Ruby Cowling’s Shelf Life
Ruby Cowling was born in Bradford and now lives in London. Her debut collection, This Paradise, was published in 2020. Her stories have won The White Review Prize (2014) and the London Short Story Prize (2014) among others and been widely published in journals and anthologies, including Lighthouse, The Letters Page, Unthology, and The Lonely Crowd.
How and where are you?
Quite well, actually, thanks. I’m at my desk in a carpeted room in north-west London, having just spent a while thinking about how to answer these questions in a cool and mysterious way, but I’m just… not cool, or mysterious. So I’m simply at my desk, doing oxygen exchange and metabolising and being basic. In a productive writing phase, going so fast I haven’t got time to agonise too much, so that’s very satisfying. Also, I just read earlier that we might get an election as early as May 2024 which has given me a fillip.
What are you reading right now?
I’m a slower reader than I used to be, but I reckon my taste is still nothing short of exquisite. I’ve just started getting stuck in to the IYAGI set from Strangers Press – eight gorgeously produced chapbooks of South Korean short fiction in translation and the second Korean set they’ve done (YEOYU was their first and it was brilliant). They look very cool as a pile next to the bed.
The best thing I read in the last twelve months has been James Hannaham’s Didn’t Nobody Give A Shit What Happened To Carlotta. I bang on about James Hannaham but he is actually a genius.
I just read Agri Ismaïl’s debut novel Hyper which is coming out in Jan 2024 and people should be excited about that.
And, of course, watching or listening to?
Watching: the sixth series (of eight) of Weeds (2005–2012). Brilliantly fast-moving and unpredictable plot, and a masterclass in ‘put your protagonist up a tree and set fire to it’. Listening to: a range of podcasts with new episodes of Maintenance Phase always at the top.
What did you read as a child?
Roald Dahl. Then everything was American – not sure why… that’s what they had at Bradford Central Library. Betsy Byars, Judy Blume of course, and loads of American tween/teen trash (Sweet Valley High, oh dear) alongside dipping into my sister’s three full shelves of Dr Who books. I can’t remember there being much adult fiction in the house: I don’t think my folks read a lot for pleasure as they were too knackered from work, but I read everything I could get my hands on, from old poetry to economics textbooks (which of course I didn’t understand at all). I had some really encouraging teachers, including one in 6th form who recommended I read Ian McEwan’s early books (i.e. the good ones) and Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban – which absolutely blew my mind.
Which books and/or writers have inspired and influenced you?
Obviously, Riddley Walker… I always name George Saunders as he’s been a fundamental influence on my love of the short story... but I think most books I’ve ever read must have had an influence of some kind – pebbles thrown into the pond, sort of thing. But also – if I can step outside books and into music – somehow Art of Noise really inspired me from a young age – that sense of originality, of making something out of unexpected materials, of being ‘a bit weird’ and running with it, I always found truly exciting.
And then TV: I absolutely loved The Twilight Zone; it would be on in the middle of the night so I’d tape every episode and watch the next day after school. Such a massive influence, and really good examples of classic storytelling.
What’s the worst review you’ve ever received?
Well, a rejecting publisher said, ‘She’s not as original as she thinks she is’, which was an ouch moment (and, I mean, it was a bit presumptuous). And there was a long review of an anthology I was in which carefully commented on every one of the numerous stories in there, except mine, as if it didn’t exist at all, although maybe they were doing me a kindness.
Tell us a little about your creative process?
Months of flopping about and sighing, then when I can’t stand myself any more I fall into intense first-drafting and voice-trying, then a long and ecstatic period of editing and problem-solving, then a lot more editing and finessing, then an eventual got-to-let-it-go day.
How has your experience of the publishing industry been?
I’m on the same totally normal terrible-wonderful-terrible rollercoaster as most people. Best I don’t go into detail.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
‘Trust your instincts’. It’s not only good practical advice about how to move forward with any one piece, it gives you permission to believe that you have some kind of writer’s instincts that can be trusted.
What are you working on right now?
Right now I’m reworking some material I put about five years into and got to a fully polished stage, but which really needs to be something else. I can admit that now, after a couple of years’ cooling-off time. Sometimes you just can’t let go of a particular idea even if you’ve tried a hundred ways of making it work and it just won’t quite work. You’ve just got to keep going back to it from another angle.
(So I suppose the best advice I’ve been given, actually, is ‘Don’t give up’ – and not just by Cyndi Lauper, and not just about not giving up on getting published but also not giving up on an idea that won’t let you go.)