Books Books
Category: Ebooks, Fiction, Short Stories
Number of pages: 200
ISBN: 9781781720325
Publication date: March 15, 2013
Price: £8.99
Out of stock
Category: Ebooks, Fiction, Short Stories
Number of pages: 200
ISBN: 9781781720332
Publication date: March 15, 2013
Price: £7.19
Out of stock
Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize, 2014
“…an amazing body of work…this book deserves tremendous success and a very wide readership.” – The Reading Life Blog
The Scattering is a collection of nineteen stories, many set on the Irish border, where this London-born author currently lives. These stories explore states of liminality: life on the Irish border, dual identities, emigration, being between states – certainty and doubt, codependency and freedom. Some explore themes of catastrophe and constraint. All explore what it means to be alive in a fraught and ever-changing world. This first collection from prizewinning author and playwright, Jaki McCarrick explores the dark side of human nature, often with a postmodern ‘Ulster gothic’ twist.
One of the stories ‘The Visit’ won the Wasafiri Prize for new fiction, and many have been published to much acclaim in literary magazines.
‘The Scattering’‘Jaki McCarrick tells a chilling tale of death and despair.’ – The Irish Emigrant
‘The Sanctuary’‘…a tender story of mourning and longing.’ – writewords.org.uk
‘Of particular note… Jacqueline McCarrick’s “The Sanctuary”; a tender portrait of a lover dealing with the death of a long-term partner. ’– Mark Brown, The Short Review
‘The Badminton Court’‘I was totally knocked for six by this story. It is an incredible piece of writing… The spare, sinewy sentences had me going over and over them; and such economy of writing! I must, simply must see more of her work…’ – Alex Smith The Frogmore Papers
‘The Visit’‘“The Visit” takes the reader deep into old sadnesses and lifechanging feuds which still burned under the surface of Irishsociety at the time of Bill Clinton’s visit.’ – Susan Haigh, The New Short Review
‘By the Black Field’‘My highlights to date would be: Jaki McCarrick’s “By the Black Field”… it has such an understated menace running through it and the writing is so subtly coloured, it reads like looking at a painting.” – Brian Kirk, Wordlegs
Jaki McCarrick
Jaki McCarrick lives in Dundalk and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, gaining a Master of Philosophy Degree, Creative Writing – Distinction. Before this Jaki gained a BA Performing Arts, First Class Honours Degree at Middlesex University. She has also completed an RNT Directors Course, 2001.
Jaki is a playwright and short story writer who is also working on a novel. She has won many awards for her work including: Winner of the 2005 SCDA National Playwriting Competition for The Mushroom Pickers; Shortlisted for the Sphinx Playwriting Award 2006, Bruntwood Prize 2006, Kings Cross Award 2007 for The Moth-Hour; Shortlisted for the 2009 Adrienne Benham Award for Leopoldville and the 2009 Asham Award for short fiction for The Congo – in this collection. Most recently her short story The Visit, included in the Badlands collection, won the Wasafiri Prize for New Writing in October 2010 and Jaki was declared the first ever winner of the Liverpool Lennon Paper Poetry competition, which she was awarded by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Another story from the collection, Hellbores, was recently shortlisted for both the Fish Short Story award and Bridge House Publishing’s World Stopping Event writing prize. Bridge House want to publish that story in a new anthology and it has also appeared in the Irish Pages journal.
