about david
David Gaffney is the author of the novels Never Never (2008), All The Places I’ve Ever Lived (2017) and Out Of The Dark (2021), and the flash fiction and short story collections Sawn-Off Tales (2006), Aromabingo (2007), The Half-Life of Songs (2010) and More Sawn-Off Tales (2013). He has published two graphic novels with Dan Berry – The Three Rooms In Valerie’s Head (2018) and Rivers (2021) – and is working on a third. In 2022 he published a chapbook, The Country Pub, with Nightjar Press, in 2023 he published a short story collection with Salt Publishing, Concrete Fields, which was longlisted for the Edgehill prize, and in 2024 a pamphlet, Whale, with Osmosis Press. His prose poetry pamphlet, Lakes of Titan, is out in 2005 on Ottawa's Above/Ground press.
“David Gaffney writes truly 21st century stories for a fragmented and fragmenting world; they’re short, snappy and utterly addictive”
Ian McMillan
Sawn-Off Tales short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2006
Aromabingo short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2007
Never Never novel, Tindal Street Press, 2008
The Half-life Of Songs short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2010
More Sawn Off Tales, short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2013
All The Places I've Ever Lived, novel, Urbane publishing, 2017
The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head, graphic novel, Top Shelf, 2018
Rivers, graphic novel, Top Shelf 2021
Out Of The Dark, novel, Confingo 2022
Concrete Fields, short story collection, Salt Publishing 2023
Whale, short story collection, Osmosis 2024
Lakes of Titan, prose poetry collection, Above/Ground 2025
Dig Deep, graphic novel, Top Shelf, 2026
Aromabingo short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2007
Never Never novel, Tindal Street Press, 2008
The Half-life Of Songs short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2010
More Sawn Off Tales, short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2013
All The Places I've Ever Lived, novel, Urbane publishing, 2017
The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head, graphic novel, Top Shelf, 2018
Rivers, graphic novel, Top Shelf 2021
Out Of The Dark, novel, Confingo 2022
Concrete Fields, short story collection, Salt Publishing 2023
Whale, short story collection, Osmosis 2024
Lakes of Titan, prose poetry collection, Above/Ground 2025
Dig Deep, graphic novel, Top Shelf, 2026
David's next collection, Lakes of Titan, is out at the end of 2025 on Above/Ground press in Ottawa.
David's latest book is a collection of short stories called Whale, on Osmosis press, based on his time as resident writer on the Whitehaven Whale project.
“Playful, vividly unexpected, funny, these are short, sharp stories that stick deep in the heart and the mind and won’t be shaken out.” Jacob Polley
"I can think of few things more delightful than reading David Gaffney's dark, funny, tiny, enormous stories riffing on the idea, the dream, the tales of whales” Tania Hershman
Get your copies here Osmosis
“Playful, vividly unexpected, funny, these are short, sharp stories that stick deep in the heart and the mind and won’t be shaken out.” Jacob Polley
"I can think of few things more delightful than reading David Gaffney's dark, funny, tiny, enormous stories riffing on the idea, the dream, the tales of whales” Tania Hershman
Get your copies here Osmosis
David's collection of short stories, Concrete Fields, is also out now on Salt Publishing - "haunting, funny stories that explore the theme of town versus country with a dark humour and a surreal spin."
More about David
David Gaffney comes from Cleator Moor in West Cumbria and now lives in Manchester. David is a prose writer with a specialism in short stories, particularly micro-fiction, and has published widely and collaborated with artists working in other art forms. He is the author of the novels Never Never (Tindall Street 2008) and All The Places I've Ever Lived ( Urbane 2017) plus the short story collections Sawn-Off Tales (Salt 2006), Aromabingo (Salt 2007), The Half-Life of Songs (Salt 2010) and More Sawn-Off Tales (Salt 2013). He has written articles for The Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Prospect magazine, and was a judge for the Bridport Prize. His story The Staring Man was featured in Best British Short Stories. His graphic novel with Dan Berry, The Three Rooms In Valerie's Head, was published in 2018 on Top Shelf, and David and Dan's current graphic novel Rivers is out now, also on Top Shelf. David's novel, Out Of The Dark, is out now on Confingo. He has published two graphic novels with Dan Berry – The Three Rooms In Valerie’s Head (2018) and Rivers (2021) – and his third graphic novel, Dig Deep is out in 2025 on Top Shelf. His short story collection Concrete Fields (Salt Publishing, 2023) was longlisted for the Edgehill prize, and his pamphlet, Whale, came out in 2024 on Osmosis Press. His experimental prose collection Lakes of Titan is out in 2025 on Above/Ground press from Ottawa.
His story Insight in Confingo's We Were Strangers anthology was critically acclaimed in many reviews and his story The Staring Man was included in the 2018 Best British Short Stories on SALT publishing.
David also works with literature in a live setting and on commissions, residencies, collaborations and in communities. He produced and delivered Buildings Crying Out, a story using lost cat posters (Lancaster LitFest 2009); 23 Stops To Hull, a set of stories about every junction on the M62 (Humber Mouth Literature Festival 2009); Sawn-off Opera, a set of operas with composer Ailís Ní Ríain (BBC Radio 3, RNCM, Liverpool Philharmonic and Tête a Tête festival London 2010); Destroy PowerPoint, stories in PowerPoint format for Edinburgh Festival 2009; The Poole Confessions, stories told in a mobile confessional box (Poole Literature Festival 2010); Station Stories, in which six writers linked to the audience with wireless headphones performed short stories in Manchester Piccadilly railway station (Manchester Literature Festival 2011); Boy You Turn Me, a sound installation (Birmingham Book Festival 2011); guerrilla writing project Errata Slips (Cornerhouse Manchester 2011), Preston 3twenty (2012-2032), a twenty-year arts and literature project, Men Who Like Women Who Smell of Their Jobs, (Manchester Literature Festival 2014) a visual art exhibition with painter Alison Erika Forde, and The Three Rooms In Valerie's Head, (Lakes Comic Art Festival 2015) a live graphic novel with artist Dan Berry and composer Sara Lowes.
He also delivered Fax Fiction for the Reflex festival (2019) Manchester, a literature project in which six writers responded to recent obsolete technology and performed live using these devices, Flash in The Van for Burnley Literature Festival ( 2019) and Mac Stories for Macclesfield LIT festival ( 2019) David was also artistic lead for Arts Council funded socially-engaged project PowerLines with Salford Welfare Rights.
See here for more on the sort of live projects david has delivered
David delivers talks to creative writing students across the north at Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Manchester, Bolton University, Chester University, Edgehill University, Salford University, Wolverhampton University and others, and he teaches for Arvon too.
He has written articles for the Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Prospect magazine and was a judge for the 2015 Bridport prize.
David is also Senior Manager for literature at Arts Council England.
Check out David's piece for The Guardian on how to write flash fiction here.
See David's article for Prospect magazine about his unusual marketing techniques here
Check out this piece in Cumbria Life with some great pictures of David in Cleator Moor
David Gaffney comes from Cleator Moor in West Cumbria and now lives in Manchester. David is a prose writer with a specialism in short stories, particularly micro-fiction, and has published widely and collaborated with artists working in other art forms. He is the author of the novels Never Never (Tindall Street 2008) and All The Places I've Ever Lived ( Urbane 2017) plus the short story collections Sawn-Off Tales (Salt 2006), Aromabingo (Salt 2007), The Half-Life of Songs (Salt 2010) and More Sawn-Off Tales (Salt 2013). He has written articles for The Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Prospect magazine, and was a judge for the Bridport Prize. His story The Staring Man was featured in Best British Short Stories. His graphic novel with Dan Berry, The Three Rooms In Valerie's Head, was published in 2018 on Top Shelf, and David and Dan's current graphic novel Rivers is out now, also on Top Shelf. David's novel, Out Of The Dark, is out now on Confingo. He has published two graphic novels with Dan Berry – The Three Rooms In Valerie’s Head (2018) and Rivers (2021) – and his third graphic novel, Dig Deep is out in 2025 on Top Shelf. His short story collection Concrete Fields (Salt Publishing, 2023) was longlisted for the Edgehill prize, and his pamphlet, Whale, came out in 2024 on Osmosis Press. His experimental prose collection Lakes of Titan is out in 2025 on Above/Ground press from Ottawa.
His story Insight in Confingo's We Were Strangers anthology was critically acclaimed in many reviews and his story The Staring Man was included in the 2018 Best British Short Stories on SALT publishing.
David also works with literature in a live setting and on commissions, residencies, collaborations and in communities. He produced and delivered Buildings Crying Out, a story using lost cat posters (Lancaster LitFest 2009); 23 Stops To Hull, a set of stories about every junction on the M62 (Humber Mouth Literature Festival 2009); Sawn-off Opera, a set of operas with composer Ailís Ní Ríain (BBC Radio 3, RNCM, Liverpool Philharmonic and Tête a Tête festival London 2010); Destroy PowerPoint, stories in PowerPoint format for Edinburgh Festival 2009; The Poole Confessions, stories told in a mobile confessional box (Poole Literature Festival 2010); Station Stories, in which six writers linked to the audience with wireless headphones performed short stories in Manchester Piccadilly railway station (Manchester Literature Festival 2011); Boy You Turn Me, a sound installation (Birmingham Book Festival 2011); guerrilla writing project Errata Slips (Cornerhouse Manchester 2011), Preston 3twenty (2012-2032), a twenty-year arts and literature project, Men Who Like Women Who Smell of Their Jobs, (Manchester Literature Festival 2014) a visual art exhibition with painter Alison Erika Forde, and The Three Rooms In Valerie's Head, (Lakes Comic Art Festival 2015) a live graphic novel with artist Dan Berry and composer Sara Lowes.
He also delivered Fax Fiction for the Reflex festival (2019) Manchester, a literature project in which six writers responded to recent obsolete technology and performed live using these devices, Flash in The Van for Burnley Literature Festival ( 2019) and Mac Stories for Macclesfield LIT festival ( 2019) David was also artistic lead for Arts Council funded socially-engaged project PowerLines with Salford Welfare Rights.
See here for more on the sort of live projects david has delivered
David delivers talks to creative writing students across the north at Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Manchester, Bolton University, Chester University, Edgehill University, Salford University, Wolverhampton University and others, and he teaches for Arvon too.
He has written articles for the Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Prospect magazine and was a judge for the 2015 Bridport prize.
David is also Senior Manager for literature at Arts Council England.
Check out David's piece for The Guardian on how to write flash fiction here.
See David's article for Prospect magazine about his unusual marketing techniques here
Check out this piece in Cumbria Life with some great pictures of David in Cleator Moor
publishing history
Sawn-Off Tales short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2006
Aromabingo short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2007
Never Never novel, Tindal Street Press, 2008
The Half-life Of Songs short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2010
More Sawn Off Tales, short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2013
All The Places I've Ever Lived, novel, Urbane publishing, 2017
The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head, graphic novel, Top Shelf, 2018
Rivers, graphic novel, Top Shelf 2021
Out Of The Dark, novel, Confingo 2022
Concrete Fields, short story collection, Salt Publishing 2023
Whale, short story collection, Osmosis 2024
Lakes of Titan, prose poetry collection, Above/Ground 2025
Dig Deep, graphic novel, Top Shelf, 2026
“David Gaffney could well be the king of flash fiction writing right now”
Bookmunch
Home
Aromabingo short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2007
Never Never novel, Tindal Street Press, 2008
The Half-life Of Songs short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2010
More Sawn Off Tales, short story collection, Salt Publishing, 2013
All The Places I've Ever Lived, novel, Urbane publishing, 2017
The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head, graphic novel, Top Shelf, 2018
Rivers, graphic novel, Top Shelf 2021
Out Of The Dark, novel, Confingo 2022
Concrete Fields, short story collection, Salt Publishing 2023
Whale, short story collection, Osmosis 2024
Lakes of Titan, prose poetry collection, Above/Ground 2025
Dig Deep, graphic novel, Top Shelf, 2026
“David Gaffney could well be the king of flash fiction writing right now”
Bookmunch
Home
