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For many years, Jim Rockhill has been a staunch advocate for the work of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, most probably Ireland’s premier writer of supernatural tales and the uncanny. Between 2002 and 2005, Rockhill edited a major three-volume collection of Le Fanu’s supernatural fiction for Ash-Tree Press, writing a highly informative introduction for each volume. … Continue reading
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Rockhill about his new book, A Mind Turned in Upon Itself, published by Swan River Press. Comprising a three-part biography of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and a number of essays examining specific aspects of his work, it’s a wonderful celebration of the life and work of Ireland’s … Continue reading
Brian Catling was a fascinating artist, working across several disciplines. He was a writer, poet, sculptor, painter, film-maker and performance artist and his work often employed several media at once. Perhaps best known for his Vorrh trilogy of novels, Catling also worked in the short form and in 2019 published Only the Lowly, a series … Continue reading
I had the good fortune to interview Victor Rees recently about his and Iain Sinclair’s assembling of a tribute to the late great Brian Catling: A Mystery of Remnant. The book gathers a number of short stories, an essay, a play and a poem, all of which admirably serve to give readers a flavour of … Continue reading
Fitz-James O’Brien was a mid-19th Century Irish writer who, typically of the time, wrote across multiple genres and in a number of forms, including prose, poetry and playwriting. Over time, however, being a devotee of Edgar Allan Poe, and influenced by writers such as Washington Irving, Thomas De Quincey and Nathaniel Hawthorne, O’Brien began to … Continue reading
Swan River Press has just launched a major three-volume collected works of Fitz-James O’Brien. It’s the most complete presentation of O’Brien’s fantastic literature to date, and includes a large array of short stories, poems and one play, along with excellent introductions by John P. Irish that investigate the life and work of the man some … Continue reading
It’s often the case with a long-running original anthology series that the law of diminishing returns kicks in. This is most certainly not the case with the Uncertainties books, published by Swan River Press. And I think a key factor in the continuing vitality of this series is the policy of inviting different editors to … Continue reading
Swan River Press is about to publish Volume VII of it’s original anthology series Uncertainties and I interviewed its editor, Carly Holmes, about the process of pulling together the book, her response to the stories featured, her own work, and uncanny and supernatural fiction in general. You can read the interview here.
I got the chance to interview the excellent Helen Grant about her new collection of short stories called Atmospheric Disturbances, due out from Swan River Press shortly. Her stories deal with a wide range of subjects and ideas, from abandoned Scottish manors and remote islands to petrospheres and Hieronymus Bosch, and we chatted about all … Continue reading
Helen Grant’s second collection from Swan River Press, following The Sea Change & Other Stories in 2013, explores a wide range of aspects of the uncanny to great effect. In ‘Gold’, an expedition to a crumbling palace keep hidden along an isolated river bed in an unspecified hot desert country uncovers ancient treasure that proves … Continue reading
John Kenny 