We’re delighted to be welcoming award winning author David Constantine back to the shop for the launch of his new short story collection RIVERS OF THE UNSPOILT WORLD. David will be in conversation with Claire Dean.

About the book:

Described as one of the UK’s finest short story writers, Constantine intricately interweaves fictional characters and events with the real to create new ways of seeing and connecting our past, present and possible futures.

With extraordinary patience and precision, these stories centre on moments, conversations, meetings that feel like small details picked out from a larger tapestry.

From the academic in Paris, researching the atrocities of the fall of 1871 Paris Commune, to the young biographer who tries to befriend the ailing poet Hölderlin, the characters in this collection are united by an urge for connection, a desire to better know themselves – and the world around them – to counteract a loss of hope and belonging.

About the author:

Born in Salford, David Constantine has published several volumes of poetry with Bloodaxe (including Collected Poems (2004), Nine Fathom Deep (2009), Elder (2014) and Belongings(2020)), as well as two novels (most recently The Life-Writer with Comma) and five collections of short fiction: Back at the Spike (1994), the highly acclaimed Under the Dam (Comma, 2005), The Shieling (Comma, 2009), Tea at the Midland (Comma, 2012), which won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award in 2013, and The Dressing-Up Box (Comma, 2019), as well as In Another County: Selected Stories (Comma 2015). David’s story ‘Tea at the Midland’ won the 2010 National Short Story Award, and his story ‘In Another Country’ was adapted into 45 Years – an Oscar-nominated film, directed by Andrew Haigh and starring Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling. With his wife Helen, David edited Modern Poetry in Translation for many years. He is also translator of Hölderlin, Brecht, Goethe, Kleist, Michaux and Jaccottet. He is the winner of the Queen’s Medal for Poetry 2020. He lives in Oxford.

Claire Dean is a writer, researcher and conservator living in the north of England. Her short stories are widely published and have been selected for anthologies including, The Best British Short Stories (Salt), Year’s Best Weird Fiction (Undertow) and The Best Horror of the Year(Nightshade). Nightjar Press have published Into the Penny Arcade, Marionettes, Bremen, The Unwish and Middleton Sands as limited-edition chapbooks, and a collection of Claire’s stories, The Museum of Shadows and Reflections, is published by Papaveria Press.

Doors: 18.30, event starts: 18.45

Tickets are £3.00 or free when pre-ordering a copy of the book. RIVERS OF THE UNSPOILT WORLD will also be available to purchase on the night and David will be signing copies after the talk. If you would like a signed copy but cannot make the event, please contact us on 0161 274 3331 or manchester@blackwell.co.uk and we can arrange this for you.