2. You’ve described your work as exploring ‘the narratives of quiet lives, extraordinarily lived’ and ‘marginalised voices of overlooked people and places.’ Where did the seed of Street Sweeper come from, and how did that core vision shape the novel as it developed?
BREN: OK, so it’s a long story! Essentially, I became housebound and unable to walk for two years due to severe CFS/ ME. My previously active world shrank quickly to lying on a mattress and looking out of my front window onto the street and listening to Radio Four all day. I started noticing a street sweeper pass by outside on his beat, regular as clockwork. And I got to wonder what his backstory was. Who was he? Where was he from? What were his dreams and hopes for the future? I never did get to meet him, but this gave me the idea for the protagonist in my novel.
As I recovered – it took another three years altogether, and when well enough, I started doing creative writing courses – I eventually sketched out this idea of a street sweeper fleeing Kosovo ( Kosovo because no one was talking about the war that happened there anymore, it was forgotten) and relocated to London; meeting and falling in love with an older man. I went on a journey of research including interviewing Kosovan immigrants, attending a Pentecostal Church, and shadowing a local street sweeper, before I began to flesh out my character narratives. I set the story largely in gentrifying Walthamstow Village, an area I knew well because I lived there ( I don’t anymore).
3. I like to think that the Book Edit is somewhere the relationship doesn’t end when the editorial work does. Has that rung true for you, and what has that ongoing connection meant at the different stages of bringing Street Sweeper to publication?
BREN: Emily, definitely! You might win competitions, but writing can still feel lonely and is often stalked by thoughts of self-doubt. The Book Edit have been brilliant at keeping in touch, offering support and advice on routes to publication, especially at times when I felt I was getting nowhere. I think choosing to write literary fiction or UPLIT made it harder to place my book. It’s taken a while. Just having a trusted sounding board to turn to when I needed helped me keep a clear vision.
4. The journey from a finished draft to a published novel can be long and disorienting. How did you navigate the process and what was most helpful to you editorially?
BREN: Is a MS ever finished? Writing the beginning was relatively straight forward, the end much trickier, and the scenes in between got reshuffled, rewritten, some deleted and new ones added, so… I’ve lost count of the number of rewrites Street Sweeper has turned in. The upside is the characters in my book feel like they exist as real people and I had an increasing weight of responsibility to facilitate their most honest and raw narratives. Of course, these are fictional characters, but to me they’ve become real people. This novel has taken easily ten years to write, off and on. Through the ups and downs and breaks from the MS, I’ve always made myself continue to write. At first flash fiction ( I did an excellent online course with Fish Publishing) was great to just keep me writing. I even won some prizes, got published. To keep writing regardless is important, it’s a form of religion to me in a way.
Before winning the novel competitions, I’d just about given up with my book. I had written a second novel, but that didn’t get any bites from agents. It’s still on my laptop, but at the moment I can’t face getting stuck into another redraft (yet). I’m too busy with other theatre projects. In 2017/18, I was offered a place on The John Burgess Playwriting Course and grabbed that opportunity to diversify into writing for theatre. I used Street Sweeper to inspire my play Proud which got a producer and had a four-week run in London during 2022. I think if you have recognition by way of competition listings and wins, perhaps that’s a sign for you to continue with a book. But I did take a break for a while. Like I’ve said, the mentorship with Nadine Matheson was brilliant and helped me look afresh at the MS. I don’t think I would have done that if I’d not won The Novel London Literary Prize.
5. You’re an established playwright with work performed at the Arcola and the King’s Head theatres amongst many others. How did your experience of writing for the stage influence the way you wrote fiction?
BREN: My initial forays into writing for theatre were monologues. I soon realised a prose monologue is a very different beast to a theatrical monologue. Scratch nights and festivals proved brilliant testing grounds for my theatre work, and I’ve used both to hone my playwriting skills and experience. I LOVE collaborating with actors and a director on a new script. It’s a process that also involves rewriting. But evolving a new piece this way can be thrilling, especially when a live performance is realised.
6. Publication day is a milestone many writers dream about for years. Now that it’s here, how does the reality of it feel compared to what you imagined, and what’s surprised you most about the road to publication?
BREN: The decision to go indie was scary at first, but the process of working with my publisher Troubador has been a joy. Especially, I have enjoyed collaborating with a designer on my book cover. And I’m really pleased with the style and format of the printed text we’ve chosen.
