Pulling off The Great Gatsby on stage while Baz Luhrmann’s dazzling adaptation is still in memory is a sizable task. Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novella, this is a story of a young man who finds himself dropped in an idyllic corner of Long Island where wealthy socialites and movie stars come to frolic Read More
Through drawings, paintings and animations, Hideyuki Katsumata invites you into a fantasy world that is not only his largest exhibition to date, but also his first in the UK. Coming from a background of fashion design and creating artworks for musical clients via record sleeves and animations for music videos for artists such as Little Dragon Read More
“The Fireman’s Wife”, a short story by Richard Bausch, is, to my mind, one of the best short stories written in English. It’s up there for me along with Joyce’s “The Dead”, Mansfield’s “At the Bay” Carver’s “Blackbird Pie” and all the stories I value that, in a few pages, have brought a whole world, Read More
White Lies, a debut novel, contends with the darker side of family life, focusing on deceit in particular, while also delving into the difficulties of mental illness in a plot that oscillates from the predictable to occasionally surprising. Peter is a dementia sufferer that has recently been relocated into a care facility where he spends Read More
Born in Ukraine in 1984, Yelena Moskovich moved to the US with her family at the age of seven, and later trained as a playwright in Boston. She settled in Paris, studying physical theatre at the Lecoq School, and completing a Masters in Art, Philosophy and Aesthetics. The Natashas, her first novel, is as conceptually Read More
Amy Mason’s The Other Ida, winner of the 2014 Dundee International Book Prize, is a story steeped both in the reckless reality and the dramatic imagination of its protagonist, Ida Irons. Turning thirty and entirely irresponsible, Ida is returning to a musty house by the sea that she never felt at home in, reuniting with Read More
This is an edited transcript of an interview conducted by David Graham, MLitt Writing Practice and Study student at 2014 Dundee Literary Festival for DURA. The editing was undertaken by Jérôme Cooper; the full interview can be accessed by clicking on the image above. David Graham: Well, I’m delighted to welcome on behalf of DURA Read More
Where am I? – Oh I just stepped out, No need to make a fuss, or shout. No need to comb the nearest wood Or roam about the neighbourhood. Felix Dennis lived a remarkable life, making his fortune from magazines covering advances in the technology sector, before devoting his final fifteen years to poetry. I Read More
Be you a globetrotter or a home-bird, Pia Tafdrup’s words, aptly translated by David McDuff, will grab and carry you across the world and pack you into her own personal recollections. The two collections in Salamander Sun & Other Poems deal with the tension between the poet’s desire for freedom and her deep-rooted familial ties Read More
Jackie Kay’s new collection of poetry The Empathetic Store could only be described as ‘very Kay-ish’ in that her body of work has brought about its own adjective. As a novice to reviewing poetry I felt quite daunted by the plain blue paperback, turning over its front page over to encounter what I assumed would Read More