In this interview I’m chatting about my new book The Afterlives of Dr Gachet, as well as giving tips for wannabe writers, life lessons from my own struggles and rejections, and the changing world of writing:
Watch book trailer for my latest novel ‘The Afterlives of Dr Gachet’.
Here’s an interview I did with Doha Heat about writing challenges, historical fiction, controversy, appropriation, and the writing life:
Here I’m introducing my first novel, Under Fishbone Clouds, and also revealing the inspiration for this epic love story.
My writing has featured in two BBC News articles. As a historical novelist, I wrote about book-burning in Chinese history, from the first Emperor through to the Cultural revolution, as part of a really informative piece on Culture Wars on the BBC website. I also wrote about my personal experiences of China’s one-child policy as someone who lived and had children in China.
Read an interview with mes in Publisher’s Weekly. I talk about how I came to live in China, my inspiration and my interest in writing about the places where history meets myth.
In an interview with The Scotsman, I explain how the hardships of my Chinese in-laws inspired my debut novel and discusse the challenges of writing about recent history in a rapidly-changing country.
Here’s an article on Infinite Books that I wrote for New Books Magazine, as well as profile of me and my writing at Flotsam.
I talk about writing the past into the present in this interview with my old college.
I have also been included in the new anthology from Bloodaxe Books, Identity Parade, that presents the best new British and Irish poets from the last 15 years. Identity Parade is the first anthology to comprehensively represent the generation of poets who have emerged since the mid-1990s.
I also wrote a series of poems for Booklight, a special book in which a select group of exciting poets reflect upon dynamic images captured by Scottish photographer Thomas Haywood. Chinese lanterns, bright butterflies, the Glasgow Necropolis, Blackpool lights, and Autralian caves lend themselves to a poetic conversation.
As well as being shortlisted for the Eric Gregory Award by the Society of Authors, my poem, River, was chosen by the Scottish Poetry Library as one of the Best Scottish Poem 2008. The editors noted that “Meekings uses words with such sensual effect they make your skin shiver. The natural world is his sourcebook, allowing him to play with ideas of reality and beyond, as well as to meditate on the beauty of wildlife and the elements.” Read the poem, as well as the author’s notes and editor’s comments, at the Scottish Poetry Library’s website.