Ben Myers

Ben Myers or Benjamin Myers (born 1976, Durham) is an English writer. His fiction explores landscapes, nature and characters marginalized by society.

His novel Beastings (2014) was published in 2014. Set in remote Cumbria in an unnamed era, it won the Portico Prize For Literature 2015 and the Northern Writers' Award. It was also longlisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize.

Pig Iron (2012) was set in the traveller/gypsy community of the north-east of England and was the first to be published under his full name Benjamin Myers. It won the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize and was longlisted for 3:AM Magazine.com's 'Novels of the Year' and runner-up in The Guardian's 'Not The Booker Prize', in the same year.

In 2014 Myers won the Society of Author's Tom-Gallon Prize, for his short story, The Folk Song Singer.

Myers' second novel, Richard: A Novel (2010) was a fictionalized account of the life of musician Richey Edwards. It was published by Picador in October 2010, and polarised critical opinion.

As a teenager Myers began writing reviews and interviews with bands for British weekly Melody Maker. In 1997 he became their staff writer. As of 2013 he has written about literature, music and the arts for a number of publications including New Statesman, Mojo, The Guardian, NME, New Scientist, Alternative Press, Kerrang!, Plan B, Arena, Bizarre, The Quietus, Vice, Shortlist, Caught by the River, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, 3:AM Magazine, Mineshaft and Time Out. In 2011 he published an article, about his brief time as an intern at News of the World.

Myers has also published several poetry collections and written a number of music biographies which have been widely translated.

He is a founding member of the The Brutalists a literary collective including authors Adelle Stripe and Tony O'Neill, and widely acknowledged as the first literary movement to be launched by social networking sites.

Works

Fiction

• Beastings (Bluemoose, 2014)
• Pig Iron (Bluemoose, 2012)
• Richard (Picador, 2010)
• The Book of Fuck (Wrecking Ball Press, 2004)

Novella

• Snorri & Frosti (Galley Beggar Press / 3:AM Press, 2013)

Poetry

• Heathcliff Adrift (New Writing North, 2014)
• Nowhere Fast (co-written with Tony O'Neill and Adelle Stripe (COI, 2008)
• Spam: Email Inspired Poems (Blackheath, 2008)
• I, Axl: An American Dream (online only, 2008–2009)

Non-fiction / essays

• American Heretics: Rebel Voices In Music (Codex, 2002)

Music biography

• Muse : Inside the Muscle Museum (IMP 2004 and 2007)
• Green Day : American Idiots and the New Punk Explosion (IMP / Disinformation, 2005)
• John Lydon : The Sex Pistols, Pil and Anti-Celebrity (IMP 2005)
• System of a Down : Right Here in Hollywood (IMP / Disinformation, 2006)
• The Clash : Rock Retrospectives (2007, with Ray Lowry)

Anthologies

• The Rue Bella (Rue Bella, 1999–2002)
• The Reater #3 Wrecking Ball Press, 1999
• The Reater #4 Wrecking Ball Press, 2000
• The Edgier Waters: Five Years of 3:AM (Snow Books, 2006)
• The Flash (Social Disease, 2007)
• Spam Poetry Anthology (Vertice 1925, 2007)
• 3:AM: London, New York, Paris (Social Disease, 2007)
• Love Hotel City, Edited by Andrew Stevens (Future Fiction, 2009).
• Caught By The River: An Anthology Of Writing About British Rivers (Cassell, 2009)
• Dwang Issue #1 (Tangerine, 2009)
• Dwang Issue #2 (Tangerine, 2009)
• The Beat Anthology, Edited by Sean McGahey, (Blackheath Books, 2010)

External links

• Myers' website
• Myers' blog
• Ben Myers' Guardian articles and profile
• Captains Of Industry record label.
• Ben Myers' DrownedinSound articles and profile
• 3:AM magazine: Interview with Ben Myers, August 2004
• Caught in the Crossfire: Interview with Ben Myers
• Scarecrow: Interview with Ben Myers
• Ben Myers and The Brutalist poets, article in The Guardian, 2007
• Ben Myers interview with The Guardian