A ARBOR

I guess this is more of a comment than a question but 

I did just want to preface this by saying how much I admire your entire body of work to date. 

Like, genuinely. 

Especially some of your earlier work which I guess a lot of other people in this room won’t have seen? Or perhaps aren’t even aware of? 

And sure, the critics might have said that your early work was immature or flawed in some way. But I understood it. 

I always just got the trajectory that you were on, right from the start, how everything you undertook then, every little decision you made – right or wrong! – how all of that is what led us to this moment now, which many in this room, certainly me, rightly consider to be your crowning glory. 

And while the so-called critics would say that your early work was sometimes clumsy, or was somehow too violent, or that there were too many deaths – well I say, to hell with the critics!! 

Because, excuse me, but what is craft without just a little bloodletting? What is art without the occasional casualty? 

If there was just one word I could pick to describe your early work, I would pick incisive. And bold. And unpredictable. 

So I say – and I’m not afraid to say it loudly for the benefit of the cynics right here with us in this very room! – that you are truly a craftsman. At a time when so many of your peers are not. 

Or should that be all of your peers?? 

Oh yes, sure, sure, you over there, laugh away. But I said it! 

I have witnessed the work of your peers at close quarters. It is formulaic. Predictable. Rote. It is never anything but by the book.  

Safe! I’m not interested in safe! I want beauty and ambition and spontaneity! I want work that takes risks. Work that doesn’t always work out. I want an experience which yes, might well end up with us in the gutter, but is always spurting for the stars. 

So – speaking entirely personally – I just wanted to let you know that I myself understand and believe in your work. Truly. Deeply. Fully. At a visceral level. 

And, right now, as the anaesthetic starts to take effect. 

I just want to say. 

No matter what the haters might think – despite all of your so-called “past mistakes” – I truly believe in your ability to remove my appendix successfully here today.  

So it’s not really a question, it’s more of a comment I guess… 

A ARBOR is an author based on the south coast of England, with past publications including Five Dials and The Liminal Review, and recently longlisted for the 2024 Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. They can (occasionally) still be found on the site formerly known as twitter @arbor_a