Know a Nominee, Part Fourteen: Helen Marshall

Know a Nominee, Part Fourteen: Helen Marshall

Here we are at part fourteen of our 'Know a Nominee' series. Helen Marshall's 'The Sex Lives of Monsters' has been nominated for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection.    DM: Can you please describe the genesis for the idea that eventually became the work for which you've been nominated? In the case of a work wherein you've written multiple stories (like a collection) please choose your favourite part and discuss. HM: The Sex Lives of Monsters came about as a way to explore the notion of the monstrous and the magical in modern culture. “We live in a time of monsters,”…

HAIR SIDE, FLESH SIDE by HWA Member Helen Marshall

Author: Helen Marshall A child receives the body of Saint Lucia of Syracuse for her seventh birthday. A rebelling angel rewrites the Book of Judgement to protect the woman he loves. A young woman discovers the lost manuscript of Jane Austen written on the inside of her skin. A 747 populated by a dying pantheon makes the extraordinary journey to the beginning of the universe. Lyrical and tender, quirky and cutting, Helen Marshallâ s exceptional debut collection weaves the fantastic and the horrific alongside the touchingly human in fifteen modern parables about history, memory, and cost of creating art. 'Masterful…

Halloween Haunts: The Age of Halloween By Helen Marshall

Halloween has always been one of my favourite holidays. This is an oddity because, growing up, I was a particularly frightened child: the kind of kid who clings to cotton bedsheets at three in the morning as some kind of foolproof protection against the unknown, who would rather make a running leap onto the mattress than place a delicate foot within one meter of the dark space under the bed. The kind of kid who had learned the fine art of rationalizing away the inexplicable noises, the tricks of light and shadow. I couldn’t watch scary movies. Ghost stories left…