W. J. Davies
Writer and critic. Essays, fiction and reviews in the Times Literary Supplement, Slightly Foxed, Exacting Clam, Review 31, Poetry Birmingham, minor literature[s]. Author of Beckett and the Second World War (Bloomsbury)
linktr.ee/wjdavies
- I spent some time with last year's Nightjar Press chapbooks and ended up writing about creepy birds and the contemporary gothic. Review 31 kindly took it on. Free to read here: review31.co.uk/essay/view/1... @review31.bsky.social @nightjarpress.bsky.social
- Fake Men Having Fake Fights, my article on wrestling, manliness and storytelling, is out now with @minorliteratures.bsky.social
- "In 1998, I watched Mark Calaway hurl Mick Foley from the roof of a 16-foot-high cage ..." Fake Men Having Fake Fights: On Wrestle-Lit and Masculinity — @wjdavies.bsky.social minorliteratures.com/2026/01/20/f...
- My pick for @review31.bsky.social's Books of the Year 2025 is Alex Pheby's Waterblack, the third volume in the Cities of the Weft trilogy. Superb, strange fantasy that has reinvigorated the genre. @alexpheby.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...
- Congratulations to @cdrose.bsky.social. We Live Here Now is one of the funniest and most inventive novels I've read in a long time. Well deserved!
- Just in time for Christmas, Exacting Clam comes along with its Dada special issue. I've an interview with translator Catherine Schelbert, @br0phy.bsky.social reviews a new Ashbery bio, and C J Patrick has some exquisite poems on show, plus more besides. www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19...
- Thanks to @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social for including my piece on Peter Ross's Steeple Chasing in the upcoming winter Foxed Quarterly. foxedquarterly.com/shop/slightl...
- My interview with Peter Robinson about his new Selected Poems, Return to Sendai, is available to read for free with The High Window: thehighwindowpress.com/2025/09/26/p...
- Sound advice from the cleric Sydney Smith, courtesy of Stephen Bayley in this quarter’s Slightly Foxed @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social.
- Stuff these, Dirk Bogarde’s spoken word album Lyrics for Lovers is on Spotify.
- New records out today by CMAT, Blood Orange and The Beaches. Glorious.
- My review of C.D. Rose’s superb new novel, We Live Here Now, is in the latest TLS @thetls.bsky.social.
The dark side of the Durrells; Oscar Wilde’s conversion; making and describing great wine; Europe’s last pagans; good teachers; second mentions – and much more. The new issue of the TLS is out now: www.the-tls.com/issues/curr...
- My interview with writer, librettist and music critic Paul Griffiths is out now in the latest issue of Exacting Clam. It's also free to read on the website: www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18... @disgwylfa.bsky.social @exactingclam.bsky.social am.bsky.social
- Wonderful to hear @alicefwrites.bsky.social talk about her short story collection, The Truth Has Arms and Legs, at Camberley Library this evening. @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social
- It's no secret I love #libraries - so I'm delighted to be giving author talks at Frimley Green Library and Camberley Library this summer. Join us for two Q&A events, on June 3 & July 1, talking all things #shortstories. Booking links in bio. #Frimley #camberley #surrey @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social
- My review of Kevin Davey’s Toothpull of St Dunstan, a wild ride through 700 years of dentistry at the gates of Canterbury, is in this week’s TLS @thetls.bsky.social. www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
- Sadly, @eeahahayteatea.bsky.social has fractured her ankle and is off work. It’s clinically proven that buying her artwork will aid in recovery.* www.studioerratt.com *probably.
- Yesterday evening, I finished @alexpheby.bsky.social’s Waterblack, the third in the Cities of the Weft trilogy. Incredible. Whether you read fantasy or not, these books are significant. @galleybeggars.bsky.social
- Interesting discussion on Radio 4 this morning about the difference between reading books and listening to audiobooks that seemed to entirely forget the existence and history of…radio.
- My new short story, The Man in the U-Bend, is in the summer issue of Exacting Clam @exactingclam.bsky.social. Looking forward to reading what looks like another splendid gathering of pieces. Clam on exactingclam.com/issues/no-17...
- A brief but revitalising dip back into academic life this weekend at the Samuel Beckett Society conference in Edinburgh. Lovely to see @annamcmullan.bsky.social, @davidpattie.bsky.social and other friends.
- Reality is getting there before the satirists again.
- New fiction coming soon in the @exactingclam.bsky.social summer issue.
- The interview with Peter Robinson is available as a free sample for issue 11 of Poetry Birmingham, which is now on sale: poetrybirmingham.com/current-issu...
- Immensely pleased to have my interview with Peter Robinson on his friendship with Roy Fisher in the latest Poetry Birmingham @poetrybrum.bsky.social.
- The fabulous Rebecca Erratt @eeahahayteatea.bsky.social is exhibiting pieces at this year’s App Art Exhibition at Prior’s Field. 5-20th April, free admission 10-4 www.appartonline.co.uk
- Put up a new bird feeder yesterday. No foolin’.
- As we have to endure each company tediously shoehorning AI into their products and services, I’m hoping some go in the other direction. My campaign for the reintroduction of messenger pigeon by Royal Mail starts here.
