Ingrid Banerjee’s novel has been shortlisted for the Avon x Mushens Entertainment Prize. Find out more about Ingrid below.
Meet Ingrid:
Ingrid is a writer and arts producer from Stoke-on-Trent. Her writing focuses on filling the gaps and frustrations she has long felt exist in crime fiction whilst indulging her obsessions in celebrity and fan culture. Alongside her writing, she produces for theatre and the artist support initiatives for organisations across the UK.
Can you give us a one-line pitch of your book?
House of Olympus looks at how we mourn parasocial relationships, online spaces obsessed with solving true crime, and what happens when these worlds meet following the murder of an influencer in a much obsessed-with content house.
What inspired you to write your novel?
I feel like crime fiction is falling behind other genres in content and form. It is filled with protagonists I cannot relate to and is mostly uncritical of institutions essential to the worlds crime fiction creates, like the police, outside of the ‘bad apple’ narrative. Popular crime is often formulaic, and I wanted to see what happened when you experimented with form and storytelling in non-traditional ways.
Where is your favourite place to write?
Hunched over my laptop on my sofa in a burst of ADHD hyperfocus with my two dogs next to me, wondering when I’ll next give them attention.
What are three essentials you need when writing?
Ritalin
Apps that help me manage myself (for me it is Bear, a notes app to track planning, and Grammarly because I am dyslexic), And someone to swap work with as you go, so you can keep each other sane.
If you were stuck on a desert island what three books would you take with you?
The Art of Cruelty (Maggie Nelson) – essential reading if you want to write about cruelty without being cruel.
A Brief History of Seven Killings (Marlon James)
In the Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado) – both of which I could read endlessly and always find new things.
Find out more about each Avon x Mushens Entertainment shortlisted author for the next five days.
