AMY HEMPEL + TOM LEE
Good writing is sometimes an accident...
The Word Factory Presents: The Accidental Life Writer. June 22nd.
Cathy Galvin writes: sometimes the most difficult aspects of our lives feel like they should be hidden. Who will want to know? And social media can amplify that sense and encourage a reductive view of the world.
Which is why I’m delighted Tom Lee has offered something serious and personal in his exploration of severe illness and mental illness from a personal perspective in his latest book.
Tom has been an enormous influence on me over the years - encouraging my fledgling writing and PhD steps and supporting the writing community project that is Word Factory. His students at Goldsmiths are lucky to have him. Whether you are familiar with his work or not, I would highly recommend his latest writing class for the Word Factory - The Accidental Life Writer.
He writes of the class: “Come along to discuss how the craft of fiction might inspire and infuse your life writing and vice versa. And if that wasn’t enough, do check out Windows of Recovery - rethinking intensive care spaces, a podcast where I also bang on about being very ill, alongside one of the consultants who looked after me, but more specifically about the new Kings Critical Care Garden - quite literally an outdoor ICU, something I could not have imagined even when in the grip of intensive care psychosis.”
I’m sure Tom won’t mind me mentioning that our paths first crossed when he was nominated for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, which I was running. He couldn’t make the awards ceremony and it was only on reading his new book, The Bullet: A Memoir - that I realised that at that time, Tom was about to die.
But he’s here -and there’s much to learn from this fine life-writer, novelist and short story writer. Do come along, enjoy the class and put your questions to Tom online on June 22nd. Tickets selling now.
About Tom Lee:
Tom Lee is the author of a memoir, The Bullet (Granta, 2024), a novel, The Alarming Palsy of James Orr (Granta, 2017), and a collection of short stories, Greenfly (Harvill Secker, 2008). His work has received the Royal Society of Literature’s Brookleaze Grant, a Society of Author’s Award and two Arts Council Grants for the Arts Awards. Tom is the convenor of the MA Creative and Life Writing and co-director of the Goldsmiths Writers’ Centre.
Online Short Story Club June 15th
In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried, by Amy Hempel
We will be discussing ‘In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried’, by Amy Hempel A former student of Gordon Lish, it’s the first story that Hempel ever wrote and it became her most anthologised story, originally inspired by a writing prompt to ‘write about something you’ll never live down’. The club is hosted by Farhana Khalique.
THIS EVENT IS FREE TO PAID SUBSTACK SUBSCRIBERS. CLAIM YOUR SPACE VIA cathy@thewordfactory.tv
You can read ‘In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried’ here.
And the news on Colm Tóibin? Well we met at Listowel Writers’ Week and discussed his wonderful new collection, the News From Dublin. I somehow also managed to persuade him to read some of his poetry from his collection, Vinegar Hill. And he was kind - we shared bringing out our first poetry collections in our sixties. It was also an honour to judge the Bryan McMahon Short Story Award for the festival and meet the winner, Anna Delargy Hunter. Look out for her work. I will be writing more about these wonderful encounters and what they can teach us about writing here soon.
