5 minute read
INKANDESCENT
MAINSTREAM: An Anthology of Stories from the Edges
Alex Klineberg talks to Nathan Evans from publisher Inkandescent about a new anthology of short stories
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Inkandescent is an indie publisher founded by Justin David and Nathan Evans in 2016. Its tagline is ‘by outsiders for outsiders’; its focus is on writers the mainstream often neglects. Its latest publication is an anthology of short stories from a wide range of voices. Some are well established, others are emerging; all the writers are considered outside the mainstream.
The collection is called Mainstream – with a line through ‘main’. We spoke to Nathan to find out more: “The vast majority of books are geared towards a straight, white readership. A big report from Goldsmiths and Spread the Word looked into that. The report underlined what we’d been finding. Our anthology brings together different under-represented authors. LGBTQ+, BAME, working class, etc. It’s about showing that we’re all in this together – hence the title of the book.”
How did you choose the writers? “Half the writers are established; they’ve been published before. We approached them first – people like Neil Bartlett and Kit De Waal. Some we already knew and some we reached out to. The other half were selected by open submissions. That was last summer. We had a team of readers who went through those. Several hundred submissions came through and we chose 12.” There are 30 stories overall.
“There’s a variety of styles of writing in the book. In curating the collection we tried to create a journey for the reader. A journey from childhood through to old age. Some of the early stories cover childhood experiences. The first story by Kathy Hoyle is about growing up in the north of England in a working-class community. Philip Ridley wrote the last story – it’s about an older gay man caring for his mother, who may have dementia. There’s all the points in between.
Neil Bartlett’s is about the first sexual experience a 15-year-old has with an older man in the 1970s. There are coming of age pieces and coming out pieces.
Neil Bartlett
There are stories that deal with clubbing – remember that?! There’s stuff about finding a partner, partnerships breaking down. Polis Loizou’s story touches on Instagram hook-ups. ”There was no theme. Everyone sent their stories in and every story is different. But placing them together, we tried to bring out the connections between them.”
Have any comparable anthologies been published before? “What’s new about this anthology is that we’ve put different groups of people together in the same anthology. There was an anthology a few years ago called Common People – that was all working-class writers. Also, The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla – made up of stories by BAME writers.”
Of all the stories submitted, which one surprised him the most? “Neil McKenna is an older gay writer. His story will shock some people. Let’s say it’s very frank sexually. It’s called The Dick of Death.
There’s a story by Bidisha. Her piece is about female genital mutilation but it’s told in a sort of fairytale style, so that takes some of the shock out of it. It’s a hard-hitting piece but it’s a really good story.” Selling fiction can be tricky. It’s never entirely clear what is and isn’t commercial. Do anthologies sell?
We saw it as strategic in terms of getting our name out there and it has potential to sell. Some of the anthologies I mentioned earlier sold in very healthy numbers.”
We also spoke to some of the writers. Neil Bartlett wrote a story called Twickenham: “One of the main narratives that was drilled into my head when I was a gay child – which was back in the 1970s – was that I needed to be scared: of the world, of other queers, and especially of myself. With this story, I wanted to tell people about how the other thing happened; about how, as a randy 15-year-old, I started to discover myself, in bed, with a much older man. I guess I want to open people up to the idea that despite all the changes – because let’s face it, 2021 is a pretty different place to 1974 – it’s still true that whatever age you are, and whatever kind of queer you need to be, the day when you start to really own your body – that’s the day when you can begin your journey towards truly being yourself in the world,” he said.
Keith Jarrett discusses his contribution, It May Concern:
Keith Jarrett
“My story revolves around a repeat hook up – and the unknowns between the two people involved. In the opening scene, the protagonist is wondering why his lover is so mysterious, and what he might be hiding, and it takes off from there. There’s much room for comedy, tragedy and projection. Maybe I’ve been writing this story in my head ever since I saw one of those Never Kissed a Tory stickers, but I wanted to move it beyond capital p ‘Politics’ to a more comprehensive musing on ‘unknowing’. I tend to return to the same territories in my work, consciously and otherwise, and so race, sexuality, religion and belonging are all undercurrents.”
Organising a book launch during a pandemic is a tricky business. Mainstream will have a launch party on July 1 at Above the Stag Theatre in Vauxhall. Nathan tells us what we can expect: “About half the writers will be there. Those who are in or around London can come. Six of them will be reading. A handful will be sending in video messages. Videos from Prague to Northern Ireland. It’s a mini celebration. It’s been quite difficult to plan live events. Normally we’d launch in a bookshop but they are not possible at the moment. It’ll be a salon-style event.
“The book happened because we put it on Unbound, the crowd funding publishing platform. There are lots of supporters to thank. Their names are listed in the back of the book.”
