Novak's 'Manifesto for a Liberated Lavvy' published in Offal #2

‘Raymond M. Novak’s Manifesto for a Liberated Lavvy’ - a previously unpublished chapter from Man-Eating Typewriter - is included in OFFAL #2, the independent journal celebrating and recontextualising artistic offcuts: fragments of fiction, formal experiments and found materials. Issue #2 is available from the OFFAL website HERE, priced £19.

From the OFFAL website:

‘OFFAL is back with its second issue, with another thrilling trip through literary leftovers, artistic experiments and found fragments. Highlights include author Richard Milward’s manifesto for living a ‘liberated lavvy’ (written in Polari, the almost-forgotten gay slang), a dialogue-free play by Tom McCarthy, an essay by Daniel Pinchbeck, plus fragments of fiction from Labeja Kodua Okullu, Kirsty Allison, Henderson Downing and Timothy J Jarvis.

Also featuring Offalism (A Manifesto), a guide to cooking the mythical Three-Angel Roast, a poem about Margate called ‘The only way to change things is to shoot men who curate things…’, and a 1953 speech by Allen Dulles, first director of the CIA, warning of Russian psy-op campaigns.

OFFAL #2 includes a free download of all 12 episodes of Offal Season Two, the cult AI-voiced ‘audio zine’, plus an exclusive 60-minute DJ Offalmix from in-house producer Brad Muscle. There’s also a pull-out A2 poster of ‘Selected Lyrical Works’, the collected lyrics of Aphex Twin 1991–2025.

All watched over by Dr Smile, Offal’s AI recreation of a fictional construct from a novel by Philip K Dick – now in-house psychotherapist in a suitcase, and Synthetic Oversight Entity (Publishing).

Edited by Mark Blacklock (Hinton, I’m Jack – Granta) & Roderick Stanley (Dazed & Confused, Good Trouble). Designed by Richard Turley (Interview, Civilization, Nuts) & Julia Schäfer (MoMA PS1). Published by Offal Industries and distributed by Public Knowledge Books.’

My Life in Beer: A Collection of Essays - published by Verdant Brewing Co

Richard’s essay on his drinking habits is featured in Verdant Brewing Co’s collection My Life Beer, which also includes pieces by David Keenan, DBC Pierre, Ali Millar, Harry Sword, Luke Turner, Salena Godden, Joel Gion, Will Burns, Martha Sprackland, Will Burns, Richard Foster, and many more. Order the book (priced £14.99) HERE

From the Verdant website:

‘MY LIFE IN BEER is a book that celebrates the first ten years in the life of Verdant Brewing, an independent brewery with an astonishing record for producing and reinventing beer. A collaboration with innovative publisher White Rabbit Books, this anthology celebrates beer in all its guises.

There are essays here by some of the finest writers of the twenty-first century: poets, novelists, emerging talents, Booker Prize-winners, artists, publishers, musicians, writers on music, ex-drinkers and sometime-drinkers . . . and a solitary brewer. These essays go back into the Proustian memories, returning to the waymarkers, formative moments, celebrations, travels, turning-points and chance meetings that make up a life

The result is a creative, thoughtful and often euphoric gathering, all raising a glass to beer as it has mattered to them.’

New Short Fiction: 'The March of Progress' on The Lonely Crowd

Richard has a new short story - ‘The March of Progress’ - published online at The Lonely Crowd. The story concerns the final request of a disaffected former employee of the Industriemuseum, Düsseldorf. Read it HERE.

The Lonely Crowd is a literary magazine devoted to publishing the best new short fiction, poetry, photography and criticism.

‘The Lonely Crowd has everything I want in a journal – it is urgent, it is eclectic, and I never quite know what I’m going to discover next. Without a doubt, The Lonely Crowd is the most exciting thing to happen to literature in Wales in a very long time.’ Thomas Morris

With thanks to online fiction editor, Matthew David Scott.

thelonelycrowd.org

Man-Eating Typewriter - OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK

Man-Eating Typewriter is out now in paperback, selling at £12.99 from all the usual outlets. Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2023, longlisted for the Nota Bene Prize 2024 and picked as one of the Times Literary Supplement’s Books of the Year 2023, Man-Eating Typewriter is now cheaper/smaller/easier to secrete about one’s person.

From the inside cover:

‘A major talent’ Irvine Welsh

‘Man-Eating Typewriter is a disgusting and depraved book, awash with orgies, drug abuse, bestiality […] I thoroughly enjoyed it’ Daily Telegraph

‘This magnificent, unhinged book is best described by one of its characters - it’s a beautiful fucking heinous masterpiece’ Joe Dunthorne

‘An exhibition of literary verve as well as a probing examination of morality within a sick society, Man-Eating Typewriter is a phenomenal achievement’ Literary Review

‘Richard Milward […] writes like a demon, and has produced that rarest of all things on the modern bookshelf: a genuinely exhilarating entertainment […] dazzling’ Guardian

Buy the book direct from White Rabbit HERE

MAN-EATING TYPEWRITER LONGLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2024

Man-Eating Typewriter has been longlisted for the Nota Bene Prize 2024. From the Nota Bene website:

‘Highlighting the power of the reading community, we focus on thought-provoking and relatable reads that have received organic word-of-mouth recognition… We’re incredibly excited to share our longlist of 25 diverse, thought-provoking and relatable reads. If you’d like to have your say on the titles you’d love to see on the shortlist, you can now vote for your favourite five books on our website by joining the Notable Readers club here.’

More information on the Nota Bene Prize website HERE

Man-Eating Typewriter paperback to be released September 12th

The mass-market paperback version of Man-Eating Typewriter will be published by White Rabbit on September 12th 2024, selling at £12.99.

From the back cover:

‘Brilliantly constructed’ John Higgs

‘Remarkable, beautiful, magic’ Paolo Hewitt

‘A phenomenal achievement’ Literary Review

‘Erudite, witty, immaculately crafted’ Ali Millar, author of Ava Anna Ada

Set at the fag-end of the 1960s and framed as a novel within a novel published by a seedy London purveyor of pulp fiction, Man-Eating Typewriter is a homage to the avant-garde counterculture of the 20th century. Told in Polari, it is the story of an anarchist named Raymond Novak and his plan to commit a ‘fantabulosa crime’ in 276 days that will revolt the world.

Wild, transgressive, erotic and resolutely uncompromising, this marks the return of an author who is out there on an island of his own making; a book that will be talked about, celebrated and puzzled over for decades.

‘It doesn’t get more exciting. In literary terms, he’s right up there with the best this country has to offer’ Rupert Thomson

‘Man-Eating Typewriter is a disgusting and depraved book… I thoroughly enjoyed it’ Daily Telegraph

‘This farcical tale of freedom and ecstasy - told in fruity Polari slang - reads as if Jean Genet and Vladimir Nabokov had joined the writing team of the Carry On films’ Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times

Pre-order the paperback from White Rabbit HERE

White Rabbit Books Exhibition at The Social, London

Man-Eating Typewriter is included in an exhibition of White Rabbit book covers in the upstairs bar at the publisher’s spiritual home, The Social, Fitzrovia. See them throughout March and April at 5 Little Portland Street, London, W1W 7JD.

From The Social website:

‘The Social opened in the summer of 1999. A two floor bar right at the heart of London evolved out of the legendary Heavenly Sunday Social club nights that ran in various venues between ’94 and ’99. Rather than act as a bricks and mortar extension of those nights, the Social quickly developed a reputation as a free-thinking, boundary pushing destination for open minded drinkers, keen listeners and late night thinkers.

The Social is a stone’s throw from Oxford Circus. For the last two decades, it has been one of central London’s most loved getaways – somewhere between a modern day speakeasy and a home-from-home local.

Originally designed by renowned architects David Adjaye and Will Russell and now being re-imagined two decades on by the original team that built it, the two floors offer their own unique takes on the perfect night out. Upstairs is an intimate, music-led wooden room while downstairs is a newly redesigned event space that’s just as likely to host frenetic live shows as literary events or packed out DJ gigs.

Over the years, The Social has played host to everyone from the Chemical Brothers to Edna O’Brien, Wolf Alice to Adele, Horace Andy, Bon Iver, Young Fathers, Caitlin Moran, Four Tet, Kae Tempest, Cold War Steve, Jack White, Black Country New Road, Black Midi, Irvine Welsh, Jeremy Deller, Flying Lotus, Fat Boy Slim, Fat White Family, Laura Marling, Beck, the Avalanches, Andrew Weatherall, Michael Kiwanuka, Kevin Rowland, Super Furry Animals, the Charlatans, Aphex Twin and Lily Allen (to name a few).’

Photos by White Rabbit and Beth Davis.

Richard interviewed for SAVVY ZAAR Radio, Berlin

Richard was interviewed by Tal Lewinsky for Berlin ‘laboratory of thought-forms’ SAVVY Contemporary’s SAVVY ZAAR radio series, as part of their IT GO HAVE TO ADJUST programme, talking about and reading from Man-Eating Typewriter. The show was broadcast on Reboot FM (88.4 FM Berlin and 90.7 FM Potsdam) on Sunday 21st January. Listen to the episode HERE.

From the SAVVY Contemporary website:

‘In this episode the prize-winning author Richard Milward talks about his latest book, Man-Eating Typewriter, about the slang Polari, sects, anarchism and the counterculture of the British 60s. In conversation with Tal Lewinsky. Also an introduction about the novel Asfaltsblomman (The Asphalt Flower) by the author Antti Jalava.’

SAVVY Contemporary

Richard featured on Beyond the Zero End of Year Special Podcast

Back in December Richard was interviewed as part of Beyond the Zero’s mammoth five-part end of year special podcast, talking about his favourite books of 2023, and books he’s looking forward to in 2024. Listen to the episode on Spotify HERE.

Man-Eating Typewriter was also chosen as Ben Lindner’s/Beyond the Zero’s Book of the Year 2023, in the final part of the end of year special. Listen to the episode HERE.