Whatever the mainstream narrative is, there may be some truth to that narrative but … there are always many other stories running alongside it, or going in opposition to it, and it would be foolish to assume that the national mood is what the TV news is saying it is … so I was interested in bringing out the stories of the people whose stories are less represented, specially in literature.
Come and join us with Gary Budden, while we visit the eerie misty islands on the frozen seas of Finland…
Some time in 2018 I read an article that comforted my soul and my artistic self more than I can explain. It was Awake Awake Sweet England: Why We Need Landscape Punk written by Gary Budden and published by The Quietus. Since then, I’ve become obsessed with this writer who doesn’t shy away from reclaiming the role of art and literature as tools to undo this dehumanisation that seems to permeate society, politics and even the media.
His first book, Hollow Shores, is an exploration of landscape and the humans who inhabit it that goes beyond nations – Gary sets his stories in England but also Wales and even Finland – and beyond genres – the book engages with landscape writing, weird fiction and horror, among others. Gary is also the co-founder of Influx Press, ‘an independent publisher based in London, committed to publishing innovative and challenging fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction from across the UK and beyond’. Influx Press can be supported via Patreon.
In this interview Gary talks about how his passion for Punk influenced his literature, the travels he has done to share his writing – and that took him to places such as an ex-Yugoslavian naval barracks in a literary festival in Croatia – and about the importance of believing in hibridity in order to free ourselves.
Connect with Gary:
THE WANDERING BARD 