In a slight departure from tradition, Jonathan has allowed me to submit a selection of short stories that mark their author’s first appearance in print, presented (more or less) in chronological order. This may be of interest to those who, like me, have a predisposition to completeness, at least when it comes to the work of the writers we most admire. I wanted to include Jonathan himself, whose inclusion in A Personal Anthology is long overdue. Alas his fiction debut ‘Nightswimming’, which appeared in All-Nighter (published by Pulp Fiction), is unavailable to read unless he digs it up for us. So over to you, Jonathan. But there are two outstanding novels: Randall, or the Painted Grape (Galley Beggar Press, 2014) and The Large Door (Boiler House Press, 2019), and the epic pandemic poem Spring Journal (CB editions, 2020). Read them all.
My selection below is highly subjective because this is a personal anthology. But I could quite easily do another list, featuring a dozen other writers making their debut. Perhaps somebody else would take up the baton?
