Out now from Chemikal Underground is something that’s a bit of a departure for them: a first audiobook release. The Year of Open Doors is an anthology of new short fiction showcasing writers from and/or writing in Scotland. Edited by Rodge Glass (Writer in Residence at Strathclyde University, and the Somerset Maugham award winning author of novels No Fireworks and Hope for Newborns as well as Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography), it’s a collection which tries to bring together the best new work being from the Northern Regions of the UK. As pointed out by Glass in the introduction to the volume, it’s envisioned as an introduction and a set of open doors for a group of new authors. I have to say, on a personal level I also appreciate the reference to Catherine Carswell’s criminally under-read 1920 novel Open the Door!
The dead tree version of The Year of Open Doors came out on 27th July and was published by independent publisher Cargo, and it makes a fitting pair up for Chemikal Underground, not least due to the featured story “The Donaldson Boy” by Arab Strapper and Chemikal denizen Aidan Moffat. It’s not Chemikal’s first literary encounter, after the label brought together musicians and writers for The Ballads of the Book anthology.
I have to admit that I’ve only dipped into the book so far: Glass’s introduction gives a super overview of the anthology as a whole and the genesis and design of the project; Orange Prize nominee Sophie Cooke’s cynical depiction of corporate “democracy” (“United Solutions”) is quite superb, and Aidan Moffat’s well-observed confession by a prurient young man who undertakes a phone-based vendetta against the local neds and who feels the need to let the local police know what he’s done (“The Boy Donaldson”) is both a lot of fun and a lot of sinister. What I’ve heard so far has been well read (some stories read by the authors), with a great deal of playfulness in some of the stories and some great dramatic turns as befits what is perhaps a more performative setting.
Hopefully, The Year of Open Doors is only the first in a line of audiobook offerings from Chemikal. As the label’s Stewart Henderson Explains:
There’s a frustrated writer in all of us, certainly in me, so the opportunity to work within the literary field seemed very alluring. The music industry’s been having its own wrestling match with the digital world for years now and so has literature, so the only surprising element about this project is why it hasn’t happened before; I see no difference between releasing a Phantom Band album and releasing an audiobook – it’s all art after all. I also think we share an independent spirit with Cargo, a desire to promote exciting new talent.
MP3: Aidan Moffat, “The Donaldson Boy”
Purchase The Year of Open Doors from Chemikal Underground.
