Paradise Block review:

Laura Maw in The White Review, “A chorus of voices, an inventory of lives lived, relics formed from both joy and hardship… Mesmerising.”

Alison Kelly in The TLS, “This debut collection brims with honesty, humanity and a strong sense of the absurd … inventive and energetic.”

Brigid O’Dea in The Irish Times, “The images are lurid, the lives are petty and this reader cannot get enough. A brilliant read.”

Terri-Jane Dow in Mslexia, “Dark and disturbing, Ash’s debut collection weaves the real with the imaginary. Read Paradise Block for a carnivalesque reflection of the world we live in.”

Lydia Bunt in The Arts Desk, “A matrix-like collection that reinvents the short story genre… the uneasy meshing of lives and stories is a reminder there is a strange poetry to co-existence.”

Leah Cross in The F-Word, “Haunting yet often absurd, these interwoven stories lure us into a distorted world where our filter on reality is tinged with magical realism and mythology. These stories get under your skin.”

Paul Spalding-Mulock in The Yorkshire Times, “Ash may write about filth and squalor, but she does so beautifully and I for one consider her to be utterly, insanely magical. This book is a bizarre tour de force and a darkly satisfying joy!”

Bookmunch, “Alice Ash shows such a knack for melding the mad with the mundane that it is hard to believe that this is her debut collection … When some of the more prominent players in the individual stories turn up in another narrative, Ash does a superb job of making those connections real and helping us to see her characters from a whole host of angles … urgent and involving.”

Stories:

Banshee Press, short story, The Little Dog (print)

The Irish Times, short story, Hungry

Open Book Residency, short stories, Strangeways George, Angel Clover & Where the Heart Is, On the Ship & The Garden

3 of Cups Press, short story, Milne and I

Extra Teeth Magazine, Issue 2, short story, The Flea-Trap (print)

Show Me Yours Prize 2019, short story, The Curse of 9BF, longlisted

SFWP Awards Program 2019, judged by Carmen Maria Machado, collection, Paradise Block, longlisted

The Berlin Writing Prize 2019, short story, The Flea-Trap, honourable mention

3:AM, short story, Gros Homard

Hotel, short story, Frog

Peach Mag, short story, Boyfriend

Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize 2019, short story, Eggs, longlisted

Potshot Quarterly, (Issue 21, Dreams) short story, Boats (print)

Spam Zine, (Issue 6, Chips and Cheese) short story, Hungry (print)

The Squawk Back, short story, John’s Bride

Corda Magazine, short story, The Last Day (print)

Dryland Lit, short story, The Trees (print)

Potluck Magazine, short story, The Trees

Leopardskin and Limes, short story, YOU

With Regard to Modernity: Dark, short story, Flies (print)

Home Alone Christmas Special Zine, short story, Home Alone (print)

Galavant Magazine, Issue 3 (Crack), short story, Doctor Sharpe (print)

Mslexia, short fiction and review (print)

Boon Magazine, short story, YOU (print)

Underground Voices, short story, On Bohemia

Bedford Square 6 Anthology, extract, The Crowded Void (print)

Non-fiction:

Granta, Mould

Refinery 29, Hoarding Made Me Feel Safe, Then the World Changed

The TLS, fiction review, Anna Wood’s Yes Yes More More (Indigo, 2021) (print + online)

The TLS, fiction review, Luiza Sauma’s Everything You Ever Wanted (Viking, 2019) (print)

The TLS, fiction review, Ruby Cowling’s This Paradise (Boilerhouse Press, 2019) (print)

Interview:

Edge Hill Short Story Prize Shortlist 

Writers on Research with Joe Bedford

The Yorkshire Times with Paul Spalding-Mulock

Mslexia with Terri-Jane Dow