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Review: Singapore by Eva Aldea

In Eva Aldea’s debut novel, Singapore is hot and humid, tense, sterile and slow. There are snakes and crabs, expat housewives with Filipina maids. At the centre of this, there is an unnamed female protagonist who vehemently resents her life abroad. She hates the humid heat, struggles to relate to the fellow expats in her circle…… Continue reading →

Review: Crow Face, Doll Face by Carly Holmes

Mystery, magic, mental illness and the wrecking of important relationships are some of the elements that make Crow Face, Doll Face a success.
Annie gives up her dreams to travel the world to settle and have a family with her beloved Peter. We read the description of a quiet daily life where routine and a simple completion of daily tasks makes the pace slow and relaxed. There are small hints of Annie’s dissatisfaction, but when the family starts growing she seems to feel content with the new setting, with all the love added and shared among them.
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Cordelia Feldman Prize for Life Writing WINNER : Bediye Topal

Birkbeck Creative Writing and the family of Birkbeck alumni Cordelia Feldman, are delighted to announce the inaugural Cordelia Feldman Prize for Life Writing. The winner of the inaugural prize is Bediye Topal with her piece X and I.
Bediye was born and raised in a village in Southern Turkey and came to the UK as a refugee in her early twenties. Her piece X and I is about that experience. You can read and extract from her winning piece on MIR Online.
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Well done me, by Cordelia Feldman – extract

I’m sitting up in bed at my parental home, writing this on Mum’s computer. At the moment I spend about four days per week here, and three days at my flat. This house, where I spent the first thirty years of my life, is in Radlett in leafy Hertfordshire, just on the edge of the green belt. My cat Spitfire, also known as the Fluffy Monster, or more recently, Precious Angel Fluffball lives here as I am too ill to look after him. … Continue reading →

X and I, by Bediye Topal

I belong to a race whose alphabet contains the letters Q, W and X. They are letters. Just letters like any others. But for the Turkish state, these aren’t just letters. They banned them.… Continue reading →

Review: Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet

1960s London. Driven by deep suspicion of the charlatan psychiatrist her sister frequented before her suicide, a young woman decides to visit him herself, under the guise of an alter ego. The psychiatrist in question, Collins Braithwaite, is a notorious celebrity quack, famed for his unconventional methods. In seeking the truth, she finds that even the nature of truth is uncertain… Continue reading →

Review: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Thematically, Sea of Tranquility is a fairly standard time travel mystery, offering three distinct timelines, linked by a fourth. In 1912, eighteen-year-old Edwin St. John. St. Andrew crosses the Atlantic to the new world, adrift and uncertain of much at all. In 2020, Mirella Kessler mourns her friend Vincent Alkatis Smith (both of these characters also appear in Mandel’s earlier novel The Glass House) and tries to make sense of the circumstances around her death. … Continue reading →

Five Poems from Speculum, by Hannah Copley

They were stones in a champagne flute,
I was always bound to smash.
But they were there for a while,
hanging on, two faceless punters waiting
for the gag, and then it all slipped out
of me as easily as a giggle. Once is a mistake.
Twice is careless. By the end of it
you could hear a pin drop in my heart.… Continue reading →

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Review: Living with Annie by Simon Christmas

If some people were biological machines operated by a fungus that had infiltrated their nervous systems—looking, behaving, and to an observer’s eye displaying emotions like

Interview: Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton’s debut novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle met with great success, winning the Best First Novel prize in the 2018 Costa book awards and topping bestseller lists.… Continue reading →

10 Things…with Kate Halabura

Kate Halabura, Library Manager at Wandsworth Town Library, takes on our questionnaire (originally published in June 2020)

James Young interviews Ruby Cowling

James Young interviews Ruby Cowling about her collection This Paradise published by Boiler House Press, and currently longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

10 Things…with Louise Hare

Louise Hare, author of ‘This Lovely City’ and Features Editor for MIR online, takes on our questionnaire.

October Reads

The temperature has dropped, and the nights are getting shorter. It’s been non-stop rain for most of the country. Super Thursday has been and gone

Youth Reads For Summer

Summer is here. And we all know what that means: spending way too much time with your family, of course! Luckily, a team of heroes

The divisive rise of Insta-poetry

The term Insta-poetry is causing quite the stir in the literary world. It is no new term, but it is a persistent one that divides

March Reads

Another diverse selection with, I would hope, something for everyone. Enjoy. James

January Reads

A diverse selection to kick off the new year – there really should be something for everyone. We hope you enjoy them. James  

Jenn Ashworth’s #100daysofwriting

Sian Hughes interviewed Jenn Ashworth to find out more about the slightly mad idea that is #100daysofwriting and what it means for her the second time

November Reads

Long winter nights = more reading time (for me, at least). Here are some suggestions from the MIROnline Team on how to spend it. We

August Recommended Reads

Still selecting your Summer holiday reading? Here are some suggestions from the MIROnline Team. Enjoy.

June Recommended Reads

Are short Summer nights depriving you of sleep? Here are some ideas from the MIROnline team on how to fill your waking hours. Enjoy. James

Jenn Ashworth talks to Lauren Miller

With the launch of MIR 14 featured author Jenn Ashworth talks to Lauren Miller about the potential of the short story and promoting diversity in