Lisa Blower in The Simple Things Magazine

 Lisa Blower, author of It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s was invited to write a short-story for The Simple Things magazine. Read The Voyagers in the July issue, available now!

Lisa Blower on Night Owls Radio

Listen to Lisa Blower, author of It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s as she talks to Alan Robson on Night Owls radio.

Kerry Hudson: books that show real working-class life for The Guardian

‘Recently I’ve also discovered Lisa Blower’s short story-collection It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s, in which her hometown Stoke-on-Trent is the setting that binds together different narrative forms and a fearsome array of matriarchs. (Lisa Blower’s writing is)… firmly rooted in her lived experience, but transcends all the limitations and preconceptions surrounding work from communities seldom represented on the page.’ Read Kerry’s article in full HERE.

A Pear in a Tin of Peaches by Lisa Blower for Common People

‘A stunning collection that I can’t recommend highly enough!’

Lisa Blower features in a new collection of essays, poems and memoirs centred around the subject of working-class, titled Common People. The collection has been edited by Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon and The Trick To Time.

Read Bookish Chat’s review of Common People HERE.

Interview with Mariella Frostrup on Open Book BBC Radio 4

Lisa Blower discusses what working-class means and how it is portrayed in literature with Mariella Frostrup on BBC Radio 4 Open Book.

‘I am working-class, I was brought up working-class, and the values, beliefs and principles I was brought up with are still with me today. Whether or not that filters into my fiction is entirely a different argument for me, but I still feel working-class, and a loyalty to where I grew up and the people I grew up with.’

Listen again HERE.

Stoke on Trent Live Features Lisa Blower

Lisa Blower shares the personal stories that helped pave the way for It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s. “They’re mostly stories about women but I remember growing up with a lot of women around me. I was surrounded by chattering matriarchs who were always telling stories and gossiping. The women of that time didn’t think they were doing anything interesting or significant or contributing to history, but of course they were.

“I remember telling my nan that I’d like to write her life history and she said whatever for as she hadn’t done anything. Those women were accepting rather than expecting. They worked their whole lives, they made armaments during the war – but they didn’t think they’d done anything interesting.”

Read the full article here.

Bookanista features Oceans of Stories by Lisa Blower

Bookanista featured Oceans of Stories by Lisa Blower to celebrate the publication date of Lisa’s first collection of short stories;  It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s. Head over to the Bookanista website to read in full.

Publication Celebration: Commemorative Mug

To celebrate the publication of the astoundingly good It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s by Lisa Blower, we’re giving away a copy of the book plus a beautiful commemorative mug (toast & jam not included)!

To enter, head over to the Myriad Twitter page, RT the pinned post, tag a short story loving friend, follow Myriad and Lisa Blower. This competition is UK only and it ends on the 25th!  Head over to our Twitter profile for more information.

Big Issue North Author Q&A: Lisa Blower

Lisa Blower is the author of choice in the latest Big Issue North. Read online here or buy a copy from a local vendor in the North West, Yorkshire or Humber.

‘It’s imperative that the industry opens its doors more to the regional voice, to stories of place and the class subject when we are so culturally diverse, because there’s never been a more vital time to represent the stories that would otherwise not be told.’

It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s is published this month – preorder your copy here.

Short stories to read now…

 The amazing It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s by Lisa Blower was reviewed by Eithne Farry for the Daily Mail. It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s is published on the 11th April. Buy it now.

Make Room for Working Class Writers

“All too often, popular culture, including literature, neglects to reflect working-class life in its diversity. It’s easy to depict rich and poor, north and south, while undermining those who exist in-between. Working-class writing is simply reflecting lives, to paraphrase Alan Bennett, that are generally happening elsewhere.” Lisa Blower features in Kit de Waal’s piece for The Guardian on working-class writing. Read it in full here.

Broken Crockery – Winner of The Guardian short story award 2009

My nan doesn’t like Margaret Thatcher because she’d kicked women in the shins and blew off kneecaps so a working man would know what mercy meant. She said that Margaret Thatcher drove a tank straight through the poor people and was only wearing a headscarf. She said that Margaret Thatcher said that everyone should have a house because that was the law. Mum says houses are greedy old things. Read the full story over on The Guardian website.

Lisa Blower talks to New Welsh Review

Lisa Blower talks to Caroline Stockford of New Welsh Review about her story ‘Johnny Dangerously’, which features in ‘It’s Gone Dark Over Bill’s Mother’s‘, the transition from working to writing life and the importance of writing working-class fiction.

Interview with Mark Lawson on Front Row BBC Radio 4

As part of the BBC National Short Story Award, Mark Lawson talks to Lisa Blower about her interest in working-class fiction and one of her prize-winning stories, ‘Barmouth’, in which a disastrous family trip, or series of trips, sees her narrator travelling from childhood to adulthood.

You can listen again here.