Interviewing Alison Littlewood

Hellooo!

I recently reviewed the excellent short fiction collection A Curious Cartography by Alison Littlewood filled with tales of people getting into supernatural situations. Its excellent and chilling even on a light summer night. It was a pleasure to invite Alision back to the blog to talk about the book which I strongly recommend!

How do you like to booktempt people into reading A Curious Cartography?

A Curious Cartography contains the pick of my short stories from across the last decade, so it’s really a heart and soul project! Black Shuck Books jumped in wholeheartedly too and made it look amazing. We wanted to do something a little different with the structure and style of the collection, so the way the stories are ordered and presented ties into the theme of mapping a writers’ journey. It finishes by returning to the beginning, with a little account of how I started writing and went on from there, should people want more insight.

What do you enjoy about writing short stories compared to your novels?

At the risk of sounding flippant, mainly that they don’t take me two or three years to complete! It’s a joy to be able to come up with an idea, execute it in a reasonable amount of time and create something new under the sun. Of course there isn’t the range and depth that a novel offers either, but I enjoy short stories as a different discipline. I tend to aim to create a particular emotion in the reader and write towards that. Having said that, I can go on crafting a short story for months. As a writer, I think there’s always the scope to go on learning and improving – I reworked a number of stories for this collection because I always want to offer the reader the best possible experience I can at that particular point in time.

Although these span a long period there is a feel of people being lost in some way? What draws you to those kind of tales?

Being lost, whether it’s physically or emotionally, definitely lends itself to dark fiction. Facing a new or strange situation alone can be a useful opening set-up, as well as removing the normalising effect of being in the middle of company. Quite often my characters have a sense of feeling alone, even if they’re actually not! It can be part and parcel of isolating a character too, which can leave them exposed to dangers or make them vulnerable and possibly more open to a situation that’s subtly off-kilter.

We also visit quite a few places around the world. Does travelling inform your stories? What was your most interesting trip?

I tend to think that atmosphere is key to dark fiction and that can be very bound up with place. Things strike upon your senses so vividly when you’re somewhere new and different, which can be a gift to a writer. Descriptions come rushing in sometimes and I always try to jot them down at the time to make the most of immediate impressions. I like to think that a short story is the best souvenir to bring back, and there are a few of those in this collection. Being awake to the possibilities of place in my writing also makes me look at things in a deeper way when I’m travelling, so it’s a two-way street.

I’ve had a few interesting trips, but the one that stayed with me the most was to the Arctic Circle in Sweden. Taking a snowmobile out into the boreal forest at night, turning off the engine and just listening is such an experience – the silence out there has a tangible presence that seems to come flooding towards you. A simple moment but so memorable. Staying in the artistry of the ice hotel was pretty amazing too – our room was very similar to the one in my short story, ‘The Light You Can Hear’, complete with lighting effects and a soundscape. I feel very lucky to have experienced it.

What was the hardest story to write in this collection?

That was ‘. . . And I’ll Come to You’, which acts a sequel of a kind to ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ by M. R. James. Setting out to riff on probably the best-known of his tales felt like a hubristic thing to do – I probably wouldn’t have done it at all if I hadn’t been asked to dream up some ideas for a project that didn’t quite come off – but once it was in my head, it kept nagging at me until I wrote it as a short story. Then there was the fact that it demanded a whole lot of research about ships! It’s also new to A Curious Cartography, so it hasn’t gone through the discipline of appearing in a previous publication. With those things to worry about, it was really gratifying – and a relief! – to see in your review that it was your favourite story in the collection.

Who are some of your favourite short story writers?

I’ve been lucky to read some amazing work over the years. Priya Sharma is among the best of them, with work that ranges from the gritty to the magical, with a warmth and humanity at its heart. Rob Shearman is in a category all his own – he always seems to come from left-field and walks a very clever line between the disturbing and the humorous. James Bennett recently won a BFS Award for his short fiction and his collection, Preaching to the Perverted, is excellent too.

Stephen Volk’s contemporary work is superb, but I particularly love his historical collection, Under a Raven’s Wing. I’ve written a lot of Neo-Victorian fiction and some new Sherlock Holmes stories, and having experienced the amount of work and the research involved, it’s a joy to see it done with such seemingly effortless flair. It remains an absolute favourite of mine.

What else can we look forward to from you in the future and in this world of weird social media where can we find out more?

It’s actually a difficult question to answer properly because I have some exciting news in the pipeline, but I can’t say anything until it’s formally announced! In the meantime, I’ve been spending much of my time honing a novel based partly on the Yorkshire coast and partly in the Peak District. It’s full of local folklore and fairy tale motifs combined with contemporary crime/thriller elements.

On social media I’m lingering on X (Ali__L) and lurking on Bluesky (@alisonlittlewood.bsky.social), though mainly I can be found hanging out on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alison.littlewood.3). I also have a newly revamped website at www.alisonlittlewood.co.uk.

What great books have you read recently?

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus was an absolute joy. It’s one of those unexpected reads that’s entirely odd and yet insightful and real all at the same time. Let’s just say if you ever wanted to know sperm whales inside out, this is the book for you.

I don’t often step into comedy in my reading, but I so enjoyed You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace. It manages to combine serial killing with belly laughs. A real tonic.

My Name was Eden by Eleanor Barker-White was fabulous too – a dark tale based around vanishing twin syndrome. It has a great premise and is beautifully executed.

Just one more, I promise! I’m currently halfway through an advance copy of The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister, and oh my word, it’s brilliant. It’s dark and brooding and atmospheric and already has me by the throat. It’s out in October – definitely one to look out for!