Audrey Niven is a Scottish writer based in London. When you read her, stop in awe. Stop to applaud the enormous power of carefully chosen words, how it can express the heart of an idea. Start here. In this piece published in Lunate, Audrey writes: “when you take a moment to reflect and somewhere in that moment you realise that this day, like all the others, is a meditation”. Dwell on the breathlessness of monotonous routine, the reflections of the second-person narrator, and once, again, marvel at the ‘enormous power of carefully chosen words to express the heart of an idea’! Next I recommend this piece Commended in BFFA. What an ending! Did you, like me, miss this: “Someone has an orange.” at first reading, and hence read it again?
I love the variety she has to offer, no two pieces are alike, that’s something I highly adore in writers. Consider reading Audrey’s Projective Geometry in Reflex Fiction, the mastery over the way she steers this story, accomplishes so much in so few words: “This is nothing but algebra, a word derived from the Arabic, meaning the meeting of broken parts.” OR, maybe her flash in EllipsisZine: “I carry a mother and a father, wallpaper, the fresh smell of cigarettes on a cold morning, the Danish word tandsmør that translates to ‘tooth butter’ so thick your teeth leave their imprint. I fetch raspberry jam with me wherever I go.” Again, her command over the flash form, and expertise to write a narrative arc using so few words is extraordinary!
In 2021 alone, Audrey has produced an excellent body of work. For a final taste of her writing, read this in Second Chance Lit. Marvel at the opening line that pulls you in: “In the Museum of Lost Chances there are four galleries: Love, Work, Children, Travel.” You may also listen to her fabulous reading for National Flash Fiction Day, 2021.
We wait to read more of her work in the new year and look forward to the novel she is writing!
