{"id":9835,"date":"2018-10-17T10:15:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T09:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=9835"},"modified":"2018-10-17T10:15:19","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T09:15:19","slug":"carys-davies-and-sarah-moss-hosted-by-katy-shaw-at-the-international-burgess-foundation-manchester-literature-festival-october-14th-reviewed-by-matthew-mcgrogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=9835","title":{"rendered":"Carys Davies and Sarah Moss, hosted by Katy Shaw at the International Burgess Foundation, Manchester Literature Festival, October 14th, reviewed by Matthew McGrogan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sun emerged from behind the clouds as Katy Shaw welcomed Carys Davies and Sarah Moss to the International Burgess Foundation. Both novelists have recently celebrated the release of a new book \u2014 Carys Davies with her debut novel West<\/em> and Sarah Moss with her novel Ghost Wall<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Katy began by mentioning the form of both novels. She asked if the writers made a conscious decision to write a concise novel. Carys said it was not a decision she made before writing, and highlighted her background and familiarity with short stories as a potential reason for the length of West<\/em>. For her, the \u201cspaces on the page\u201d are an important factor in crafting a narrative. She also mentioned some of her favourite books being short, such as So Long, See You Tomorrow<\/em> by William Maxwell. Sarah Moss shared these views, stating that she \u201cdidn\u2019t set out\u201d to write a short novel.<\/p>\n

Both novelists were mentioning their works \u2014 so Katy suggested a reading. Both were profound and gripping, with concise and striking language. Sarah said that the start of her novel is \u2018disturbing\u2019 and chose to read from the middle of the novel, which featured a strong female narrative voice.<\/p>\n

Katy suggested that both authors had extensive research phases during the writing process. Carys stated that she \u2018actually wrote it without any research\u2019 \u2014 much to the amusement of the audience. She went on a three month trip to North America, immersing herself in the setting of West, <\/em>but had no structured research besides reading some tribal speeches made by Natives from the 19th Century. Sarah had a similar experience researching for Ghost Wall<\/em>. She made several trips to Northumberland, spending time near Hadrian\u2019s Wall. She said that \u201cat the time, Donald Trump was making several mentions of his wall.\u201d At this point, the electronic curtain drew across the window and shut out the late afternoon sun, and the room went dark \u2014 an ominous coincidence. She said that the politics of the time \u201cmade her think about walls and boundaries\u201d, and the displacing effects they have on people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

The conversation moved to discuss the female voices in West <\/em>and Ghost Wall<\/em>, prominently featuring in both novels. Katy asked the writers if their characters are both victims of \u201cregressive fantasy of male masculinity\u201d. Carys suggests that some are \u2014 but that the issue is more complex. She states that it is a \u201cclass issue\u201d, and highlights the gothic elements within her work. She laughed as she recalls the story of a review of her book, which suggested that \u201ctwo male predators in one book was one too many\u201d. She also mentions that she did not plan to use such a strong female voice, and she only got a \u201csense of who the character was part way through\u201d the writing of her novel. Sarah, conversely, said she knew exactly who the characters were before she set out to write the novel \u2014 one of the few times the two disagreed during the conversation. Sarah agreed on the gothic elements present in her novel. She suggested that the gothic engages with the idea of social transgression and allowed \u201cmodes of expression\u201d that were not normal.<\/p>\n

The conversation concluded with a question from the audience. A man asked if there was any \u201cone thing that led to the writing of the novels\u201d. Carys was \u201celectrified\u201d by the idea of being inside someone\u2019s head who believed in myth and took it upon themselves to search for truth. Sarah again highlighted the experience at Hadrian\u2019s Wall, and the notion of social boundaries present within society. This was a theme throughout the event \u2014 both authors mentioning the potential for the novel as a medium to provoke thoughts on the state of society and how boundaries and walls can be identified and broken down.<\/p>\n

Matthew McGrogan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sun emerged from behind the clouds as Katy Shaw welcomed Carys Davies and Sarah Moss to the International Burgess Foundation. Both novelists have recently celebrated the release of a new book \u2014 Carys Davies with her debut novel West and Sarah Moss with her novel Ghost Wall. Katy began by mentioning the form of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[13,16,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nCarys Davies and Sarah Moss, hosted by Katy Shaw at the International Burgess Foundation, Manchester Literature Festival, October 14th, reviewed by Matthew McGrogan - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=9835\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Carys Davies and Sarah Moss, hosted by Katy Shaw at the International Burgess Foundation, Manchester Literature Festival, October 14th, reviewed by Matthew McGrogan - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The sun emerged from behind the clouds as Katy Shaw welcomed Carys Davies and Sarah Moss to the International Burgess Foundation. 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