Stephen Moles

Stephen Moles is an English writer, musician and actor. His work is noteworthy for its stylistic idiosyncrasies and its commitment to the exploration of tragicomic themes.
Writing
Stephen Moles is primarily a writer of offbeat fiction with absurd, postmodernist and magical-realist tendencies, relying heavily on poetic wordplay for its effect. It is notable for treating metaphorical aspects of the text as if they have distinct physical realities, and transposing the principles of one real life phenomenon into the context of something completely unrelated.
Although his body of work is relatively small, it is of note because it exemplifies Stephen Moles' characteristic device of giving objects metaphysical qualities, giving concepts physical attributes and laughing at the characters as they attempt to navigate a path through them. The following passage from The Fluoxetine Yawn offers a simple example of this:
"The boy was building a wall with his words, cementing syllables between himself and his guest... The wall of words was knee-high, so the albino man had to step over it as he left. The boy smirked at the sight of him raising his leg and pirouetting in the air to avoid smashing his shins on verbs and nouns."
In an article about the popularity of Stephen Moles' Annus Horribilis Project, the Chelmsford Weekly News says his writing career began after winning the paper's poetry competition. He then went on to give regular readings of his poetry in small venues, developing a performance style which was unusual due to its reliance on props - the fact that particular emphasis was placed on holding up cards with poetry on them instead of reading the words aloud to the audience can be seen as an early sign of a desire to confuse the abstract and the physical.
Other Work
Stephen Moles has also explored tragicomic themes in the media of music and film. Most notably, he co-wrote the 2003 short Coelom Cogito, which was screened at the Cambridge Film Festival, and has acted in a few other movies, including Methodworks' bEEP&Blur. He also composes and performs music as Treetops McPhoenix (the DJ mix contributed to Nomad Radio under this moniker is an excellent example of a unique form of tragicomic art since it contains numerous samples related to the life and death of Mark Speight; although intended as a tribute to the tragic TV presenter, it is by turns poignant and absurd).
Selected Bibliography (fiction)
*Mgru, published by Gone Lawn
*The Face on the Kitchen Floor, published by Pif Magazine.
*I Know Where Your Pigeon Is, published by Gemini Magazine.
*To My Widow, published by Red Fez Magazine.
*The Spider, published by Matchbook.
*Repeats, published by Flashshots.
*The Fluoxetine Yawn, published by Why Vandalism?
*The World's First Literary Fade-out Ending, published by Blue Lake Review.
*Backflips, published by Molotov Cocktail.
*Sausages, published by Blink Ink.
Selected Bibliography (poetry)
*Totem Dieting, published by Censored Poets.
*When I'm In A Coma, published by Censored Poets.
*The Hills Went Away, published by United Press.
*A Heart Up Your Sleeve, published by United Press.
*Silence, published by United Press.
*Broadcast Your Horizons, published by United Press.

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