Prof Diana Wallace researches women’s writing, with special interests in historical fiction; Welsh writing in English and Modernism and the Gothic. She is co-director of the Centre for Gender Studies in Wales and Leader of the English Research Unit at the University of South Wales. Her review appears on the website of the Centre for the Study of Media and Culutre in Small Nations at the University of South Wales.
Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations
How can writers respond to sudden, even exponential, change? It can take a decade, as it did after the first world war or 9/11, for novels and memoirs to catch up as writers process traumatic events. And readers, time-pressed and battered by 24-hour news, may turn to genre fiction for the comfort of familiar plot lines and predictable endings. The short story, on the other hand, can turn on a sixpence to give us a snapshot of our crises in real time. Compressed, intense, often challenging, some of the most powerful examples of the form have come from writers on the so-called margins: women, immigrants, people from ‘small nations’ such as Wales and Ireland.
Angela Graham’s assured and compelling debut collection, A City Burning, ranges across Wales, Northern Ireland and Italy. It offers 26 brief stories, most no more than a few pages (one a mere page and a quarter), which turn their forensic flashlight on a moment of change when a character has to make a choice. Continue reading Review of ‘A City Burning’ by Prof Diana Wallace→
It was lovely to have this [click here to listen Interview with Anne Marie McAleese ] on Your Place And Mine BBC Radio Ulster 7th November. This long-running and much-lauded series focuses on place. We talked about the role of place in my short story collection A City Burning.
I read an extract from the story Coasteering in which a middle-aged woman and her Ulster Scots-speaking coasteering instructor venture far out along the coast at twilight:
‘Dinnae ower-think it!’ Alec urged, and then repeated himself….
I loosened the cuffs of the waterproof jacket that added a layer to the battered old wetsuit he’d provided. Seawater gushed out past my wrists. I poised myself, leapt − an un-timeable gap − and was smothered in crashing bubbles and noise and resistance, then broke upwards into air and the push and pull of the sea. This was what I’d wanted, to be out beyond the little beaches and rock-strewn shores; to be out of my depth but safe; to be gripped by the sea’s power but not at its mercy. I respect the sea. I fear it….Continue reading On ‘Your Place And Mine’, BBC Radio Ulster→
As her debut short story collection A City Burning, is published, we interview Angela Graham to find out more about the book and what inspires her.
In the twenty-six stories in A City Burning, set in Wales, Northern Ireland and Italy, children and adults face, in the flames of personal tragedy, moments of potential transformation. On the threshold of their futures each must make a choice: how to live in this new ‘now’. With a virtuoso control of tone, by turns elegiac, comic, lyrical, philosophical, A City Burning examines power of all types. The result is a deeply human book full of hauntingly memorable characters and narratives.
What is the meaning behind the title A City Burning?
In the opening story, ‘The Road’, a young girl witnesses her city blazing. She understands that this is a sign of the collapse of the status quo, of all the usual certainties. She is confronted with the need to react to this new situation. What values should guide her in this choice? I realised that this story encapsulates the theme of many stories in the collection – witnessing major change and having to work out a response. It seemed a fitting title for the book.
26 short stories set in Wales, Northern Ireland and Italy, from the end of the econd World War to the Covid pandemic.
With a virtuoso control of tone, by turns elegiac, comic, lyrical, philosophical, A City Burning examines power of all types, exploring conflicts between political allegiances; between autonomy and intimacy; emotional display and concealment; resistance versus acceptance. The result is a deeply human book full of hauntingly memorable characters and narratives.
Matthew M.C. Smith is an adventurous, and apparently indefatigable, poet and poetry impresario. It may be his gift for collaboration which enables him to be so productive.
This beautiful-to-handle, easy-on-the-eye, large-format book from Black Bough Poetry has been produced by a team and assembling a coherent team is a skill in itself. The members are:
” Welsh writer, Laura Wainwright, Louisiana’s former Laureate, Jack Bedell, and Aotearoa’s, Ankh Spice. The amazing illustrations are by Rebecca Wainwright, a Newport-born artist from Newport in Wales, now living in London. Music for this project is composed and curated by Brisbane-based Stuart Rawlinson.”
Artwork by Rebecca Wainwright
Deep Time volume 2, is Black Bough poetry’s second print anthology. It is dedicated to the writer Robert Macfarlane, who wrote award-winning non-fiction work, Underland (2019).
A city burns in a crisis − because the status quo has collapsed and change must come. Every value, relationship and belief is shaken and the future is uncertain.
“This is an exemplary collection illustrating the creative possibilities of the short fiction form” – Jane Fraser
“Angela Graham is a brilliant new voice. This is literature that deserves to last.” – Kate Hamer
“Angela Graham’s debut collection A City Burning announced a confident, stylish new voice in short fiction.” Jon Gower (Nation Cymru)
“In this powerful collection, Angela Graham shows herself master of the angle of vision: her tales capture the mercurial moment when a person’s world is changed forever, in a road or room, against a landscape, seascape or starscape, at the graveside or (as in the towering story, ‘Life-Task’) at a forsaken railway station in the aftermath of war.” – Stevie Davies
Poetry Pause is run by Emma Baines, Philippa Davies and Jean Riley near Narberth, west Wales. In Episode 7 the focus is on Carol Ann Duffy and has a powerful sonnet from Mab Jones and one from me.
Hear an extract from the opening story ‘The Road’ from my collection of 26 short stories, ‘A City Burning’ (Seren Books ). Launch on Tuesday 27th October 7pm.
At the launch I’ll be reading and I will be joined by 3 wonderful readers who will give a voice to extracts from 3 stories.
Geraint Lewis from Tregaron, Ceredigion, west Wales, actor, playwright, novelist and short story writer.
Viviana Fiorentino from Italy, poet, novelist, translator and activist on migration policy.
Mewn argyfwng y mae dinas yn llosgi – am fod yr hen drefn wedi methu ac mae’n rhaid i newid ddod. Mae pob gwerth, perthynas a chred yn cael ei siglo ac mae’r dyfodol yn anelwig.
Yn y chwe stori ar hugain yn A City Burning, mae plant ac oedolion yn llygadu eiliadau o drawsnewid posib yn fflamau trasiedi bersonol. Ar drothwy eu dyfodol, rhaid i bob un ddewis: sut i fyw yn y ‘nawr’ newydd hwn.
Wedi’u lleoli yng Nghymru, Gogledd Iwerddon a’r Eidal, mae’r straeon cwmpasu cyfnod yr Ail Ryfel Byd ac oes Covid-19.
Wrth aros am garcharorion digalon ddod adre o’r Rhyfel, mae Eidalwr yn gweld ffordd ysgytwol i ailadeiladu ei fyd; ar arfordir Antrim, mae Gwyddel yn cael ei wthio i’r dibyn gan gythreuliaid ei deulu niwrotig; yng Nghymoedd de Cymru, helpu’r henoed yn eu cartrefi yn ystod y pandemig yw ffrwnt newydd brwydr y gweithwyr, ym mhrofiad un o’u gofalwyr. Merch yn ei harddegau yn digalonni wrth wynebu dyfodol ym myd Covid; terfysgwr mewn cariad; gweinidog dialgar; actores yn ceisio goleuni yn ei rôl i oresgyn rhwystrau ei bywyd go iawn: dyma bobol gyffredin mewn argyfwng – pob un wedi’i bortreadu â dealltwriaeth ffyrnig o anghyfiawnder a chreulondeb eu bywydau.
Ond mae’r sgwennu’n delynegol hefyd, llawn hiwmor ar brydiau ac yn craffu ar iaith ac ieithoedd – Eidaleg, Ulster Scots, Cymraeg. Yn ogystal â chymeriadau yn eu gwledydd eu hunain, rydyn ni’n cwrdd â Gwyddelod yn yr Eidal, Eidalwyr yng Nghymru, Cymry yng Ngogledd Iwerddon.
Angela Graham ar arfordir Antrim
Mae gweledigaeth sinematig o ffocws a lleoliad yn sail i bopeth sy’n digwydd: siop lyfrau diflas wedi troi’n gyrchfan rhamantus gan ysbrydion y meirw; dau offeiriad ifanc mewn cegin yn y Fatican yn gwrthdaro’n serchus; nemesis yn taro – o’r awyr – mewn coridor ysbyty.
Mae gan Angela Graham greddf am fanylion arwyddocaol a chlust am ddistawrwydd llwythog; fe fydd ei straeon yn gafael yn eu darllenwyr ac yn aros yn y cof ymhell ar ôl iddynt ddod i ddiweddglo.
Gwyddeles Gymraeg sy’n wreiddiol o Belffast yw Angela Graham. Cyn ysgrifennu A City Burning roedd hi’n gynhyrchydd a chyfarwyddwr teledu ac yn awdur sgriptïau ffilm yng Nghymru. Mae hi wedi cynhyrchu mwy na 100 o raglenni dogfen a ffeithiol i S4C, BBC, ITV a Channel 4. Bu’n Gynhyrchydd Datblygu ar ‘The Story of Wales’, gyfres hanes Cymru nodedig y BBC a ennillodd gwobrwyon BAFTA Cymru. Cynhyrchodd a chyd-ysgrifennodd y ffilm sinema Gymraeg / Wyddelig ‘Branwen’ (ymgeisydd i’r Oscars yn y categori Iaith Dramor ac enillydd gwobrau rhyngwladol) ac mae hi wedi ysgrifennu sgriptiau ffilm wedi’u lleoli yn yr Eidal a Rwmania.
Mae straeon Angela Graham wedi cael eu cyhoeddi’n eang mewn sawl gwlad a’u canmol yn frwd am eu meistrolaeth o dôn a llais. Mae hi’n rhugl ei Chymraegac yn fardd arobryn.
Labelau: Canolfan Ysgrifennu Genedlaethol Cymru, Ty Newydd
Beirniadaeth ar A City Burning:
‘Angela Graham is a brilliant new voice. This is literature that will last.’ Kate Hamer
“In this powerful collection, Angela Graham shows herself master of the angle of vision: her tales capture the mercurial moment when a person’s world is changed forever, in a road or room, against a landscape, seascape or starscape, at the graveside or (as in the towering story, ‘Life-Task’) at a forsaken railway station in the aftermath of war.” – Stevie Davies
“These stories show us what the genre does best: the ‘snapshot’ of a moment which reveals a life or a culture in a moment of transition or realisation, what James Joyce called an ‘epiphany’. … This vivid, humane and beautifully-controlled collection suggests Angela Graham is another name to watch.” – Prof Diana Wallace
“Good writing is compelling. Each of these twenty-six stories takes you out of your own skin and into the lived experience of another… The writing is sparse. Every word is telling… But there’s also lyricism, a feel for the rhythm of speech and an ability to capture natural beauty… These stories are not comfortable… but they are honest, searing, insightful and very, very good.” – Inez Lynn
‘The stories entice and intrigue…highly recommended’ – Graham Reid
‘Short, sharp and sometimes shocking, these wonderful stories truly pack a punch.’ Sue Leonard
‘an impressive kaleidoscope of landscape and language’ – Angeline King
‘A debut collection of tales remarkable for its verve, depth and range. Elegantly arranged, pellucidly told and persistently perceptive: twenty-six stories, one singular voice.’ – Jon Gower
I’m so delighted to have 3 wonderful readers to deliver extracts from my short story collection A City Burning at its launch on 27th October at 7pm: 26 stories set in Wales, Italy and Northern Ireland:
Geraint Lewis from Tregaron, west Wales, actor, playwright, novelist and short story writer.
Viviana Fiorentino from Italy, poet, novelist, translator and activist on migration policy.
