Squeaking in at the end of the month with a brief update on what’s hot and what’s not in the world of Climate Writer Grant Price (hello SEO, keep me in first place, Google).
First up: publication! I had an essay accepted for the world’s favourite magazine, Litro. What is Litro? Apparently, they “publish stories that transport.” Just like a train. I was very keen to appear in their hallowed pages, so this is fantastic news. The essay is about the Reeperbahn in Hamburg and it features photographs from the Swedish lens maestro Anders Petersen and the black-and-white tyro Daniel Montenegro. It’s not out yet, but once it is published it’ll appear right here (under ‘Shorts’).
Second up: publication! I wrote an essay for a photobook by the photographer Martin Kemper titled ‘Waters take Me’. Again, the book hasn’t been published, but once it’s out…you know the drill.
The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted a new section on the website: NON-FICTION. This page contains all my projects that I have done for other people, either as a ghostwriter, editor or translator. It also lists my own forthcoming photobook, The Burned-Over Country, which is being finalised as I write. More on that in the future. Have a click around and see all the things I do for other people for $$$.
Also, I’ll be merging my photography website with this one soon, so everything is in one place.
Book of the month: Cool Hand Luke. One of those novels I gravitate towards, it’s about hopeless men living dirty and smoking a whole lot. The film is far more famous, but the book by Donn Pearce is well worth a read for the simple, effective prose and an honest look at the US penal system in the 1950s and 1960s. Reminiscent of Ivan Denisovich, Cormac McCarthy and Deliverance.
Film of the month: Heaven Can Wait. Beautiful, tragic, touching and stylish in equal measure, this is an uplifting treat all the way from the troubling days of 1943. It stars Don Ameche, who looks so much like Brad Pitt in some scenes that I had to look him up and check that Ameche wasn’t Brad’s dad. There’s also Gene Tierney, whose life story is just as complex and melancholy as her character in the film.
Album of the month: The compact EP Connla’s Well by Maruja. This is a perfect continuation to last year’s Knocknarea and maybe the pinnacle of what people are calling the ‘windmill’ scene (that’s post-punk British bands that sound like Slint with sad-sounding people whisper-talking over angular bass/guitar attacks). The scene has been going on since 2021, but I’m not bored of it yet…as long as it continues in this vein.
Sounds of the summer:
1 Headache - The Party That Never Ends
2 Michael Vincent Waller - Jennifer
