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    On Literature
    On Literature
    On Literature
    Ebook42 pages33 minutes

    On Literature

    By Mark Cantrell

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    About this ebook

    A small collection of essays and journalism, On Literature explores the creative life, from poets waxing lyrical to poets getting down right political. Some crucial excursions with the muse are explored in the 'pages' of this book, so dip inside and be inspired, there's more to literary living than you might think.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMark Cantrell
    Release dateApr 30, 2011
    ISBN9781301550111
    On Literature
    Author

    Mark Cantrell

    A coffee-guzzling journalist turned author, Mark Cantrell has chased the literary dream for years. Somehow, it's always managed to stay one step ahead, but Mark perseveres in his pursuit all the same. There are worse ways to kill time, after all. Mark is the author of two novels (so far), both released in paperback and digital editions by the indie press, Inspired Quill. Both his novels haunt dystopian ground, but aside from their dark tone they remain very different beasts. While CITIZEN ZERO (2017) runs towards political science fiction thriller, SILAS MORLOCK (2013) ventures into the shadows of dark, urban fantasy in homage of literary culture. For want of comparison, in CITIZEN ZERO The Matrix meets V for Vendetta with a touch of I, Daniel Blake. SILAS MORLOCK, though, is more a macabre melding of Fahrenheit 451 and Nosferatu. Away from novel-length works, Mark has written plenty of short stories and novelettes in his time. He's even been known to dabble in poetry. Over the years, his stories have appeared in a variety of small press journals both in print and online. Way back in 1998, two of his stories were featured in the Clover Books horror anthology, Spirit of Darkness. In 2001 there was Love, Sex, Death & Carrots. More recently, his work appeared in Bards and Sages Publishing's The Society of Misfit Stories Presents, Vol 1, Issue 1 (February 2019). Between times, his fiction has appeared in publications such as Sci-Fright, Alternaties, Asphalt Jungle, Writers' Muse, the Writers' Compass, and more. He's even self-published some of these works, individually as 'digital shorts', and in his collection of short fiction, ISOLATION SPACE (2009/2011). Available through Smashwords, you can find more details of these works below. Broadly speaking, Mark's work fits into the science-fiction-fantasy-horror spectrum, but he tends to write to the story and worry about the genre later. It seems to work, more or less. Certainly, he's happy (flattered) to be called a science fiction author even if he frequently feels unworthy of the accolade. By trade, Mark is a journalist. This is reflected on his author blog, where he writes articles about politics, society and current affairs, along with regular excursions into science, culture and literary life. Well, it keeps the 'blog-beast' fed. As a jobbing B2B hack, Mark has mostly written for trade mags. He worked in Manche...

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      Book preview

      On Literature - Mark Cantrell

      BLURB: On Literature brings together selected key articles written about the author's local creative writing scene (Bradford, West Yorkshire) as well as creative writing in general. From poets waxing lyrical to poets getting down right political, some tantalising excursions with the muse are explored in the following 'pages'. So dip inside and be inspired; there's more to literary living than you might think.

      ###

      On Literature

      Selected Journalism by Mark Cantrell

      Smashwords Edition

      ISBN: 978-1301-5501-1-1

      This e-Book Edition Published April 2011

      First Edition January 2004

      Copyright (C) January 2004/2011.

      Some Rights Reserved.

      The moral rights of the author have been asserted under the provisions of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act (1988).

      This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.

      Email: tykewriter@supanet.com

      Web: www.markcantrell.co.uk

      ###

      Table Of Contents

      Chapter 1: Foreword To This Edition

      Chapter 2: Introduction

      Chapter 3: Type Into The Altered State Of Mind

      Chapter 4: The Naked Verse

      Chapter 5: Taking Bradford By Storm

      Chapter 6: Tales Of Asylum

      Chapter 7: Marking Two Horrors With Poetry

      Chapter 8: On The Road For The Cross Cultural Espresso

      Chapter 9: Muses From The Primordial S[ub]lime

      Chapter 10: Don't Publish My Collected Works!

      Chapter 11: About The Author

      ###

      Chapter 1: Foreword

      HANG out among poets for any length of time and you'll eventually encounter the chapbook. This is a self-published tome, typically an A5 staple-bound home made effort, that has long been an essential element of poetic circles. One might almost say they are swapped around like business cards.

      These days, the words of a poet have so many other potential outlets, courtesy of the internet and digital publishing, but when it comes to mingling in the social milieu of the poet – at lit fairs, open mics and writers' groups – the chapbook remains an important tool. Call it hardcopy file-sharing if you want, but one where's there is at least some kind of fair trade partaken if not an actual cash transaction.

      So, like many a social poet, supping beer at the venues, I self-published a handful of poetry chapbooks. I did the same for some of my essays and prose writing, such as this volume, cheaply binding them, and touting them to peers. I published, they sold in the small numbers I produced (as is par the course for chapbooks – their rarity is perhaps an essential aspect of their purpose), and then they passed into the backstory of time.

      Until now.

      It seemed an apt time to dust off

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