by Alex Wire
Currently preoccupied by: whether art should be free; the meaning of nationhood; our impending doom; other diverse topics too numerous to mention…
Where else can we see your stuff:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_SnuETj-G4
www.myspace.com/theislandersband
When you’re not writing, what else do you do: I am a storyteller in the very literal sense, in that I go to schools, museums, festivals and firesides, and tell stories to the people there. I am a folk musician in the sense that I travel and bring music to people in pubs, village halls, schools, on mountainsides…
Sam Duda
Born: 1982, Norfolk
Lives: at present I live in Cornwall.
Currently listening to: Beirut, Fionn Regan, and Vetiver.
Where else can we see your stuff: in an anthology called You Interrupt My Brain, Sweetheart and in Chimera magazine.
First memory: is of me, aged four, on a beach, white-haired and naked, running up to people and grinning at them, wearing plastic joke-shop vampire teeth. One old woman recoiled in horror and fell backwards over a dog.
Currently annoyed by: I would like to say the escalating price of petrol or the abolition of the 10p tax, but nothing gets to me as much as the lack of cricket on TV.
Favourite place: Prague
Favourite book: What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe
Favourite films: Don’t Look Now, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Room For Romeo Brass
When you’re not writing, what else do you do:
I like old rosie and the cover drive and the change from A minor to E minor.
Chelsey Flood
Born: 1983, Derby
Lives: Falmouth, Cornwall
Currently listening to: cars and seagulls. (Not a band.)
Currently preoccupied by: the growth of the sex industry in England, particularly the increase of lapdancing clubs (a new one opens every week, on average) and what this means for us all.
Where can we see your other stuff:
litflood.blogspot.com
First memory: having a go on a ‘seesaw’ my brother had made – it was a plank of wood held across a bar of our climbing frame – and him bouncing me so high I flew right over the top. I was fine but cried to get him the punishment I believed he was entitled to. I never know if this memory is real. Is it possible to go right over the top of a climbing frame? And be fine? I just don’t know.
Currently annoyed by: the amount of unfinished stories in my laptop and what this says about me and my ambitions.
When you’re not writing, what else do you do:
daydream and nap. It’s a problem.
Sally Jenkinson
Born: 1986, Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Lives: Sheffield
Currently listening to: this week…mainly 90s all-girl punk bands, traditional folk tunes, and a little bit too much Leonard Cohen.
Currently preoccupied by: Angela Carter, adventures and absinthe
Where else can we see your stuff:
www.writeoutloud.net/poets/sallyjenkinson, the Camina Poetry Journal and the Obsessed With Pipework magazine.
First memory: asking my mum to look after my pork pie at a picnic, whilst I went off to play, and returning to find that she’d eaten it. I've forgiven her because aside from this small digression she is an astoundingly wondrous human being, and also because I’ve been a vegetarian for the past ten years so it was probably for the best.
Favourite word at the moment: I can’t stop thinking about the word ‘deliquesce’.
When you’re not writing, what else do you do: support people with learning disabilities; read on trains; paint; eavesdrop on strangers’ conversations; camp and/or drink gin.
Chris Killen
Born: 1981, Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Lives: Chorlton, Manchester
Currently listening to: right this second: The Unicorns. Generally: Frankie Sparo, Les Savy Fav, The Smiths, The Shins, etc.
Currently preoccupied by: Canadian music (Frog Eyes, Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, etc.), and films by Joe Swanberg.
Where else can we see your stuff: my first novel, The Bird Room, published by Canongate. I write a blog:
www.dayofmoustaches.blogspot.com
First memory: something to do with a slide. A yellow slide. I’m standing at the top of the slide, and my dad’s trying to fix it, and I’m laughing at him for some reason.
Favourite book and writer: Pan by Knut Hamsun. My favourite writer who was born in the 1980s is Tao Lin.
Luis Amate Perez
Born: 1982, Queens, New York
Lives: New York, NY
Currently listening to: Tool
Where else can we see your stuff: you can see me, sort of, on Facebook. Become my friend: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=822184
First memory: it was a dream – or I was somewhere between being asleep and awake. I was probably three years old. I’m lying in my parents’ bed, and above me is floating a baby bottle filled with orange juice. I reach up to grab it.
Favourite thing at the moment: the work of George Carlin. In short, he was one of my gods.
When you’re not writing, what else do you do: check out some of my comedy at www.GregandLou.com
Amanda Rodriguez
Born: 1980s
Lives: rural Mexico
Gareth Storey
Born: 1980, Dublin
Lives: Camden, London
Currently listening to: N.E.R.D, Shellac, Talking Heads, Lovage, Martha Wainwright.
Currently preoccupied by: women
Where else can we see your stuff: myspace.com/whoisatmydoor
First memory: riding an elephant
Currently annoyed by: people who don’t say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.
Favourite thing at the moment: Curb Your Enthusiasm
When you’re not writing, what else do you do: work in a kitchen, exercise, drink, read, eat, watch films, clean and sleep.
Alex Wire
Born: in Worcester in 1983, several weeks late, allegedly.
Lives: Nottingham
Currently listening to: Johnny Flynn, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip and Elbow. Not at the same time, but if it’s possible I’d like to try it.
Currently preoccupied by: the actor Lionel Barrymore.
Where else can we see your stuff:
www.sparkle-and-believe.blogspot.com
Favourite book at the moment: the plays of Pinter and the poetry of Larkin.
When you’re not writing, what else do you do: chastise myself for not writing, play guitars, imbibe culture, drink to remember.
Route
For more on this book and for Route’s full programme of books please visit www.route-online.com