Jay Millington

I graduated with an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, where I worked on 'Q Equals Three to the Power of J'.

GENRE? Literary / postmodern

SETTING? Bristol, present day

PROTAGONIST? 43 year old Manxman, Professor Adrian Qualtrough, known as 'Q’

USP? A comic, metafictional thriller about academia, paranoia and circumstantial evidence

SUMMARY? A superstitious professor gains an imaginary friend who claims to be his author, gets into trouble with the police and stumbles into the cross-hairs of a murderous aristocratic family. When it doesn't end well, the professor engineers a re-write.

SIMILAR AUTHORS? My novel has a format of short, titled scenes like Tibor Fischer’s 'The Thought Gang' to drive the narrative forward and hint at Q’s emotional state. A tutor suggested it is a ‘Kafkaesque detective story’ with ‘shades of Pynchon and others’. Influences include Ben Lerner, Paul Auster, Italo Calvino, Kurt Vonnegut, Julian Barnes and Jennifer Egan.

FEEDBACK?

Manuscript: ‘You have created an interesting, likeable and at times very funny character in Q. It's easy to root for him.’ Nathan Filer

Manuscript: ‘This is a fluently written manuscript and very enjoyable to read. Very entertaining.’ Gavin Cologne-Brooks

Extract 1: ‘I really like those moments in which something intimate is referenced, the small details between married couples that come out as ammunition in arguments.’ Samantha Harvey

Extract 2: ‘There is plenty to enjoy in this extract, the solitary obsessiveness of Q is intriguing and compelling.’ Gerard Woodward

Essay - Modernism and Postmodernism: ‘This is a very well researched, fluently written and very enjoyable essay.’ Gavin Cologne-Brooks

Essay - Writing and Politics: ‘I loved this idea when you first came up with it, and I like it even more now you have put it into practice in such a galvanic way.’ Tim Liardet

Short stories: ‘Each of these responses is very original and distinctive in its mood and humour. […] You write with great clarity and verve…’ Tim Liardet

GROUP? I’m with North Bristol Writers, who host an annual event for the Bristol Festival of Literature. I've read a post-modern piece at a cemetery, in which I died on stage; a flash slam about the loss of a detachable penis, and a tale about toothpaste at Clifton Suspension Bridge. ‘The Graveyard Shift’ a post-Brexit dystopian short story, is published in our anthology https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Graveyard-Bristol-Writers-anthology/dp/0955418240.

DAY JOB? Lecturer at Cardiff University.