The website of writer and poet Daniel Bennett
‘Dogs keep turning up in this story.’ As you may have noticed, I have a little habit for quotations about dogs. It dates to the early drafts of my novel, when I noted down any dog reference for my background archive. As it turns out, Valero Varesi’s most recent novel is a great dog resource, … Continue reading Valero Varesi
‘“That’s the way human nature is. The majority think only of themselves and invariably follow the strongest in the pack. There are some stray dogs like me and you who can allow themselves the luxury of laughing at this spectacle.” “We always come back to dogs,” Soneri said...’ The Lizard Strategy, Valerie Varesi
'One morning, Manawydan and Pryderi unleashed their dogs and mounted their horses. The dogs ran ahead barking and yelping and sniffing the air. They came to a thicket of tangled brambles and thorns. The dogs picked up a scent and their barks became one song. They ran in amongst the bushes like the many rivulets … Continue reading Rivulets
The walls are freshly painted, bone white gleaming under halogen. They are always being painted, as stains are likely to seep out of nowhere, sometimes overnight, sometimes taking months before they become visible. The building stands on a traffic island to the south of the city, a circular structure which an architect designed to resemble … Continue reading Sick Building
'We define ourselves, the Vegan thought, by our attitude to dogs. Feed the, breed them, eat them, starve them, set them to fight or set them to run, inject them with hormones or radical cancer drugs, send them out to desiccate in the cockpit of a spaceship: we are them.' All The Dogs.
'The dogs kept to the shadows, whimpered softly, then were strangely still. Peter was moved to whisper the line from Psalms that had so moved him, hours before. Deliver my soul from the sword,My darling from the power of the dog. He wondered if that Prayer Book were often used, if he might not snip … Continue reading The Power Of The Dog
It occupied me for many years, it continues to occupy me, for reasons I don't really understand. At the time, I worked in a restaurant, washing dishes and clearing out scraps of boiled meat and vegetables, the steamy waste of the kitchen. After work, I would cycle back through the late city, and it seems … Continue reading Dream of the Heart
'Batu said it was likely that Charley, both her person and her Chevy, were infested with dog ghosts. These ghosts were different from the zombies. Nonhuman ghosts, he said, were the most difficult of all ghosts to dislodge, and dogs were worst of all. There is nothing as persistent, as loyal, as clingy, as a … Continue reading Dog Ghosts
'A train came. It swept by, lighting the sky, burning like Moses' bush. Figures stood out, wrapt in reverie. I saw them, the Kenneallys, merging into a far-off city, but before they went too far I could see other things. It was as though the compartments of the train grew, one by one, cubicle by … Continue reading Marigold Fire
Around the turn of the century, I found myself in the middle of a testing time. My life was essentially chaotic; I snatched at writing in between a series of upheavals and minor disasters. I scribbled fragments in a series of scrappy notebooks; I composed poetry out of snippets clipped from newspapers and magazines, working … Continue reading Small
Absence Club 