Mailing List


Nicole Flattery

Nicole Flattery's criticism has appeared in the GuardianThe Irish Times and the LRB. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time was published in 2019. Her favourite Chantal Akeman film is News From Home.



Articles Available Online


Chantal Akerman’s ‘My Mother Laughs’

Book Review

October 2019

Nicole Flattery

Book Review

October 2019

There’s a scene in the documentary I Don’t Belong Anywhere, about the Belgian filmmaker’s Chantal Akerman’s life and work, where she discusses her only...

Book Review

August 2018

Lorrie Moore's ‘See What Can Be Done’

Nicole Flattery

Book Review

August 2018

Lorrie Moore writes in her introduction to See What Can Be Done that, at the start of her career,...

‘INQUESTS INTO THE DEATHS ARISING FROM THE FISHMONGERS’ HALL AND LONDON BRIDGE TERROR ATTACK CASE MANAGEMENT’1   with asides, insertions, questions and other patterns repeating   Begin with the facts: A convicted terrorist attacked and killed Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt at Fishmongers’ Hall on 29 November, 2019 The attacker [ ] was shot dead by police officers on London Bridge   No: again   A terrorist incarcerated in a high-security prison appeals his indeterminate sentence        He will now be released automatically, in a fixed number of years, without parole board assessment   December 2018 He is released He is living halfway and then alone under myriad restrictions He had counter-terrorism mentors        the government contract abruptly ended        Months pass No train stations, no trains        no internet access, no trips to London, no        level of security        stops what happens next The oversight of Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) probation, police, counter-terrorism, Prevent, Special Branch, MI5        who read creative writing, who read Cambridge University programme        (there was none, post release) and with bare discussion, and        the risk downgraded from very high        to high        and no one exactly gives permission        no one exactly assesses the risks he takes the train to London for one day 29 November, 2019   Arrives at London Bridge to celebrate five years of Learning Together, a prison education programme2 Taking university students into prisons to learn alongside incarcerated people In minimum, medium and maximum facilities (call it high- security, Category A), learning Plato in Philosophy, the laws of probability, and creative writing   The Justice asked the prison governor: did you consider the risks of putting people who were potentially violent, manipulative and predatory directly alongside potentially young students in a learning environment        yes        and the course began   No physical harm came to them there The deep violence of the prison apparently held outside        the writing room The meeting of writing together        considered low risk        the violence of the prison where he was known as emir The concentration on him and his        masks        the violence of the prison,  the breaking        the drug        abuse, the harm        the many serving long and life there        the violence of the prison only seen in reflection        the emphasis on counter-narrative        on hope   He took part

Contributor

January 2018

Nicole Flattery

Contributor

January 2018

Nicole Flattery’s criticism has appeared in the Guardian, The Irish Times and the LRB. Her story collection Show Them A Good...

Carmen Maria Machado’s ‘Her Body and Other Parties’

Book Review

January 2018

Nicole Flattery

Book Review

January 2018

I’m reluctant to admit this but it’s often easier for me to write about a book I hated rather than a book I loved....

READ NEXT

Interview

January 2016

Interview with Marlene van Niekerk

Jan Steyn

Interview

January 2016

Marlene Van Niekerk is the foremost Afrikaans writer of her generation. She is a renowned poet, scholar, critic, and...

Art

May 2013

On the Margins

Sean Smith

Art

May 2013

fiction

March 2016

Red

Madeleine Watts

fiction

March 2016

It was the first week of 1976 and she had just turned 17.   The day school let out...

 

Get our newsletter

 

* indicates required