Celaen Chapman

Don't you recognise me? he says,

and he says my name, nodding at me, reassuring himself, he says:

It's me, I said I'd come back on Monday

I stare at him, I don't say anything, nothing at all,

and he says: I'm your Dad

and he laughs, and he smiles, again, and I could punch him,

I could

square my fingers inside my un-blistered thumbs and knock the laugh right out of him,

break his nose with my bare knuckles, fracture his jaw, clot his beard with blood, I could.

But no,

I'd kill the ladybird

so

I stand there

From Here Before

Biography

Celaen Chapman was born in Birmingham in 1972 and moved to Scotland in 1993. Her first published short story, Joy, appeared in the 2004 Scotsman and Orange Short Story Award collection, ‘North - New Scottish Writing'. Her second published short story, Excision / As Long as I Can Stay Here, appeared in Cleave: New Writing by Women in Scotland', (Two Ravens Press, 2008) and her third,  ‘Let's Pretend' will be published in Autumn 2008, in ‘Let's Pretend: 38 stories about (in)fidelity' (Freight).  She lives in Glasgow.

Comment

"I'm absolutely delighted to be offered a New Writers Award.

I feel particularly lucky to be offered the award through the Scottish Book Trust because it includes not only the financial assistance from the Scottish Arts Council, which will make the work possible, but also the support of Scottish Book Trust's hugely successful mentoring programme.

As a new writer embarking on a first novel the opportunity to develop my work with the guidance of an experienced mentor will be an invaluable gift."