Next Sunday at 19:45 the first of three short stories from JELLYFISH by Janice Galloway will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Following the success of her 'anti-memoirs' THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME and ALL MADE UP, the novelist, poet and frequent collaborator with artists and musicians, returns to short fiction with JELLYFISH, published in June by Freight Books. The title story is an exquisite tale set between childhood and independence, and is going to be read on Sunday by the author herself.

Listen to the stories on iPlayer here.

In this sparkling and powerful new collection, Janice Galloway takes on David Lodge's assertion – ‘Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children; life's the other way round’ and scent-marks her multi-layered fiction with what she believes to be the greater truth. JELLYFISH contains razor-sharp tales of two of the most powerful human experiences from one of our most acclaimed authors. The collection has been longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize 2015.

Praise for JELLYFISH:

‘Foreboding floats through the fourteen tales … Reminiscent of Sylvia Plath in its black humour and visceral imagery … These deft short stories show why publishers should have more faith in the form … Exquisite similes and witty metaphors rise up and sting the senses like the eponymous jellyfish. With this electrifying volume Galloway proves herself a truly powerful writer who deserves to be much better known.’ – The Independent

‘An exquisite short-story collection … Previously very much a city writer, here the natural world encroaches on Galloway’s work from the title onwards, both indifferent and essential.’ – The Guardian

'This is a short story collection to savour, by one of the foremost Scottish writers of her generation.' – Irish Times

Janice Galloway’s new collection of short stories, JELLYFISH, will be published in the UK next week, on Monday 22 June, by Freight Books. This weekend, Janice will be starring on Open Book on BBC Radio 4, interviewed by Mariella Frostrup about JELLYFISH and her other work (Sunday at 4pm).

Janice will also be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on the 20th of August this summer, talking about Sex, Life and Parenthood in relation to JELLYFISH. The talk will be chaired by Jackie McGlone.

JELLYFISH is a collection of twelve short stories which shows Janice - a master of the form - at her absolute best, and there are many powerful new ideas here. Confident and true, the rich themes - of parenthood, relationships, sexuality and madness - circulate and cohere around Janice's clever, absorbing writing. The first half of the collection digs deep into women's lives; later on, ‘Looking at You' and 'Opera' both startle and endure. This first publication will be a limited edition run of HB copies, before it is published in paperback next year, and the collection has already been longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize 2015.

Janice Galloway was born in Ayrshire in 1955. She is the author of three novels, two collections of short stories and, most recently, two memoirs. She has won and been shortlisted for numerous literary prizes, including the Whitbread First Novel and Scottish Book of the Year. She has been writer in residence to four Scottish prisons, Research Fellow to the British Library, resident at Jura Distillery, and was recently the first Fellow in Residence at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Her radio work includes two series for BBC (LIFE AS A MAN and IMAGINED LIVES) and programmes on music and musicians. She also works extensively with musicians, visual artists and typographers.

Praise for Janice Galloway:

‘She provides sentences blazing with light, a gorgeous draft of terror.’ – The Observer

‘Galloway catches detail perfectly and can create vivid impressions in a word or two.’ – The Times

‘Unsentimental, caustic, brilliantly observed ... The trick of her writing is how easy she makes it seem, how artfully she restructures and transforms the ordinary.’ – Time Out