Malc's Boy

Shaun Wilson was born in 1980 and raised in Wigton, Cumbria. In 2021, an early draftof Malc's Boy won a Northern Writers’ Award, with an excerpt publishedby Granta in 2024. His work featured in Kit de Waal’s working-classanthology Common People (Unbound, 2019), leading the acclaimed KerryHudson to tip him for 'big things’ in the Observer. He has featured atvarious book festivals, on BBC Radio, and recently completed a placement atSemiotext(e). He holds a PhD in English and Creative Writing from NorthumbriaUniversity and has worked as an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at theUniversities of Northumbria and Teesside.

'A stunning, hilariousdepiction of northern working-class violent masculinity conveyed - in a skewedway - through the form of experimental literary fiction.’ Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick‘Original, fierce, funny, poignant and real… He refuses to surrender his masculinity or to stand outside ofit in a book about masculinity, which is exactly what is called for, in art.’ David Keenan, author of For the Good Times'Malc's Boy is a shapeshifting novel exploring the beauty andviolence of northern, working-class masculinity. The fluid, experimental form interrogates the notion ofauthorship and questions what it means to tell the story of places and peoplein their own voices and on their own terms - I am very excited to followits journey.’Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater‘Very compelling. I often find anything experimental a bitbloodless and cold but there is a real fleshy, gritty warmth to this. I love the way he pushes the boundaries of the form. Innovative, original and atmospheric.' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love'I tip [Shaun Wilson]for big things…’ Kerry Hudson, author of Thirst ‘Shaun Wilson is astartling new voice in literary fiction, a writer of breathtaking originality who somehowmanages to be savage, lyrical and darkly comedic all at once. Malc's Boy does for the Lake Districtwhat Trainspotting did for Edinburgh.’Andrew Crumey, author of Sputnik Caledonia'Tears the notion of the bildungsroman to shreds. A boy learns toxic masculinity from his loving father and happilygrows up without any sort of moral compass. A tonic for all those sick of tedious novels aboutrich people’sproblems.’ Stewart Home, author of Fascist Yoga‘Shaun Wilson treads the liminal trails which wend between verityand story – or even perhaps between dirty reality and dirty realism – todiscover a quiddity of truth more faithful than the pure form of either state.And, as is so often the case in the bad-lands of border country, there is a stark beauty in this place.’ Jonathan Trigell, author of Boy A'Could be the next Ben Myers.’ Anna Barker, author of The Floating Island'The best books are the ones whichmarch into your imagination and occupy a place in it. Malc’s Boy is like that: funny, frightening and utterly convincing, it doesn’t so much wear its heart on its sleeve as staple it there, take aphotograph and then dissect the concepts of ‘heart’and ‘sleeve’ for good measure. It’s a working-class memoir which confidently negotiates the uneaseof writing all this stuff down, and a story told in a compelling voice. ShaunWilson is a proper talent.’ Tony Williams,  author of All the Bananas I’ve Never Eaten and Nutcase'Malc's Boy marries authentic Cumbrian dialect with analmost dizzying range of language and styles, high and low, philosophical, lyrical, funny and sometimesdownright dirty.’ Ann Rower, author of If You’re a Girl: Selected Stories 1985-2023'Stunning. I love how it careers from thebrutal to the beautiful.’ Tony Walsh, poet and author of This is the Place