Ben Myers

Ben Myers or Benjamin Myers (born 1976, Durham) is an English writer.

Myers' most recent novel, Beastings, was published in 2014. It won the Northern Writers' Award.^[1] Pig Iron (2012) was the first to be published under his full name Benjamin Myers. It was longlisted for 3:AM Magazine.com's 'Novels of the Year'^[2] and runner-up in The Guardian's 'Not The Booker Prize',^[3] in the same year and won the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize.^[4]

In 2014 he won the Society of Author's Tom-Gallon Prize,^[5] for his short story, The Folk Song Singer.

Myers' second novel, Richard: A Novel, was published by Picador in October 2010, and polarised critical opinion.

His first novel The Book of Fuck, a fictionalised account about a hapless music journalist, was published to underground acclaim in 2004 through Wrecking Ball Press. It was published in Italian in 2005.

As a teenager Myers began writing 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,^[6] 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 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^[7] (Bluemoose, 2014)
• Pig Iron^[8] (Bluemoose, 2012)
• Richard^[9] (Picador, 2010)
• The Book of Fuck (Wrecking Ball Press, 2004)

Novella

• Snorri & Frosti^[10] (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)

References

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