Meet our June Author: Jack Remiel Cottrell
When: Tuesday 28 June, 7.00 – 8.00pm
Where: Online – click the Zoom link below.
Join us to meet the fantastic Jack Remiel Cottrell at an online shared reading event at the end of the month! Jack will read from his work and we will all have an opportunity to reflect and respond together as we go along.
Author bio
Jack Remiel Cottrell is an itinerant flash fiction and short story writer with a sideline as a volunteer rugby referee. He also runs workshops teaching the art of flash fiction to students in rural secondary schools. Jack won the 2020 Wallace Foundation Prize for best manuscript, and has been shortlisted for a Sir Julius Vogel Award in 2020 and 2022.
Jack grew up in Wellington, and currently resides in Omori, King Country. He writes about anything that interests him. This has turned out to be a lot of things, many which are strange and unsettling. He still has occasional dreams of writing a novel.
Ten Acceptable Acts of Arson, and other very short stories
Depending on how you count, this is a collection of around 100 stories, all of which are under 300 words. The book features stories about time travel, magic, sports, unrequited love, racism, colonialism, ghosts, queerness, robots, peanut butter, and heaps more.
“The pleasures contained within Ten Acceptable Acts of Arson are many and varied. Some stories may even cause you to reassess your life.” – Victor Rodger, ANZL
3 Responses
Our reading group really enjoyed Jack’s work. We read several of his pieces, and were all astonished by how much he packed into such short short stories. They are layered, subtle and really deserve the close attention our group gave them. A gifted young writer, and one whose work touches on the human experience.
Reading Jack’s beautiful story “Telling the Bees” at Rānui library when Rosemary says- as a beekeeper- you must always be honest with bees so they know you are the right sort of person to be /🐝 with them!
Our communities really enjoyed reading Jack’s work this month! His flash fiction style is like a window opening into a fully formed world. You peep in for a minute to a colourful scene but you are also curious about what is going on before, after, off to the side of the frame! Even in one page there were so many touchstones for people to connect with their own lives – like the story The Prop Forward which many people connected with that we read with Jack in the Zoom event.. It’s like all the riches of a story with the punch of a poem! We are all flash fiction fans now! Thanks again Jack! Love you love your work!