MILITANT FACTIONS UPDATE: JANUARY 2024
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In late 2023 I made the decision to withdraw Militant Factions from sale. Hopefully the anthology will be available again at some point. If you purchased Militant Factions, congratulations - it's now a collector's item!
Synopsis
A truck driver has the fright of his life in the woods of Finland. A couple who've never met make a strange and sinister pact. A teenage runaway finds himself the plaything of an older woman. A man seeking oblivion in a small Australian town unexpectedly finds friendship. A seagull takes revenge on a perverted teacher. English football hooligans in Russia discover a terrifying new drug. Post-Brexit Islington falls apart.
Two thirds of the stories in this collection have been published in, on or at anthologies, magazines, and literary websites, and are joined by nine original stories. Set in the US, Australia, Finland and Iceland, plus London, his home for over 30 years, this is Mark Piggott's debut collection. Bleak, humorous, erotic and shocking, the stories are very different but are all, in their own way, examples of a style the author calls "savage whimsy."
Militant Factions also contains some of Mark's creative non-fiction, including some acclaimed travel pieces, brief sketches of his strange life, and a 20,000-word examination of homelessness in London in collaboration with artist Martin Toft. Extracts from Mark's three published novels ("Fire Horses", "Out of Office" and "Kidology") complete the anthology, demonstrating the incredible versatility of this provocative, original writer.
Praise for Ten Thousand Hours (published by Prole Magazine April 2011)
"Ten Thousand Hours was a very striking story; its plot is masterfully conducted; the setting is oppressive but never stagnant, as the story ultimately has an interesting twist."
-The New Yorker
Praise for Hatful of Holloway (first published in the "Down the Angel and Up Holloway" anthology, Pulp Books 2006)
"Hatful of Holloway by Mark Piggott is a helter-skelter, cultural reference loaded pub-crawl around Holloway, with the suicidal son of a Scottish Earl, and his pal, Murf, a loquacious Dubliner with an appetite for a nasty brand of porno mag. This is a mad-cap adventure, deserving of a few readings to fully appreciate its density and tragi-comic heart."
- from The Small Press Review Issue One
Praise for Midnight Hollow (first published in the "Still" anthology, Negative Press, 2015)
"An old man named Edward explores the empty town hall where he used to be a caretaker. He finds his old floor buffer, and gives the place a polish for old times? sake. This piece is a poignant evocation of time passing, and reflecting on what’s been lost in a life. And the ending is a real shock to the system"
-David Hebbelthwaite (Huff Post)
PUBLISHED WORKS (FICTION, POETRY, CREATIVE NON-FICTION)
“Together” / “In memory of Thomas Clarke” (poems)
Enthusiastic Press, London 2020
“Roman Synchysis” (poem) / “The Angel of Stalingrad” (fiction)
Enthusiastic Press, London, 2019
“Out of Office” (novel)
Legend Press, London, 2010
Re-published in paperback and Kindle 2017
“Fire Horses” (novel)
Legend Press, London, 2008
Re-published in Kindle and paperback 2017
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"Picture This" (fiction)
Lucifer Press, Nov 2015
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"Fathers 4 Jaundice" (fiction)
The Literary Commune (issue 8) 2015
"Norfolk and Broads" (fiction)
The Literary Commune (issue 7) 2015
"Waterlow Sunrise" (fiction)
The Literary Commune (issue 5) 2015
“Midnight Hollow” (fiction)
Still anthology
Negative Press, September 2012
“Shadow People” (fiction)
“Never trust a man with egg on his face” (fiction)
Prole Magazine November 2011
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“How to make Archway Tower disappear” (creative non-fiction book)
Ruth Ewan project
“Ten thousand hours” (fiction)
Prole Magazine April 2011
“Eleven Years Later” (creative non-fiction)
Legend Press 2011
“Meat City” (fiction)
Broadcast by 4’33” 2011
“The man who buried himself” (fiction)
Open Wide Magazine 2010
“Beware the Undertoad” (creative non-fiction)
“Fat Lady Sing” (prose poem)
Outside Left Magazine USA 2009
“A problem shared is a problem doubled” (fiction)
Bewilderbliss magazine 2009
“This is the fierce last stand of all I am” (creative non-fiction)
View From Here magazine 2009
“Rip it up and start again” (fiction)
Frank Mask Magazine 2009
“Black Eyed Bride” (fiction)
Outside Left Magazine (US, 2009)
“The man who buried himself” (fiction)
Open Wide Magazine 2009
“The Boab Sentinels” (creative non-fiction)
3:AM Magazine 2008
“Hatful of Holloway” (fiction)
“Down the Angel” (anthology)
Pulp Books, 2006
“Crystallize” (fiction)
Aesthetica Magazine, 2006
“Dreamers, Lovers, Absentees” (fiction)
Buzzwords Magazine 2005
“The Cockroach Clause” (creative non-fiction)
Writers Link Magazine 2001
“Pixelation: enter if you can” (creative non-fiction)
Book with Martin Toft 1999
“Where the Heart Is,” (poem)
Voices Anthology
Penhaligon Press 1996
“Oasis” / “This is the last day of my life” (poems)
FSM magazine
London, 1987