The Comma Press Podcast Comma Press

Award-winning author David Constantine discusses his latest collection of mesmerising short fiction

The fifth episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, host and Comma Press Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with acclaimed author M. John Harrison, writer and filmmaker Adam Scovell and writers and critics Andy Hedgecock and Jennifer Hodgson.

Recorded remotely via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our four guests discussed the influence of the British landscape on not only M. John's work, in relation to his latest collection of selected stories (Settling the World) but also the wider British SFF canon, from H. G Wells to Susanna Clarke. As well as how British SFF writing has been adapted for the screen, endings and closure in modern fiction and much more...

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England.
Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Show notes:
Settling the World by M. John Harrison
Climbers by M John Harrison
J G Ballard
Ann Quin
Phenomenology
Psychogeography
Hauntology (Jacques Derrida)
‘The Door In The Wall’ (H. G. Wells)
‘The Stains’ (Robert Aickman)
‘English eerie’ Essay by Robert Macfarlane https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/10/eeriness-english-countryside-robert-macfarlane
‘A View from a Hill’ (M. R. James)
‘The Signalman’ (Charles Dickens)
Holloway by Robert Macfarlane
‘Candyman’ (Clive Barker)
‘The Birds’ (Daphne du Maurier)
The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Further watching:
Ben Wheatley's A Field in England (trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRRvzjkzu2U
Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General
The Wicker Man
Holloway (short film): https://celluloidwickerman.com/2015/07/06/short-film-holloway-robert-macfarlane/

The fourth episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, guest host and co-editor of the Europa28 anthology, Sophie Hughes, is in conversation with contributors Kapka Kassabova and Janne Teller about Comma's recent anthology, Europa28: Writing by Women on the Future of Europe, a Hay Festival Project.

Recorded remotely via Zoom due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, our three guest discussed writing about Europe amidst an ongoing refugee crisis, a global pandemic and in a nationalistic, post-Brexit world - what can we learn and take forward. They also discussed the impact and dangers of technological innovation, and what the world would be like without social media and 'bad news' culture.

Show notes:
Border by Kapka Kassabova
War by Janne Teller
Hay Festival Wales
Thomas Piketty

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England.
Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

The third episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with contributors and academics about Comma's best-selling anthology, Palestine + 100: Stories from a century after the Nakba, the first ever collection of science fiction from Palestine. Guest in this episode are Palestinian author and journalist Rawan Yaghi, editor of the anthology and translator Basma Ghalayini, Barbara Dick who holds a doctorate from Durham University on Modern Arabic Science Fiction and Lancaster University's Lindsey Moore, who specialises in post-1948 literature of the Arab world within postcolonial studies.

Show notes:
1. 47SOUL – Gamar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yECo9LBojZo
2. The Second War of the Dog by Ibrahim Nasrallah https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/25/ibrahim-nasrallah-wins-arabic-fiction-prize-novel-dystopian-extremists-second-war-of-the-dog
3. The Secret Lift of Saeed the Pessoptimist by Emile Habibi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Saeed:_The_Pessoptimist
4. Rhetorics of Belonging by Dr Anna Bernard https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjk1v
5. Larissa Sansour (Space Exodus) http://www.larissasansour.com/exodus.html
6. The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190612-the-book-of-disappearance/
7. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi https://oneworld-publications.com/frankenstein-in-baghdad.html
8. Mustafa Mahmoud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Mahmoud
9. Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/utopia-by-ahmed-khaled-towfik-6132395.html
10. Gaza Writes Back https://justworldbooks.com/books-by-title/gaza-writes-back/
11. The Book of Gaza (Comma Press) https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-book-of-gaza/
12. The Lord Arrived from the Spinach Field by Sabri Moussa
13. The 99 comic book series by Naif Al-Mutawa
14. Arablit.org

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

The second episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with contributors and academics about Comma's best-selling anthology, Iraq + 100: Stories from a century after the invasion, the first ever collection of science fiction from Iraq, edited by the award-winning author Hassan Blasim. Guest in this episode are Iraqi author Anoud (pseudonym), Sinead Murphy, who holds a PhD in contemporary Arab science fiction in English translation, and Annie Webster, a Wolfson PhD candidate at SOAS working on post-2003 Iraqi literature.

Show notes:
1. Iraq +100
2. Hassan Blasim – The Iraqi Christ
3. Kahramana
4. Banthology
5. South Park
6. 1001 Nights
7. The Palestinian Novel by Bashir Abu-Manneh
8. BBC Two’s Civilisations – S1E1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05xxsmp
9. H. G. Wells – The Shape of Things to Come
10. “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.” – George Orwell
11. Ahmed Khaled Towfik – Utopia
12. Palestine +100
13. An interview with Saleem Haddad (Palestine +100) on OpenDemocracy https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/reimagining-palestine-future-interview-saleem-haddad/
14. Sinan Antoon – The Book of Collateral Damage
15. Hassan Blasim – The Corpse Exhibition (Penguin North America) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/313242/the-corpse-exhibition-by-hassan-blasim/9780143123262

Sorry for some quiet audio in parts!
Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

The first episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast introduces the theme of this new series - FUTURES.

In this opening episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with esteemed sci-fi writer Adam Roberts, the University of York's Amanda Rees who is currently researching the history of the future, and MMU's own Amy Chambers, who specialises in film and visual culture.

Show notes:
1. Iraq +100
2. The John Wyndham Archive https://libguides.liverpool.ac.uk/library/sca/wyndham
3. The Stanley Kubrick Archive https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/library-services/special-collections-and-archives/archives-and-special-collections-centre/the-stanley-kubrick-archive
4. Star Trek (the original series)
5. Dr Lisa Garforth https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/lisagarforth.html#background
6. Star Trek: Discovery
7. Doctor Who
8. Joan Haran’s ‘Imaginactivism’ https://adanewmedia.org/2017/10/issue12-haran/
9. Fredric Jameson
10. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
11. Logan (2017)
12. The Twilight Zone
13. It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
14. The Fractured Europe Series by Dave Hutchinson
15. Men in Black (1997)
16. Starship Troopers (1997)
17. Jules Verne
18. H. G. Wells
19. Patrick Moore sparks UNESCO debate
20. Unsettling Scientific Stories http://unsettlingscientificstories.co.uk
21. Black Panther (2018)
22. Captain Marvel (2019)
23. The Big Bang Theory
24. Mae Jemison

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.