Fiction
Since 2012, Clare’s fiction has been published in newspapers, journals and magazines including The Sunday Times, Cornish Short Stories, Popshot and Litro. She’s been longlisted for the Bath Short Story Award, the Bristol Short Story Prize, the Mslexia Short Story Competition, Grindstone Literary Prize and won the Word Factory short story apprenticeship. In 2021, she was highly commended in the Masters Review Short Story Award and longlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Prize.
Clare is represented by Laurie Robertson at Peters Fraser + Dunlop.
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Anthology
Clare was commissioned to write a short story for this anthology celebrating Cornwall’s AONB status. ‘Little Lights’ will feature in the collection, scheduled for publication in spring, 2024 by Hermitage Press.
Riptide Journal
‘To Avoid Sinking’ considers loneliness and the ways we try to escape it, through one woman’s struggle with night eating. Published 2022.
Litro magazine
Set in a storm-ravaged Falmouth and a golden New York, ‘Lemon Drop’ explores the feelings of dissatisfaction and jealousy, as a woman navigates her failing relationship. Published in 2021.
Masters Review
Published in 2021, ‘Petrified’ tells the story of a boy who discovers he can walk through walls.
mastersreview.com/new-voices/petrified-by-clare-howdle
Popshot magazine
Published in 2019 Chance issue, Picking Through the Bones considers how loss, when it’s not directly ours, can be strangely enticing.
Find out more about Popshot magazine.
Cornish Short Stories
Cornish Short Stories (History Press, 2018) showcases the best of contemporary Cornish writing. Clare’s story ‘I Run in Graveyards’ garnered praise from critics and reviewers, including Booker-longlisted author Wyl Menmuir who said, “Clare’s is a writing style that stays with you, long after you finish reading.”
Non-fiction
Through her work at Stranger Collective, along with passion projects that fill her spare time, Clare’s non-fiction writing covers everything from the art of analogue to the challenges of the contemporary publishing industry.
When is a Prize Not a Prize? The Tilt, March 2021
Sunny Singh shares her frustrations and hopes about the changes needed in the publishing industry and the challenges faced by writers of colour, every day. Published in The Tilt, this feature is part of collection of essays and fiction calling for change and lifting up voices while sharing the same reflection, what does it mean to belong? Buy a copy of The Tilt.
Are Prizes Worth the Cost? The Lit, March 2020
Drawing on interviews with Republic of Consciousness, Galley Beggar Press and the Goldsmiths Prize, this flagship feature in issue 2 of The Lit considers the nature of prize culture in the contemporary publishing industry and the challenges it presents for the small press. Read the feature.
Does Length Matter? The Lit, November 2019
Is it time to give up on the novel? Are the days of 1,000 page tomes numbered? This flagship feature for the inaugural issue of The Lit explores whether short fiction is perfectly fashioned for today’s fast-paced landscape or if our fixation with form is too fractious by far. Read the feature
The Wonder Stuff: Patty Jenkins Interview, Kodachrome 2017
“I believe storytelling – the grand tradition of storytelling – can be beautiful and inspirational at every level, whether it be the circus, or whether it be the opera, or whether it be a children’s book – it’s the purpose of the story to touch people with a shared, universal experience.” Read the feature.
It’s Good to Talk: Hope Dixon Leach interview, Strike, 2018
“When you’re looking at humans and how we interact, what’s not being said is just as telling, if not more so than the words we actually speak.” Read the feature.
Projects
From reading nights to anthologies, firelit gatherings to digital communities, Clare can’t resist a project. Especially where words are involved.
The Lit Platform
An Arts Council England-funded overhaul of The Literary Platform to become a digital journal and community pushing publishing possibilities, Clare has been at the helm of this project since day one. Working alongside academic and publisher Anna Kiernan and her Stranger Collective team, she’s edited issue 1 of The Lit, set up Lit:Up a mentoring programme for aspiring publishing professionals and helped shape a print anthology showcasing new writing voices. Find out more.
Firelight
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” Part of the League of Strangers event series, Firelight brings together creative minds to share real life stories around flickering flames. From disused quarries to boatyards at sunset, each event is conjures unexpected magic. Find out more.
The Parabola Project
Showcasing, celebrating and inspiring new writing from across the creative spectrum, that grew from local reading night Telltales, The Parabola Project was an tryptic anthology that ran from 2010-2012. Clare edited and published and promoted each issue, raising funds, taking writers to festivals to perform and even talking about the power of micro publishing on Radio 4. Find out more.