Saturday, June 24, 2017

Lowlife: Short Story Collection Published


Lowlife: short stories
by Michael Botur
ISBN-13: 978-1547018598

A Whangarei writer says ‘working class’ experiences he has had throughout his 20s and early 30s as part of Generation Rent inspired his latest short story collection.

Michael Botur releases Lowlife: short stories in Whangarei on July 12. The book is Botur’s fourth short story collection, with previous collections garnering strong reviews.

Lowlife has a thoroughly Northland flavour to it, featuring a unique “gang patch” cover referencing the ‘dirty realism’ style and content of the book.

“The Lowlife stories are about people stuck in conflict trying to work their way out of it, trying to make their lives better,” Botur says.

“My characters often share frustrations with me as we both try to make our lives better in a part of the country where there’s not much money circulating. Buying a cheap house in Tikipunga and trying to escape Generation Rent has been a particularly big influence on me. That’s a class conflict thing, and class conflict is a big theme in the stories.”

Michael Botur works as a freelance journalist for Northland DHB and as a content writer of blogs and property and parenting columns. His recent publications include poetry in Manifesto Aotearoa: 101 Political Poems published by Otago University Press and flash fiction selected for Bonsai: The Big Book of Small Stories by Canterbury University Press. Botur is author of previous short story collections Spitshine (2016), Mean (2013) and Hot Bible! (2012). Awards include Whangarei Libraries Flash Fiction Comp 2015 first and second place winner, Guest Fiction Writer for Tākahe magazine, third place in the Miles Hughes Award 2014, second in 2009’s Kiwi Short Story Competition and winner of Her magazine’s Short Story Competition 2008.

Lowlife is available from Amazon.com (http://amzn.to/2tmVShD) and www.NZShortStories.com
250pp ISBN-13: 978-1547018598 RRP $24.99

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