Five More Questions with Mandira Pattnaik Author of Kaala Paani What inspired you to write ‘Kaala Paani’? I visited Cellular Jail, Port Blair, India, some time back. Now a national memorial and museum, it was a colonial prison used by…
Kaala Paani
Kaala Paani by Mandira Pattnaik Bakru can’t sleep because his father can’t because his mother can’t, so he turns on the bed rags and watches the rain through the open window, rain so insistent it doubles up to cover for…
BackStory: Five Questions with Struan Gow
BackStory: Five Questions with Struan Gow Author of RRS Discovery What inspired you to write ‘RRS Discovery’? The RRS Discovery holds a special place in my heart, as I grew up in Dundee, where it is currently displayed. It is…
RRS Discovery
by Struan Gow RRS Discovery: She cannot glimpse the sea. She cannot feel it wrap around her hull—salt within the wood, burning hot to cold warping her skin. She cannot hear its rhythm like she cannot hear her heart. They…
BackStory: Five Questions with Joyce Bingham
BackStory: Five Questions with Joyce Bingham Author of The Inheritance What inspired you to write ‘The Inheritance’? I was given a prompt to write about entering a room at a ghost story workshop. I found I was writing about a…
The Inheritance
The Inheritance by Joyce Bingham I have never been alone in this room. The heavy door closes behind me, the rest of the house hidden from sight and I from them. My footsteps falter. I look down at my feet…
BackStory: Six Questions with Mary Byrne
BackStory: Six Questions with Mary Byrne Author of A Quiet Day in Hell What inspired you to write ‘A Quiet Day in Hell’? The house where we used to live in Normandy was an old presbytery built 20 years before…
A Quiet Day in Hell
A Quiet Day in Hell by Mary Byrne In a corner of verdant countryside, a priest’s mother is washing an accumulated several months of linen sheets in a giant pot over an outdoor fire. She moves them around occasionally, raising…
BackStory: Four Questions with Karen Walker
BackStory: Four Questions with Karen Walker Author of The 1796 Spinning Wheel List What inspired you to write ‘The 1796 Spinning Wheel List’? Looking for my ancestors in The 1796 Spinning Wheel (also known as The Irish Flax Growers) List.…
The 1796 Spinning Wheel List
The 1796 Spinning Wheel List by Karen Walker Pursuant to the Scheme offered for encouraging the Growth of Flax throughout the Kingdom, to the Person who shall sow a quantity of land with a sufficient quantity of good sound Flax,…