I’m so excited to reveal that my short story ‘Fishing in the Dump’ has been published in the latest issue of Mslexia magazine in their ‘New Writing’ section. The theme was ‘The Affair.
My story explores a relationship between a teacher and a pupil and the subsequent abuse of power – not only in terms of his role, but through his social class, exploiting the vulnerabilities in the pupil’s background and family life.
Not only is Mslexia one of my favourite writing magazines, but the story was selected for publication by Sarah Dunant, an author I really admire.
This is what she had to say about my short story:
‘In Sarah Pearse’s ‘Fishing in the Dump’ for example, the male teacher’s interest in the schoolgirl protagonist is clearly about the abuse of power. But then we see his vulnerabilities, his sadness and he seems rather lost. I loved that ambiguity in the story; and the way the class differences between the couple are portrayed, for example, by her awareness of his bare wooden staircase and the metal fireplace with the tiles around it.’
It was fascinating to understand what she saw in the story and satisfying that the ambiguity I was striving for within the story really came across.
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