By Shelby Gibbs
Joining the literary folk of York at the new centre for Creative Writing is ‘the queen of dark short fiction’, Sarah Hall. Hall’s other accolades include becoming the first writer to win the BBC national short story award twice, winning the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and nominations for the Man Booker. We begin the evening with a brief introduction from the festival chair, Rob O’Connor, with kind comments and welcome as we return to in-person literature events after the pandemic. This feels particularly apt when we consider Hall’s latest power novel, Burntcoat, was written during a pandemic about a pandemic far worse than our own.
Next, a reading from the author herself. The haunting extract sets the tone for the remainder of the discussion. It is a pandemic novel unlike any other – it somehow feels entirely removed from predecessors like Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, or Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rainforest. It even feels far enough removed from our own lived experience to be enjoyable. The narrative follows an artist named Edith as she prepares for her own death as she contracts the deadly virus that permeates this novel. In doing so she takes us through her pivotal life experiences – revolving around a plethora of things be it love, art, death, family, caring, or sex. Though, above all else it is a story about human resilience.
“I’m the wood in the fire. I’ve experienced, altered in nature. I am burnt, damaged, more resilient. A life is a bead of water on the black surface, so frail, so strong, its world incredibly held.”
Burntcoat by Sarah Hall
What I found to be most powerful from Hall during the evening was her discussion about female artistry, a question posed by Professor Abi Curtis during her Q&A period. Hall discussed how female artists taking up space in an imagined realm makes them taking up psychical space more plausible. If you can imagine it, it can come to fruition. This felt like an important message to share inkeeping with the goal of not only York Literature Festival and the creative writing scene in York but inkeeping with the purpose of good literature. Good storytelling. It is why representation within our fiction and within our industry is so essential.
The evening was rounded off beautifully with a handful of audience questions before heading to the atrium where we were joined by York’s leading independent bookseller, The Little Apple Bookshop, armed with copies of Burntcoat and other titles from Sarah Hall. There Sarah kindly signed copies of the books before the evening drew to a close. All in all, the perfect way to kick off what is sure to be an outstanding 10 days of literary events and a reminder to us all what a pleasure it is to celebrate literature through these live events.