emilycleaver.net

Fiction, reviews & articles

Short story portfolio

Mr Bonner’s Dream the Night Before his Execution This story was published in 2009 in the Mechanics’ Institute Review magazine. Click here to read the story. The Escape This story was performed live as part of the Market Estate Project in 2010, and again at Liars’ League. Click here for a text version of the [...]

The Escape by Emily Cleaver

(Performed at the Market Estate Project and Liars’ League, 2010.) It’s Lionel Levett who releases the bull, unhitching the hasp from the ring through its nose. He watches it slip between the wooden boards of the stall and into the street, smooth as a ship launching. As it sails past he reaches up to douse [...]

Tea Cosy

“Give the spout a drink,” Gramp would say, sloshing a spurt of hot water through the pot before he filled it. Then he’d bring the pot in on a tray with the cups, wearing the tea cosy on his head. Gran did all the food; banana sandwiches, coffee-cream éclairs, fruit cake. Gramp was in charge [...]

Word Hunting: A Language-Lovers Sport

Latest blog post for Litro.co.uk… There are some words that are worth keeping, I’ve always thought. Everyone has their favourites – my friend Neil always swears by cornucopia. Defenestration seems to come up quite regularly. I’ve heard a case made for infinitesimal, although I’ve always had a soft-spot for chevron. But there are thousands of [...]

A Week of Whales

Latest blog post for Litro.co.uk… I’ve been haunted by whales this week. It all started with Dave from my writing group trying to list songs about whales, which spawned an eclectic playlist. Then I turned on the TV to be confronted by a whale being dissected.  (They’d just gouged out something called the glove finger – [...]

Poems as performance … John Cooper Clarke

Latest blog post for Litro magazine … Last week I squeezed into a packed and sweaty auditorium at the South Bank Centre to watch performance poet and punk legend John Cooper Clarke’s show for the London Literature Festival. The Bard of Salford was on good form, despite the temperature. Now in his 60s, he still [...]

Judging books by their covers: 75 Years of Penguin Sci Fi

Latest blog post for Litro Magazine… The main characteristic of the Penguin paperbacks we have on sale at the secondhand bookshop I work in is scruffiness. They’ve usually been read, re-read, loved, kept in pockets, stuffed under pillows and carried round in bags before being passed on to that great secondhand bookshop in the sky [...]

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