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Irving Welsh writes original story inspired by‘Comeback Girl´

October 5, 2011

A new anthology of original writing by several authors based on their favourite music will include a contribution inspired by Republic of Loose song ‘Comeback Girl’ writen by Trainspotting author Irving Welsh.  BookSlam’s first published anthology will be available as an ebook, multi-platform app, and audio download as well as hardback. The stories will also be available individually.
 
Book Slam was London’s first true literary nightclub, featuring writers, live music and a Serbian DJ. Guests over the years have included the likes of Hanif Kureishi, Dave Eggers, Adele, Nick Hornby and Kate Nash. BookSlam was founded in 2003 by ex Everything But The Girl musician, Ben Watt, and author and Whittbread Book Award winner, Patrick Neate. Elliot Jack, promoter and producer, and Canongate’s Head of Publicity, Angela Robertson now run the event on the last Thursday of every month. This year BookSlam has taken its first step into book publishing with the release of an anthology of written material inspired by music. The anthology features writing by Irvine Welsh, William Boyd, Hari Kunzru, Simon Armitage, and several other established and new authors.
For the record, Armitage chose to write a poem based on Joy Division’s “New Dawn Fades” to explore lead singer Ian Curtis’ suicide, Kunzru piece is based on “New Gold Dream” by Simple Minds, Boyd chose Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Tears of a Clown”, and Welsh went for Republic of Loose’s “Comeback Girl”.
 
However, many more spoken word artists and poets have not chosen publish their work in book form, preferring instead to use video and audio recording and the reach that mediums like YouTube and live performance can deliver. Spoken word artist Hedwig Gorski rejected what she described as the “dull-drums” of book publishing in the 1980’s. What is very definitely clear about the place the spoken word movement has in our oral culture and literature today is its continued rise across the world in all languages. The new wave of self and digital publishing has given a voice to many writers without a formal academic background, and whether live on a stage of performance, or through digital and audio platforms of distribution, the modern writing community is embracing spoken word in a way not seen since before the days of the Guttenberg Press.
 

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