This Week on Friday Live: Alison Braid, Jude Neale, and Josephine Greenland

Oh, For Fudgel’s Sake!

In A Letter to a Young Poet, Virginia Woolf tells us that “it is impossible to read too much.” And here at Pulp Lit, we couldn’t agree more. For some readers, Ms Woolf’s advice translates to devouring the entire oeuvre of a favourite author, and then hitting the ‘What will you discover?’ section on Goodreads for more of the same.

For others, it is an encouragement to load one’s bookshelves with an eclectic collection of genres: a little historical fiction and memoir here, a little sci-fi and noir there — and a beach read or two hidden behind one’s university copy of Ulysses. 

One of the most delicious aspects of free-range reading is the discovery of words unfamiliar or archaic. Snuggery, blatteroon, flapdoodle, cockalorum, bijoux, fizgig … gadzooks! The list goes on. 

 To fudgel, an eighteenth-century term that means pretending to work when you are not actually doing anything at all, seems particularly timely. With a quarantine house full of “Mom, where’s my … ?” and “Dear, have you seen my … ?” and “We’re out of toilet paper!”, this editor has spent an awful lot of time hiding behind her computer, fudgelling away. 

Whatever your literary leanings or fudgelling favourites, we leave you now with our cut of another of Ms Woolf’s gems:

So long as you read what you wish to read, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.

And if you are looking for a lovely escape (no fudgelling required!), curl up in your favourite snuggery and tune in to this week’s Friday Live!

Friday’s live line-up

Every Friday, from 10:00-10:30am pacific, we are livestreaming readings featuring three authors who will read their work and answer questions from the audience. This week on Friday Live, we bring you Alison Braid, Jude Neale, and Josephine Greenland.

Alison Braid

Alison Braid is a Prague-based Canadian writer. Her poem ‘Asturias’ appeared in Pulp Literature Issue 23.  Alison’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Train, Bad Nudes, The Puritan, Prairie Fire, CV2, The Maynard, Room, Barren, and Poetry Is Dead. Her poetry has received an honourable mention in Grain’s 2018 Short Grain Contest and been shortlisted for CV2’s 2018 Young Buck Poetry Prize.

Jude Neale

Jude Neale is a Canadian poet, opera singer and mentor. Her poem ‘About Light’ appeared in Issue 13. She has published eight books of poetry, two in the last six months. Jude’s eighth book, Impromptu, was published by Ekstasis Editions in February 2020. Her work has been highly commended, shortlisted, and named as finalist in many international and national competitions. Jude will be writer-in-residence at Joy Kogawa House in June 2020. She particularly enjoys giving public readings so that she can connect deeply with the audience.

Josephine Greenland

Josephine Greenland, winner of our 2019 Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest, with ‘Wife Giver’ (Issue 23), is a Swedish-British writer currently living in Scotland. Her work has been published in a number of print and online magazines, including Fantastic Books Publishing, AHF Magazine, Litro, and Dream Catcher. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham. Her debut novel Embers, written during her MA, is forthcoming in 2021. Links to her work can be found on josephinegreenland.com and you can find her on twitter @greenland_jm. 

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