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Image: Warp Films, Sundance Festival.

Rob Fred Parker talks to writer Joe Dunthorne about his latest novel, the film adaptation of his novel Submarine and more besides. Fans of of the magazine and Litro Live! may also recognise Joe from last year’s Litro Summer Party, at which we were delighted to have him perform, and he will be joining us again for Litro Live! at the Camden Crawl, this May Bank Holiday weekend.

Joe Dunthorne is a Welsh born, London based poet, novelist, performer and literacy champion who is certainly busy at the moment.  We spoke about his brand new novel, where he draws inspiration from and his two upcoming shows at London Word Festival.

Last year saw a collection of Joe’s poetry published as part of Faber’s New Poets series, and Ministry of Stories, a creative writing centre Joe helped found in Hackney, open its doors to school classes in Hackney. This year has already seen his 2008 debut novel Submarine become a critically-acclaimed film, and promises his second novel in the summer. Drawing upon Dunthorne’s adolescence in Swansea, Submarine, from the opening page’s examples of the loaded questionnaires narrator Oliver issues his parents, is incredibly funny. But, for all its humour, there are very raw emotional undertones, documenting the despondency and depression of adolescence. On this balance, Joe comments “writing it was a challenge, definitely. Particularly when you have a character who avoids his emotions, who always analyses his feelings as a way of dismissing them, the challenge is to give the reader a glimpse of the actual emotions that are below the surface”. Fortunately, Richard Ayoade’s adaptation brings the tone and wit to the big screen faithfully with cinefile flair, and Joe hasn’t been put off from future adaptations of his work. “I had a great experience so, yes, I’d do it again — as long as I was confident about the people I was working with”.

Joe’s second novel, Wild Abandon, takes as its focus the disintegration of a secluded commune and the delusions of characters certain of an impending apocalypse. Like Submarine, it is a ‘book about family’.  “There are young people in Wild Abandon, an eleven-year-old, Albert, and his older sister, Kate, who’s seventeen, so that creates some parallels to Submarine. Plus, it’s set in Wales. Again. But Wild Abandon has a different perspective, setting, and tone, and there are more characters, and it tells a story in a way Submarine didn’t”. Whilst Submarine’s first person narrative drew influence from J. D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut, Wild Abandon was inspired by a number of other dryly humourous American writers. “One of the key books was White Noise by Don De Lillo which, for me, is pretty much perfect. The characters are vivid, unusual, and very funny, the story is really gripping and yet De Lillo smuggles in wonderful diversions on imagery, shopping and death. He incorporates all the detritus of contemporary culture in to something truly transcendent. I was also reading lots of David Foster Wallace:  again, a writer who is funny, but also, hugely honest, insightful and generous. It must be said, however, he is a risky man to be influenced by. I’ve had to go back through Wild Abandon and cut out all the passages of adjectival, page-long sentences — and blame them on reading Infinite Jest”.

Joe Dunthorne

In addition to this printed work, Joe performs regularly. “Writing is a solitary experience so I like to have performance as a counter-balance to that. Some of the writing I do I wouldn’t want to publish, but it seems well suited to being read out loud. Plus, I like the different opportunities — crowd participation, video, multi-vox, theatrics — that being on stage creates. It’s a good place to experiment”. For London Word Festival, which began on April 7^th, Joe co-wrote The Crash with, among others, comedian Tom Basden, a financial murder mystery in the form of an ‘immersive installation’, plus will be performing The Goodbye Library, a show influenced by library closures, with musician Emmy the Great and poet Jack Underwood.

Joe has been involved in projects in each of the last three festivals, and sees it as a good opportunity to collaborate with like-minded writers and artists. “I’m an East London resident and have always really admired the festival. I’ve seen lots of good events over the years — Iain Sinclair in St. Augustine’s Tower in Hackney, springs to mind — and it’s something I’m always keen to be involved in. Lucky for me, they keep inviting me back. There’s loads of events I’m looking forward to this year: the night for Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic, which is an amazing magazine; Keep Breathing by Chris Goode, one of my favourite playwrights; This Is Just To Say by Hannah Jane Walker, a fantastic intimate performance about apology; and… Intergender Wrestling!” (a reinterpretation of cult comedian Andy Kauffman’s provocative act featuring comics Simon Munnery and Josie Long).

So, what advice does he have to other aspiring writers? “Just the boring advice that everyone gives young writers. Write and read. Read and write. And turn off the internet”. But before you all shut down your laptops in favour of a good old HB and notepad, take a look at the details of Joe’s upcoming performances, as they promise not to be missed.

Litro Live! at the Camden Crawl is on Saturday 30th April at the Bullet Bar. Please see our Litro Live! page for more details.

The Goodbye Library is at The Nave on Wednesday 27^th April

The Crash runs at 60 Farringdon Road from Friday 29^th April to Sunday 1^st May

Full details on all festival events can be found at: http://www.londonwordfestival.com/

Rob Fred Parker

We are pleased to announce the line up for our next Litro Live! event, at the Camden Crawl on the May Bank Holiday weekend. For full details, please take a look our dedicated Litro Live! page here, where you can also buy tickets in advance. Here’s a taster of what we have in store…keep an eye out though, as we will be announcing more performers later on!

Host: Dean Atta

Dean Atta

Our event host we be poet Dean Atta. S winner of the Spirit of London Award for ‘Achievement through the Arts’, he has been commissioned to write poems for the Damilola Taylor Trust, Dr Maya Angelou and the  Keats House, among others, and his work has been featured on both radio and television.

Words:

Words will come courtesy of Colin Grant and David Szalay, with further guests to be confirmed soon!

Live Music:

Turbogeist

We’ll have our usual eclectic mix of genre artists for this event – Turbogeist are inspired by both 80’s alternative music and 70’s rock and draw influence from bands as diverse as as The Replacements, Pantera, and Prince.

Aisha Ludmilla Pin is a soulful singer who writes, performs and produces all of her own music (click on the attached links to see and hear more from these artists).

Aisha Ludmilla Pin

DJs:

On rotation, we will have IDC (whose last album was called a “revolutionary rave”) and Huge club promotor and DJ Sexface Sally.

We will have more details about the line up coming soon, so do watch this space. In the meantime, you can book your tickets online via our Litro Live! page – just scroll down to the cart section at the bottom. Alternatively, you can also book at www.thecamdencrawl.com.

 You can buy tickets right now direct from litro.co.uk by using our checkout cart at the bottom of the page. You can also buy tickets via the Camden Crawl official website at www.thecamdencrawl.com.

  Keep up to date with the latest news on our events via our Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages. You can also sign up to our monthly e-newsletter.

Litro Live Ticket

Litro Live! @ the Camden Crawl: Abbey Tavern, Saturday 30th April 2011.

Litro Live! is pleased to announce that we will be hosting an event at the Gaymers Camden Crawl for the second year running! Guests can look forward to another event filled with the best spoken performance and musical talent. Be on the lookout for more details, including the line-up, coming very soon to www.litro.co.uk and our Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages.

For a taster of what may be in store, you can check out a recording of one of the performances from last year’s Litro Live! @ the Crawl here, or find out more out Litro Live! on our dedicated page.

More about the Camden Crawl

In very different fashion from the coinciding Royalist festivities, Gaymers Camden Crawl, scheduled to take place Saturday 30^th April and Sunday 1^st May 2011, will celebrate its 10^th birthday edition since its inception in 1995 on the May Bank Holiday Weekend.

 Swift on the heels of selling out its early bird weekend tickets, the Crawl is pleased to reveal the first stage of its line up announcements for 2011. Over the past four years, the festival’s daytime fringe programme of cutting edge arts and music has continued to flourish on a par with its legendary rock & roll evening extravaganza. During the daylight hours the main thoroughfares of Camden will literally burst at the seams with a vast array of comedic talent, visual art and crafts exhibitions, spoken word and performance theatre, interactive events & games and, of course, live music.

Sprawling across more than twenty venues, the Crawl daytime schedule of events kicks off from midday on both days of the weekend and runs until 6:00 pm when the evening live music scramble begins. Upon arrival at the festival each ticket holder will be presented with an all-access wristband, programme guide, timetable and free download album to help plot his/her day’s adventure. ‘Crawlers’ will be granted unlimited access to all official daytime and evening venues and parties capacity permitting.

http://www.thecamdencrawl.com/