Susan Barker’s Shelf Life
Susan Barker grew up in east London. She studied philosophy at the University of Leeds and creative writing at the University of Manchester. She is the author of the novels Sayonara Bar (2005), The Orientalist and the Ghost (2008) and The Incarnations (Doubleday, July 2014), and is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She has received grants from the Arts Council England and the Society of Authors, and has been an artist in residence at the Corporation of Yaddo, Hawthornden International Writers’ Retreat and the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. In 2010-2012 she was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Leeds Trinity University.
In 2025, Fig Tree will publish Old Soul, a literary horror epic that was recently the subject of a heated eight-way publisher auction.
How and where are you?
I’m in my study in Levenshulme, Manchester. It’s Sunday and I’m doing a mix of teaching prep, tax and admin, and this Shelf Life. I am fine, thanks. Trying to decide if I have the stamina to go to cinema this afternoon for 3.5 hours of Killers of the Flower Moon.
What are you reading right now?
The Postcard by Anne Berest, translated from French. In 2003 Berest’s mother received an anonymous postcard listing the names of four family members murdered during the Holocaust. Years later, Berest narrates the lives of these lost relatives, as well as that of her grandmother, who escaped deportation to Auschwitz and later joined the French Resistance. Just the straightforward narrative of events leading up the Holocaust — the way in which segregation and persecution became tolerated and part of everyday life, is horrifying.
I have The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut lined up next. When We Cease To Understand the World is one of my all-time favourites, so I have high hopes for his new one.
What are you watching, listening to, or otherwise consuming?
When I’m not writing, I usually have headphones clamped to my ears, blasting podcasts: true crime, mainstream news shows, various books and film podcasts, ridiculous health podcasts with ‘experts’ stretching out very basic advice into hour-long segments (‘staying hydrated: a game-changer!’). The thought of cooking or doing the washing up without a Today in Focus or some weird discussion about panpsychism is now inconceivable to me.
I’m planning to watch a lot of horror for Halloween, which is my tradition. Last year I watched Guillermo Del Torro’s horror anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities, the stand out for me being Panos Cosmatos’ The Viewing. Cosmatos also directed Mandy, this batshit crazy phantasmagorical horror with Nicholas Cage that came out in 2018. Whatever he does next, I’m there for it.
What did you read as a child?
My reading trajectory was as follows: Enid Blyton, Judy Blume, Paula Danziger and Lois Duncan, Point Horror, Virgina Andrews and Stephen King. Very eighties! In my mid-teens I discovered the ‘contemporary fiction’ section of WH Smith and Margaret Atwood’s short stories. Smith’s also had a promotion where they sold a selection of classics for a pound each: The Brontes, Orwell, Kerouac and Herman Hesse etc, which gave me a solid grounding though I didn’t study English at A Level. I picked up Lolita from Camden Market when I was fifteen and thought it was incredible. I still have it: an edition with a very dodgy Balthus painting of a young girl on the cover. After many re-readings I still think it’s one of the greatest books.
Which books and/or writers have inspired and influenced you, and what have you learnt from them?
So many. When I was teaching English in Kyoto, back in 2001, I read David Mitchell’s Number 9 Dream and adored the high-octane energy of it, the multiple genres, plotlines and themes. I also read Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicles and Norwegian Wood around then, and they’re all formative of kind of writer I’ve become. I’m a huge fan of writing that invents beyond reality and leans into the fantastical, that has depth and emotional resonance but also manages to entertain. A couple of more recent books I admire are The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan and Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. Again, I love the ambition of them; the pyrotechnics of prose, the engagement with other times, places and ideas.
What’s the worst review you ever received?
The Incarnations got the odd hatchet job when it came out, but I honestly don’t remember what they said. Enough time has passed for me to concede the reviewers probably had some valid points.
Tell us a little about your creative process?
Each book I write is guided by subjects that I’m fascinated by and want to learn more about. My ideas for character and plot tend grow out of research. For Old Soul I wanted to have some chapters set ‘behind the Iron Curtain’, so I spent months researching 1950’s Budapest and 1960’s GDR/Leipzig. I also read up about geology for the chapters set in the New Mexico badlands, the Japanese dance of butoh for a Kyoto-set section, the East Village art/punk scene for a 1980’s NYC section, the planet Venus and quantum physics/inter-dimensional theory for the supernatural parts… The list goes on and on.
My actual process goes like this: research a chapter, write a clunky draft. Research some more, write slightly better draft. Repeat the process (in the case of Old Soul, for eight years), until I’ve written something I can live with going out in the world.
How has your experience of the publishing industry been?
Probably the hardest thing about having your book published is the lack of control. When you write a book you have complete totalitarian control over your fictional world. Then you hand it over to a publisher and the title, cover design and the way it’s presented and marketed etc. becomes more of a compromise (if you’re lucky). Publication-time is always quite anxiety-inducing. Will there be any reviews? Will they be okay? Will it sell? Again, it’s mostly out of your control.
Generally though, I’ve been very lucky. Lots of ups and downs over my twenty-plus years career, but I’ve always been able to make writing fiction my primary focus, which is the main thing. And I’m full of admiration for my current literary agent and editors. They’re all brilliant, and really get my new book and how I’d like for it to be published.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Just say no to things you don’t want to do and focus on writing a good book. In the age of the author brand, maybe I’m shooting myself in the foot. But I’ve stuck to my instincts about various side-projects I’ve been asked to do, and channelled my resources into writing instead.
What are you working on right now?
A short story for a horror anthology. It will be my first ever published short story. Wish me luck!