Mark Staniforth

Books by Mark Staniforth

Fryupdale

by Mark Staniforth

, 2010.

About Me

I'm a writer from North Yorkshire, England. By day I'm a sports reporter. I've had fiction and poetry published on various sites, including Night Train, Red Fez, Fried Chicken & Coffee and The Dublin Quarterly. I've got a couple of free short story collections up on Smashwords. I'm working on my first novel.

Why do you write?

I've always written. I remember filling exercise books full of stories back in primary school. It's a big daydream, I suppose. I love daydreaming. Anything can inspire me, from a sunset to a neon sign half-fizzed out. I like bold, brash characters with bright stories to tell.

Any favorite authors? Books?

Nothing will ever inspire me more than The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer * Huckleberry Finn. It underpins almost everything I do, if only for its sheer joy of youth and its irresistible urge to seek new horizons. I love American realist fiction. I don't know if it's coincidence, but a lot of it seems to come from Ohio - in particular, Donald Ray Pollock's brilliant, savage Knockemstiff.