2014, and Time's top 10 nonfiction titles of the year.
Autumn 2014
My long profile of the amazing Hilary Mantel is in the November issue of US Elle. Read it here. I also reviewed In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman and chose my ten favourite books for These Lists.
I'm writer in residence at Manchester Literature Festival, and will be reading a specially commissioned piece at (and about) the wonderful Midland Hotel over afternoon tea on 9 October at 3pm. Read it here.
Summer 2
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Echo Spring is out now in the UK in paperback. It's also just been shortlisted for the Gordon Burn prize.
Two new essays: in The Fabulist on airports and in the Guardian on women writers who drank, a cast that includes Jean Rhys, Marguerite Duras and Patricia Highsmith.
Three reviews: David Mitchell's Bone Clocks, Michael Cunningham's Snow Queen and Philip Hensher's Emperor Waltz.
Events: I'll be talking about alcohol and writers at Salon London at the brand new Foyles bookshop on 23 June, and chairing an event with Leslie Jamison at the LRB bookshop on 8 July.
Spring 2014
My essay 'The Magic Box' is in the new issue of Granta. It's about David Wojnarowicz, art, Aids and the gentrification of Times Square. The intro is available to read online here, buy the issue here.
16 April: reading at the Society Club in Soho with Patrick de Witt for a Granta event on alcohol.
23 April: talking about my writing more generally at Clare Hall, Cambridge.
There's a long interview with me about lonelinesss, transgressive writing , alcohol and all sorts of other things on Buzzfeed here.
Recent reviews include Leslie Jamison's The Empathy Exams for the New York Times.
Winter 2014
I'll be in conversation with Gaby Wood about David Wojnarowicz for the launch of Granta 126, 'Do you remember': 4 Feb at the Horse Hospital. Other spring dates: Bath Literature Festival on 6 March, Manchester Writing School on 20 March.
Autumn 2013
I've been in New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh for the last two months, on a research trip for The Lonely City. I explored some incredible archives, including Andy Warhol's Time Capsules at the Warhol Museum and Henry Darger's journals and art materials at the American Folk Art Museum. An essay on my work in the David Wojnarowicz archive at Fales Library is forthcoming in the next issue of Granta.
The Trip to Echo Spring is published in America on 31 December, and I'll be touring the States in January. Full details here.
I'll be talking about Virginia Woolf's Orlando and what it has to do with gender outlaws Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Kate Bornstein & Chelsea Manning at 5X15 's Exceptional Women event on 28 November at the St Pancras Hotel.
Summer 2013
28 August: I'll be reading from The Trip to Echo Spring, as well as a story by Hemingway, at Pin Drop in London at 6.30 pm.
Recent radio includes Radio 4, BBC World Service, Australia's ABC, Ireland's RTE and Newstalk and Talk Radio Europe. Two of my favourites were Radio 4's Open Book, discussing writers and alcohol with Mariella Frostrup and NTS, discussing the genesis of Echo Spring with the wonderful Carrie Plitt.
There are extracts from Echo in the Observer and the Sunday Times, plus a piece on the five greatest drinking novels in the Financial Times.
