Jo Mazelis

Last updated

Jo Mazelis (born 1956) is a Welsh writer. Her 2014 novel Significance was awarded the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015. Her short story collections have been short- or long-listed for prizes, including Wales Book of the Year. She has also worked as a professional graphic designer.

Contents

Early life and career

Mazelis was born near Fairwood Common on the Gower Peninsula. She grew up in Swansea, later living in Aberystwyth and then London for over 14 years before returning to her hometown. She worked as a graphic designer for Spare Rib , Undercurrents , Women’s Review, Everywoman and City Limits . She did a Foundation Course at Swansea College of Art, and was awarded a Higher Datec Diploma from Ealing College of Higher Education, a degree in Art & English from Swansea Metropolitan University and an MA in English Literature from Swansea University.

Writing and awards

Mazelis's novel Significance (2014) was awarded the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015. [1]

Her first collection of short stories, Diving Girls (2002), was shortlisted for both Wales Book of the Year and Commonwealth Best First Book. [2]

Her second collection of stories, Circle Games (2005), was long-listed for Wales Book of the Year. [2]

Mazelis's third collection, Ritual, 1969 (2016), was long-listed for the Edge Hill Prize [3] and shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year in 2017. [4]

In 2014 Mazelis wrote a collection of surreal dystopian fiction for Go! Be a Bird!, a collaborative work with award-winning artist Susan Adams. [5]

Several of her stories have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 including Too Perfect, Snakeskin Becomes Her and The Blackberry Season. [2]

Mazelis's work has appeared in The Lonely Crowd, New Welsh Review , Spare Rib , Poetry Wales , Raconteur, Cambrensis, Nth Position, The Big Issue , Corridor, The Ottawa Citizen , Everywoman, Tears in the Fence and Lampeter Review amongst others.

She has won a prize in the Rhys Davies Short Story Award five times, was longlisted for the Asham Award and received prizes in the PenFRO [6] and Allen Raine competitions. [7]

Mazelis was a Royal Literary Fund fellow at Swansea University 2009-11 [8] and is currently a lector on the Royal Literary Fund Reading Round in Swansea.

Reviews

Reviewing Circle Games, Anna Scott in the New Welsh Review wrote: "Mazelis plays with the reader, introducing the unexpected by the back door. Fearlessly scrutinising the desires and impulses of her characters, segueing nightmarish fantasies into reality." [9]

Reviewing Ritual, 1969, Rupert Dastur in The Short Story wrote: "Mazelis explores a dazzling range of ideas, geographies and times, often couched in the daily realities of women and children, the marginalised and the powerless, the scared, hopeless, and hapless ... Ritual, 1969 reveals the absolute mastery Mazelis has over the short form and this third collection is a superb display of a writer keenly attentive to the human mind, its motives and its mysteries.". [10]

Photography

While working for magazines in London in the 1980s Mazelis photographed writers such as P.D. James, [11] Patricia Highsmith [12] and Kathy Acker, [13] [14] artists Paula Rego and Nan Goldin, [15] and actors Miranda Richardson [16] and Tilda Swinton [17] amongst others. [18] Mazelis photographed John Stevens and Dudu Pukwana on a number of occasions, notably while they were recording the album, Radebe: They Shoot to Kill. [19] Since returning to Wales she has photographed a number of Welsh artists and writers including Ed Thomas, Francesca Rhydderch, Lloyd Robson, Kevin Sinnott, David Hurn, Rachel Trezise, Richard Davies, Tristan Hughes, Rhian Elizabeth and musicians Richard Cowell (Rag Foundation) and Paul Battenbough.

Mazelis has exhibited her artwork at Camerawork, London and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, and had solo exhibitions at The Camera Club, London and The Dylan Thomas Centre, and a joint show at the Pontardawe Arts Centre. Her photography has been used for a variety of publications from online journals to print magazine covers and book jackets.

Film

In the 1980s Mazelis collaborated as a screenwriter for a student film in which she also acted. She also acted in a Super 8 film The Fate of Cain made by Barry Assinder which was shown at the London Film Festival.

Selected publications

Diving Girls (short stories, Parthian, 2002; published in Danish translation as Forbuden Frugt by Arvids, 2007)

Circle Games (short stories, Parthian, 2005)

Significance (novel, Seren, 2014)

Ritual, 1969 (short stories, Seren, 2016)

Skin and other short stories (short stories, CPI Group, 2022)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Pargeter</span> British writer (1913–1995)

Edith Mary Pargeter, also known by her pen name Ellis Peters, was an English author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of Czech classics. She is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both historical and modern, and especially for her medieval detective series The Cadfael Chronicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh literature in English</span> Works written in the English language by Welsh writers

Welsh writing in English, is a term used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Walton</span> Canadian writer and poet (born 1964)

Jo Walton is a Welsh and Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel Among Others, which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and Tooth and Claw, a Victorian era novel with dragons which won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. Other works by Walton include the Small Change series, in which she blends alternate history with the cozy mystery genre, comprising Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown. Her fantasy novel Lifelode won the 2010 Mythopoeic Award, and her alternate history My Real Children received the 2015 Tiptree Award.

Siân James was a Welsh novelist, academic and translator, who wrote in English. Her third novel, A Small Country, is seen as a classic of Anglo-Welsh literature. Her 1996 short-story collection Not Singing Exactly won the English-language category in Wales Book of the Year, the first book by a woman to do so.

Helen Griffin was a Welsh actress, playwright and screenwriter. Born in Swansea, Wales, she appeared regularly in Welsh theatre and television and wrote and starred in the 2005 film Little White Lies. She also appeared in the 2006 Doctor Who episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Jenkins</span> Anglo-Welsh poet

Nigel Jenkins was an Anglo-Welsh poet. He was an editor, journalist, psychogeographer, broadcaster and writer of creative non-fiction, as well as being a lecturer at Swansea University and director of the creative writing programme there.

Dame Jean Olwen Thomas, is a Welsh biochemist, former Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and Chancellor of Swansea University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Käthe Bosse-Griffiths</span> Welsh-German Egyptologist, 1910–1998

Käthe Bosse-Griffiths was an eminent Egyptologist. Born in Germany, she moved to Britain as a political refugee and married a Welshman. She became a writer in the Welsh language, and made a unique contribution to Welsh literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurns Brewing Company</span> Welsh drinks and brewery company

The Hurns Brewing Company Limited is a drinks and brewery company based in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Hurns own several pubs in Wales. It acquired the Tomos Watkin range of beers in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Jenkins (poet)</span>

Mike Jenkins is a Welsh poet and fiction writer in English. He is also the father of the Plaid Cymru politician Bethan Sayed and of the journalist Ciaran Jenkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parthian Books</span>

Parthian Books is an independent publisher based in Cardigan, Wales. Editorially-led, it publishes a range of contemporary fiction, poetry, drama, art books, literature in translation, and non-fiction. Since its foundation in 1993, Parthian has published some of the best-known works of contemporary Welsh literature including Work, Sex and Rugby (1993) by Lewis Davies, In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl (2000) by Rachel Trezise, Crawling Through Thorns (2008) by John Sam Jones, Pigeon (2017) by Alys Conran, and Hello Friend We Missed You (2020) by Richard Owain Roberts. It is involved in the European literary scene and has also published celebrity autobiographies, such as Griff Rhys Jones' Insufficiently Welsh, and Boyd Clack's Kisses Sweeter Than Wine. In 2019, Parthian was recognised as the Small Press of the Year for Wales at the "Nibbies", the British Book Awards. Parthian's motto is "A Carnival of Voices in Independent Publishing".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Jane Rees</span> Welsh teacher, poet and temperance campaigner, 1839–1916

Sarah Jane Rees, also known by the bardic name "Cranogwen", was a Welsh teacher, poet, editor, master mariner and temperance campaigner. She had two romantic friendships with women, first with Fanny Rees, until her death from tuberculosis, then with Jane Thomas, for most of the rest of Rees's life.

Shani Rhys James MBE is a Welsh painter based in Llangadfan, Powys. She has been described as "arguably one of the most exciting and successful painters of her generation" and "one of Wales’ most significant living artists". She was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1994. In the 2006 New Years Honours she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for "services to art".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace McCleen</span> British novelist

Grace McCleen is a British novelist. She has won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Betty Trask Award and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize.

<i>Among Others</i> 2011 novel by Jo Walton

Among Others is a 2011 fantasy novel written by Welsh-Canadian writer Jo Walton, published originally by Tor Books. It is published in the UK by Corsair. It won the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the British Fantasy Award, and was a nominee for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Eigra Lewis Roberts is a Welsh-language author of about 30 plays, short stories, children's books and novels. She has won several awards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesca Rhydderch</span> Welsh novelist and academic

Francesca Rhydderch is a Welsh novelist and academic. In 2013, her debut novel, The Rice Paper Diaries, was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and won the Wales Book of the Year Award 2014 for Fiction. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Wales.

Roshi Fernando is an English writer of Sri Lankan origin. Her stories often depict Sri Lankan immigrants and take place in both Sri Lanka and England.

Kathryn Gray is a Welsh poet.

Mari Ellis Dunning is a Welsh writer based in Aberystwyth. Her debut poetry collection Salacia was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year in 2019. She has also published a children's book.

References

  1. ↑ Jerwood Fiction prize 2015 shortlist Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  2. 1 2 3 In conversation with Jo Mazelis, Wales Arts Review retrieved 2017-10-20
  3. ↑ Short Story Prize organisers announce diverse longlist for 2017 competition retrieved 2017-10-20
  4. ↑ Announcing the Wales Book of the Year Short List 2017 retrieved 2017-10-20.
  5. ↑ Go! Be a Bird! page on Susan Adams's website retrieved 2017-10-20.
  6. ↑ PenFRO 2014 winners retrieved 2017-10-20
  7. ↑ Allen Raine website retrieved 2017-10-20.
  8. ↑ Royal Literary Fund page on Jo Mazelis retrieved 2017-20-20.
  9. ↑ New Welsh Review 72, Summer 2006 retrieved 2017-10-20
  10. ↑ The Short Story Review: ‘Ritual, 1969’ by Jo Mazelis retrieved 2017-20-10
  11. ↑ Jo Mazelis website retrieved 2017-10-20
  12. ↑ Jo Mazelis website retrieved 2017-10-20
  13. ↑ Jo Mazelis website retrieved 2017-10-20
  14. ↑ Times Literary Supplement podcast "Kathy Acker's Guts" 25 October 2017 (from approx 5'10") retrieved 2017-10-29
  15. ↑ Jo Mazelis website retrieved 2017-10-20
  16. ↑ Jo Mazelis website retrieved 2017-10-20
  17. ↑ Jo Mazelis website retrieved 2017-10-20
  18. ↑ Jo Mazelis profile on International Literature Showcase website retrieved 2017-10-20
  19. ↑ retrieved 2023-05-20
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.