Read This: Highlighting 'Books Under the Radar'

Taking part in Costa Prize-winning author Claire Fuller's weekly series was right up my alley.

Anyone who has studied with me, or read this newslettter, or just knows me a little bit, might guess that sharing a few favorite books might be something I’d enjoy doing?

So I was happy indeed to take part in the weekly series started by the writer Claire Fuller nearly a year ago called “Read This: Books Under the Radar.”

Via my “Read This,” I doubt I’m bringing many new readers to Colson Whitehead by highlighting his early novel, John Henry Days, but I’m hoping that a few more U.K. readers may discover National Book Award-winning Alice McDermott by reading about her 2008 novel After This. And some U.S. readers might delve into Katherine Stansfield’s diverse range of work if they’re intrigued by her beautiful novel The Visitor.

Claire Fuller’s work is not exactly under the radar but, if you’ve not read her yet, I think my personal favorite is her strangely compelling novel, The Memory of Animals. Among other responses, it finally prompted me to stop eating octopus.

And then, I did a lot more reading

Since November, I have been reading in secret.

I was asked in the summer by Literature Wales to serve as the lead fiction judge for the 2025 Wales Book of the Year Award, an honor indeed (especially for this dual US/Welsh citizen!) The entries began arriving in November, but I could not tell anyone which books I was reading, or why (judges were announced by Literature Wales in March). As I’m usually proselytizing about all the books I love, it was hard to keep quiet.

But what an amazing experience it’s been. Books in all fiction genres are submitted, and so I was reading across a wide spectrum of Welsh fiction — rom-coms, historical novels, literary fiction, crime books, even a bit of horror. This isn’t my typical reading fare, yet I found that with almost every book, I was hooked after about 50 pages, often sooner.

You can imagine that made my job tricky indeed.

I still can’t talk about the books I’m reading… except to say that now, I’m looking at books of poetry, non-fiction, and children’s literature, too, along with my fellow judges, listed above. A few weeks ago, we four each shared our favorites, so I found a new set of books on my TBR shelf.

More fun.

On May 11, Literature Wales will be announcing the shortlist in each category, with the winners announced in July in Cardiff — a ceremony anyone can go to (if you can get a ticket! They go on sale in May.) I’ll be on BBC Wales on Sunday May 11 to talk about the shortlist. So stay tuned!

Southampton events - join me!

If you’re near Southampton at the end of April, join me for two events that I’m doing in my role teaching Creative Writing at the University of Southampton.

First, I’m thrilled to have Lex Croucher, the New York Times-best selling author of books including Gwen and Art Are Not in Love, as a guest at my Writers in Conversation series.

Croucher is an alumna of our English BA, and so one of her previous lecturers — my wonderful colleague Rebecca Smith — will be interviewing her on Tuesday 29 April, 7:30 at Mayflower Studios. Tickets are going fast, so book soon!

The next evening, my colleague Toby Litt has organized a Creative Writing Taster Session for people interested in studying creative writing, especially those considering enrolling in MA Creative Writing (and our MA CW most especially!) Join Toby, me and my CW colleagues Wednesday 30 April on the Avenue campus at 7 p.m.

The inspiring environs of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

And now, the writing itself.

I am midway through my four-week residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and what a joy these weeks have been. The center provides some twenty artists — painters, sculptors, poets, novelists, composters, etc. — a place to sleep and a studio to work in. They provide all our meals, and every week or so, we feel outraged when we realize we have to do laundry.

It’s the only place in the world designed to help you make creative work.

And work we do. When I took a walk between writing scenes one morrning to clear my head, I did not see another artist walking around. They were all in their studios.

Thank you, VCCA, for this time to write the next novel.

My future reading - and yours?

Finally, a few book recommendations for the coming weeks.

I first read Denne Michele Norris’s fiction after meeting her here, at VCCA. Her story, part of an anthology called Everyday People: The Color of Life, was beautifully written, and powerfully moving. As it’s the basis of her debut novel coming out next week — When the Harvest Comes — I am excited indeed to begin reading.

Closer to Cardiff, I was sorry to miss the launch of Tracey Rhys’s poetry collection, Bathing on the Roof, which plays around with the Biblical story of Bathsheba, but I am very much looking forward to reading her poems. Again, I read one in a poetry magazine in Wales, and was blown away.

Two more novels to recommend: Anthony Shapland’s A Room Above the Shop, whose work I encountered in the new Wales literary magazine, Folding Rock; and after interviewing her for Writers in Conversation, and as I’m now in America, I’m especially impatient to get to Xiaolu Guo’s feminist take on Moby Dick, entitled Call Me Ishmaelle.

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