about david
Photo Phil Rigby Cumbria Life 2013
“David Gaffney writes truly 21st century stories for a fragmented and fragmenting world; they’re short, snappy and utterly addictive”
Ian McMillan
The Three Rooms In Valerie's Head
David's graphic novel with Dan Berry
is out now on Top Shelf.
David's novel All the Places I've Ever Lived is also out now
David Gaffney comes from Cleator Moor in West Cumbria and now lives in Manchester. He is the author of Sawn-off Tales (2006), Aromabingo (2007), Never Never (2008), The Half-life of Songs (2010) and his latest collection of short stories, More Sawn-Off Tales ( 2013). He has also written 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 has written articles for the Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Prospect magazine and was a judge for the 2015 Bridport prize.His story The Staring Man is featured in the 2016 collection Best British Short Stories, his latest Novel, All The Places I've Ever Lived, is out now on Urbane, and his graphic novel with Dan Berry, The Three Rooms In Valerie's Head, is also out now on Top Shelf.
Check out David's piece for The Guardian on how to write flash fiction here.
Check out this piece in Cumbria Life with some great pictures of David in Cleator Moor
David’s work has been published in a number of anthologies and magazines, from Aesthetica to Stand, and he has written articles for The Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Prospect.
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
“David Gaffney could well be the king of flash fiction writing right now”
Bookmunch
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