Inpsired to write - and to read all night

Chilling, creepy and utterly captivating.

Helen Marshall, a writer and poet originally from Canada, entranced the room with details about her life and her writing. In a talk that ranged from her journey to the UK to the relationship between herself and her sister, she told us how those events have inspired her work.

Within the short hour we attendees had with her, Marshall explored her life with writing, including how she first began writing poetry at the age of five in her back garden. She also read excerpts from two of her books; The Migration and Gifts For The One Who Comes After. 

The Migration, her newest novel, took inspiration from the bond that Marshall has with her sister and the journey they have been on together, much like the characters in the novel. 

Gifts For The One Who Comes After, a collection of short stories, features 'twisted surrealities' that delve into mythology and childhood imagination. The story which Marshall read to us was 'The Hanging Game', which explored how games we played as children could provide some very real terror.

Helen Marshall's talk at the Cultural Exchanges Festival this year was an nspiring evening that left me itching to get back to my own writing. 

Yes I bought her book of short stories, and yes I spent all night reading it.
 

Megan Greene

Stepping into 'Weird Fiction'

Yesterday, during Helen Marshall's reading, I stepped into the world of 'weird fiction' and was instantly captivated.

Being a fan of darker literature myself, I was curious to see how Helen approached the writing process and see if I could pick up new writing techniques. She went on to speak about the relationship between memories and her writing.

"Memories are something that we've lived through, something that we've buried in the back of our mind. Mine have often found their way into both my poetry and stories."

While writing using memory is something I've done before, the way memories and pieces of mythology were woven

into her work was mind-blowing to listen to during her reading of 'The Hanging Game' and an extract from The Migration.

She also spoke about her fascination with weird fiction.

"Weird fiction exists in the gaps of science-fiction, horror, and fantasy and is often experimental. Reading it, to me, feels like you've just got into an elevator, then it drops and your stomach lurches. It's this darker side of fiction that I find interesting."

Hearing the feeling she gets out of writing and reading weird fiction has been inspiring to me and I cannot wait to take what I have learned from her and apply it to my own work now and in the future. 


Leah Watts