23 January 2017
Following on from the longlist announcement of the 2016/17 GBP Short Story Prize, we asked each of the thirteen writers three questions about themselves, their story, and their inspirations. Here's Tom Spencer, whose longlisted short story gnomechomsky will soon be available to read as a digital single. You'll also find a short biography of Tom after his answers.
(1) Tell us a little about yourself – how long have you been
writing? Any publications?
I’ve been writing poetry since I was eighteen or so, and I wrote some
plays once upon a time. In 2001 I co-wrote a play about Ezra Pound and
Allen Ginsberg that I took to the Edinburgh Fringe. Incredibly, it did
not do well. I have published a few pieces of creative work – a poem
about Dr. Who at the website The Awl a few years ago. My first and
only other fiction publication is a story in a US magazine that came
out last year. My day job is in academia, and I have published more in
that world – some essays and reviews in the TLS, Public Books, and
more specialized places. I also wrote a monograph on popular fiction
that came out in 2015.
(2) Specifically, tell us a bit more about your longlisted story – the
inspiration behind it, the writing of it…
I wrote “gnomechomsky” this summer amid the online vituperativeness of
the US presidential campaign. I’m a London expat, and I live and work
in Montgomery, Alabama. It came out of trying to understand how
someone might be a perfectly ordinary, loving dad one minute and a
vicious Internet troll the next. I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to
write stories for many years. As I say above, I first got a piece of
fiction published only last year. But this actual story came together
very fast in the moment. I wrote the bulk of it in one afternoon –
then got critiques from readers, revised, and so on.
(3) Name three short story writers you especially admire – why?
As “gnomechomsky” perhaps makes obvious, I love George Saunders. His
ability to humanize people who commit terrible actions, without
excusing them or being sentimental about it, is something I admire
tremendously.
I tend to enjoy writers who (like Saunders) blend everyday realism
with profoundly weird elements. Anna Kavan, whose work I encountered
many years ago while working for the publisher Peter Owen, inspires me
with her ability to make ordinary experience feel terrifying and very
strange. I also really like Steven Millhauser, another writer whose
stories mix the mundane and the uncanny to wonderful effect.
Tom Spencer is a London expat teaching and writing in Montgomery,
Alabama. He has published creative work in THAT, The Awl, and
elsewhere. He is the author of a monograph on popular fiction, and his
critical work has appeared in venues including the Times Literary
Supplement.
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