By Pamela Banayoti

The debate for the legitimacy of Creative Writing courses sweeps the internet and newspapers as the course comes under scrutiny. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect, right? The debate exists as to pin point whether Creative Writing courses are useful, or whether writers in themselves have the talent that is able to finish a piece without the aid for a degree that will now cost thousands to pay back.

By Pamela Banayoti

Lorrie Moore describes the art of writing as this, ‘A short story is a love affair; a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.’ If the short story is described as an affair and the novel is described as a marriage, what then can we call flash fiction? A fling.

by Pamela Banayoti

Angela Levin has seen it all; from interviewing celebrities, victims’ families following a tragedy, to even columnising as an agony aunt on The Daily Mail, Levin boasts a beefy portfolio that is sure to garner human interest. Her latest project, Wormwood Scrubs: The Inside Story, is no different. What is it about human disaster that captures us so intensely? 

By Pamela Banayoti

CAUTION: EVERYONE MUST READ
 
Revolutionary, thought provoking, shocking; this is a novel that does not disappoint on any level. Made up entirely of cut up advertisements from magazines in the 1960s, the story follows Norma Fontaine who makes her decisions based on consultations with the women’s glossies. However, Norma bears a secret that threatens to halt her brother’s blossoming romance. As the plot develops, readers realise everything is not as it seems, and the glossies that are mentioned ever so casually, are in fact important in aiding us with the twist that comes towards the end of the novel; as we come to know who Norma really is. Graham Rawle worked on this project for five years, before completing his masterpiece and bringing it to the world, for which we are so thankful.

By Pamela Banayoti

Inspiration +  Inebriation = Creation, or should that be... Inebriation + Inspiration = Creation.

There’s no denying the literary/book world is inundated with the promise of an alcohol fuelled environment. Who would argue against such a notion? Carver? Fitzgerald? Williams? All famed alcoholics, perhaps these writers excused their alcoholism with literary genius. However, looking past these writers of the 20th Century, it seems that at some point, those involved in the arts seek solace at the bottom of the wine glass.

By Pamela Banayoti 

Gone Girl should be gone. Forever. Drawing a reader in has never been harder than now; in a world that has seen everything. While I understand that the demands for a complex plot may at times take precedence over the fluidity of language, Gone Girl failed in its attempt to keep me hooked. Is the plot complex? Yes. Is it credible? No. Perhaps the expectation was too high.