What I produce does not come naturally; it is highly-wrought and worked over. Writing comes from silence, where we all come from. Reading is done in silence. - Colm Tóibín talking exclusively to Transmission, January 2008.
Never one to shy away from difficult issues, Transmission’s tenth edition contains two opposing views on creative writing. Speaking exclusively to Transmission, Guardian First Book Award nominee Wesley Stace muses on the ‘unschooled’ writing style that won praise for debut novel, Misfortune. Writer and lecturer John McAuliffe takes an opposing stance and comes out in favour of the increasingly popular academic creative writing course.
A musician by trade, Stace’s intriguing first novel, Misfortune, told the tale of a Victorian boy who was raised as a girl. Reflecting on the book’s success, Stace declares, ‘There’s no writing school in me, I’ve had no training whatsoever, I write truly as a fan of novels and, according to reviews, that’s what seemed fresh about it. In America they’re still teaching people to write like Raymond Carver and Donald Barthelme but I was never blighted by that.’ John McAuliffe, however, tells Transmission that ‘creative writing courses do act as hothouses and catalysts for writers’ – which is perhaps an understandable line of attack for the co-director of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing.
Elsewhere in Issue #10, Colm Tóibín talks about the challenges of writing short fiction – and explains why he doesn’t see himself as an ‘Irish’ writer. ‘When I work,’ he tells Transmission, ‘it has nothing to do with Ireland. In fact, the idea of Ireland and its traditions generally gives me the creeps.’ And in a candid interview, Rose Tremain, an author best known for her historical works of fiction, makes a plea for historical novels to be taken as seriously as contemporary fiction.
The magazine also features a selection of previously unpublished short fiction. Contributors to this issue include novelist Ray Robinson and Chris Killen, a Manchester author whose debut novel will be published by Canongate in 2009.