Andrew Blackman, literary fiction writer, traveller, book reviewer and essayist

Bridgetown on the eve of Barbados becoming a republic

Living

Symbols Matter

As Barbados becomes a republic, there's a bizarre disconnect between the way foreign media and local people are framing what's happening.

Living

Digging Myself Out

This is not an apology post. More of a commitment to myself to give more time to things I value, like blogging regularly.

Reading

An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire

An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire is an Australian crime novel that throws the crime-writing conventions out of the window. It's more about male violence and sexual aggression than about…

Reading

The American Way: Stories of Invasion

This new short story collection by Comma Press focuses on what the American Way looks like to those at the sharp end of US aggression around the world.

Reading

The Truth About Amritsar

Why did British troops massacre hundreds of Indian civilians at Amritsar in 1919? This book explores the whole shocking story.

Reading

Digging to America by Anne Tyler: Review

In Digging to America, Tyler charts the course of two mismatched families, the hale and hearty, all-American Donaldsons and the quieter, more reticent Iranian-American Yazdans. All they have in common…

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 4: Monk Eastman, Purveyor of Iniquities

Why does this short story by Jorge Luis Borges create such power? Maybe it's the human frailty underlying the tale of a tough New York gangster.

Reading

Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen

Five chapters. Five narrators. Five different experiences of being young Greenlanders trying to navigate the complex territory of gender and sexual identity. That's the basic setup of Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen, a compelling novel first written and published in Greenlandic…

Reading

The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke by Tina Makereti

Set in Aotearoa and London some time in the 19th century, Tina Makereti's excellent novel tells the story of a Maori boy who makes his way to London, where he…

Reading

June 2021 Reading Roundup

In my last reading roundup, I was still emerging from winter. Now, it’s been 30+ degrees for weeks, and I can barely remember what a cloud looks like. The storks…

Reading

Nightshade by Annalena McAfee

If you need your fictional characters to be likeable, to be the sort of people that you can "root for", then absolutely do NOT read Nightshade by Annalena McAfee. If,…

Reading

The Archipelago of Another Life Readalong, Part 4

Here’s a little life tip for you. If you ever feel that the time is starting to drag and you’d like your life to be busier, try signing up for…

New Short Story Published

I had a short story published recently in Storgy magazine. It’s available to read free online, so do check it out if you’re interested. It’s about two women caught on…

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 3: The Widow Ching—Pirate

Before I read Borges, I used to think there was a sharp dividing line between fiction and nonfiction. In my own writing, there’s a huge gap between the serious, diligently…

Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman