Stuart Evers

Stuart Evers is a British novelist, short story writer and critic, born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1976. He was brought up in Congleton, Cheshire.

Stuart Evers in 2015

In late 2017, Evers was announced as the joint winner of the 2018 Eccles British Library Writer's Award^[1] - one of Europe's richest prizes for a work in progress.

Fiction

His short fiction has appeared in Prospect (Underground), and on Granta (This is Not a Test), The Sunday Times (What's in Swindon?) and The White Review (Somnoproxy) online, as well as in three editions of The Best British Short Stories. His story Our Italics was read by Anton Lesser on Radio 4 in 2016.^[2] He has also contributed to two Comma Press anthologies - Beta Life and Protest - and Eight Ghosts,^[3] a collection of ghost stories commissioned by English Heritage.

Ten Stories About Smoking

Evers published his first book, Ten Stories About Smoking,^[4][5][6] (Picador) in 2011, which won The London Book Award.

If This Is Home

His debut novel, If This Is Home ^[7][8], appeared in July 2012. The novel is set in Cheshire and Las Vegas.

Your Father Sends His Love

A further collection of stories, Your Father Sends His Love ^[9][10] was published in 2015 and was shortlisted for the 2016 Edge Hill Short Story Prize.^[11]

The Blind Light

Published in 2020, The Blind Light^[12] was Evers' first novel for eight years. The Blind Light "moves from the Fifties through to the present day, taking in the global and local events that will shape and define them all. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the War on Terror, from the Dagenham strikes to Foot and Mouth, from Skiffle to Rave, we see a family come together, driven apart, fracture and reform – as the pressure of the past is brought, sometimes violently, to bear on the present." The Blind Light was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award in 2021.^[13]

Journalism

Evers reviews books regularly for a variety of publications, including The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, The Spectator and The Observer. His essay on Sherwood Anderson appeared in Morphologies and he has written long pieces on James Salter^[14] and David Peace^[15] for The Quietus.

Music

In 2015, Evers collaborated with the band Daughter, using his three short stories, Dress, Windows, and 5,040, as basis for the music videos of songs "Doing the Right Thing", "Numbers", and "How" respectively.^[16] These videos were released ahead of the English band's release of their second album Not to Disappear in 2016. All three stories used in this collaboration included no dialogue in accordance with the inability of a music video to express dialogue.^[17] He has also read with musical accompaniment from Fighting Kites.^[18][19][20]

References

1. "Eccles British Library Writers Award 2018 winners announced". The British Library. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
2. "Our Italics, Leap - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
3. Shamsie, Kamila; Perry, Sarah; Winterson, Jeanette; Porter, Max; Haddon, Mark; Evers, Stuart; Hurley, Andrew Michael; Clanchy, Kate (27 October 2017). "'I had a ghost touch me – horrible!' Writers visit haunted houses". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
4. Preston, Alex. "Ten Stories About Smoking". New Statesman. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
5. Walton, James (10 March 2011). "A Page in the Life: Stuart Evers". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
6. Segal, Francesca (2 April 2011). "Ten Stories About Smoking by Stuart Evers". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
7. "Stuart Evers". Picador. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
8. Massie, Allan. "If this is Home". The Scotsman. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
9. Cummins, Anthony (7 June 2015). "Your Father Sends His Love review – tender, unadorned tales". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
10. "Author Stuart Evers is the new voice of working Britons". The Independent. 16 May 2015. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
11. "Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2016 shortlist announced - News". News. 4 May 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
12. "A panoramic novel of modern Britain: The Blind Light, by Stuart Evers, reviewed | the Spectator". www.spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
13. Chandler, Mark (5 May 2021). "Oneworld takes two places on Encore Award shortlist". The Bookseller. Retrieved 25 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
14. "The Quietus | Features | Tome On The Range | All That Is: James Salter And The Big Time". The Quietus. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
15. "The Quietus | Features | Tome On The Range | Not Afraid Of Repetition: David Peace's Red Or Dead Reviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
16. "Daughter 3 Films". Retrieved 23 January 2017.
17. "Acclaimed short story writer Stuart Evers teams up with indie band Daughter". picador.com. Pan Macmillan. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
18. "Sin Cities 24/09/09". 22 September 2009.
19. http://www.beatthedust.com/beat-the-dust.asp?bid=398^{[dead link]}
20. http://stuartevers.blogspot.co.uk/^{[user-generated source]}