Tour of the North: Three North East authors to add to your reading list

Eliza Clark

Eliza Clark is a 26-year-old from Newcastle. By day, she works in social media marketing, including a stint at Newcastle-based women’s creative writing magazine Mslexia. She moved to London to study at Chelsea Art College and is now based in the capital.

In 2018, Eliza received a grant from New Writing North’s Young Writers Talent Fund, which supports writers aged 15-25. Her horror fiction has been published by Tales to Terrify and she’s currently working on a novella. She also co-hosts the You Just Don’t Get It, Do You? podcast where she talks about film and television that squanders its potential with her partner.

Eliza published her first novel, Boy Parts, in 2019. It’s a black comedy based in Newcastle that explores the taboos of sexuality and gender in modern life. The protagonist, Irina, obsessively takes explicit photographs of average-looking men she meets on the streets of Newcastle and persuades to model in a selection of risqué poses. When she is offered the chance to exhibit her work at a fashionable London gallery, Irina falls into a self-destructive spiral that reveals the true extent of her obsessive relationships.

Boy Parts is dark: the publisher describes it as a “pitch-black comedy both shocking and hilarious” while The Guardian said “it will make most readers howl with laughter and/or shut their eyes in horror”. It’s erotic, grubby and sweary. In fact, Eliza’s dedication in the front of the book reads: “For my mother and father. Please don’t read this.”

Eliza’s voice is excitingly fresh and honest. Her exploration of gender, class and sexuality feels extremely current and Boy Parts is a book that captures this moment in time superbly.