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Stu Hennigan

@stuhennigan.bsky.social

5.6K followers 2.2K following 23K posts

Writer, poet, editor, musician. Ghost Signs (Bluemoose 2022) Keshed (Ortac Press, 12.02.26) Disappear Here: Bret Easton Ellis' America (Ortac, 2027) #MDANT https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/stu-hennigan https://stuhennigan.substack.com/

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · Aug 4

A pinned thread about my new novel, Keshed, publishing on 12th Feb 2026 with @ortacpress.bsky.social. Pre-orders available now from all the usual bookshops/websites. See thread for some early pre-press takes from some AMAZING writers and links to other stuff.

www.ortacpress.com/product-page...

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 1h

It's a much more propulsive read than you'd imagine, that 😱

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 2h

Ffs told you manic brain is manic 🤣 more later, i got work to do!!!!

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 2h

I have that a lot of other serious-minded creative folk have the same curiosity. (i am a proper po-faced wanker on this, it's about the only thing about myself i take seriously. But there's so much to learn (and give) from sharing like that, esp acrosd art forms n different media

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 2h

Way - totally the opposite, my biggest nerdery about writing is hearing how others go about it cos you never know what pennies might drop that'll help you - that's why like to share this (and others) cos the whole melting pot is fascinating and i generally assume or are able to infer from chats

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 2h

It only feels like that when i tyoe it on my phone 🤣 i'll be on the laptop anyway, it's a couple mins to read. It struck me so much though, i've ended up telling the story to everyone i've spoke to since when a conversation had gone in this direction. It's not i expect everyone to think the same

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 3h

If you don't want any War n Peace length treatises just say so though, i won't be offended 🤣🤣🤣🤣💯💯💯💯💯

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 3h

It'll be an epic msg cos it's a long story and manic brain is manic so as @marzid.bsky.social @hyoyoonkang.bsky.social have discovered my correspondence can be somewhat lengthy but hopefully worth the reading time cos i think you'll find this one really interesting from what we've talked about here

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 3h

I'll DM you on this later cos working now, but i went to an event last year by chance with a writer i'd never heard of, but the way they discussed this part of their creative process was soooo in tune with mine i emailed them afterwards to chat about it

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 3h

My creativity is fuelled by pain, spite and rage and always has been and that comes across in The Work 👌

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 3h

This is what Keshed does for 400 pages; most of my work,tbf, this is why i've said since befoe GS people should reserve judgement on me as a writer till they've seen me.write fiction. Visceral is probs the one word gets apllied to my stuff than any other; and it's not deliberate. It's just

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 4h

Nice one. I'm curious to read but it's not gonna happen any time soon.....I think in these times of existential dread you're right not to watch though!!!!

Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 4h

I can't think of anything worse than being in the middle of the road, damned with faint praise, fuck that. If anyone gets to the end of Keshed and goes, pffff, it was alright, I will be fucking mortified 😬😵 I'll be surprised if anyone does though, whatever their opinion, good or bad, may be.

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 4h

what the next book might be, or be about, which pretty much gives me the license to do what I want. I do anyway, but you know what I mean? Not all of my work (in fact a lot of it) will not be to everyone's taste, but I can live with that. Of all the creative spaces to occupy and move between

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 4h

at the Keshed readings) (c) nothing worse creatively than standing still......

But HOPEFULLY, certainly in terms of books, assuming the next two go down okay, I'm getting to a position where potential pubs etc will see that I've built an audience who have no expectations whatsoever as to

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 4h

And all the other stuff i've done (poetry, shorts, essays, "journalism") and published, there's a hell of a range there and I like that. Cos (a) I love each different from for very different reasons (b) I like pushing it and doing stuff I've not done before (like the performance piece I'll be doing

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 4h

I'd agree with that too, wholeheartedly. Mutate - great word and love this too. It's happened by accident/circumstance rather than design but if you look at what my first three books will be:

GS: social documentary/reportage
Keshed: hefty novel
Disappear Here: cultural histort/lit crit

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 4h

I understand. I don't TRY to, to me it's an organic process that should happen naturally if you pay attention to what you write and read (in my case) - painting/writing so much more intangible in that sense than something like an instrument. Overthinking is the enemy is what you mean, I think, and

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 5h

Who's the novel by, J? Never read it.

Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 5h

War Zone is sooooooooo bleak, jesus. At least in Nil By Mouth there are expolsive moments that, hideous as they are, relieve the suffocating tension of dread. TWZ is like drowning slowly in a puddle of mud. I mean, technically, great, but get something cheerful lined up for after 😬😬😬

Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 5h

To me, the work and the practice are the same thing and the improvement is ongoing as long as the process is. It's hard to "practice" writing (i get what you mean though); i'm obsessive about getting better every day but the timescales that *show* it are much lenthier

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 5h

I talk about that a lot, the graft that folk don't see. Jimi Hendrix may have had a god-given talent but he still had to learn to play E A D chords and put em together just like everyone else.

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 5h

It explains a lot, hen 🤣 i was born in 1980 but raised in the 50's by rock hard women of the oldest-school. Bacwards little gaff. All the pics Des posts of the 50s, 60s, 70s, old lasses with blue rinses and Berkley Reds and headscarves, any of them could be women I grew up around 🖤💪

Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 5h

From the bottom of the moor in my hometown. Can walk there in 5 mims from my mam's house. My happy place. Check out this lightning-struck Louise Borgeois-style tree from the top of the track 😀

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Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 6h

Moar detail 💪 Detail is good

Stu Hennigan @stuhennigan.bsky.social · 6h

I thought Milkman was amazing.