Works by
Royston Tester
(Writer)

Novels

• Heather's Masterpiece (In progress, with agent)

Short Stories

• You Turn Your Back (In progress, with editor)

• Summat Else (2004)
  Summat Else, Royston Tester's debut collection of short fiction, sketches the life and times of Enoch Jones, too clever and too queer to be a working-class lad from Birmingham, the polluted heart of England's `Black Country'. In these linked stories, Tester gives us unforgettable glimpses of Enoch's youth, introducing him first as the adopted son of a family of `caravan runts', then as a juvenile delinquent in an animal kingdom of doddering majors and simpering pigeon-fanciers, all blind to their own grotesquerie.
  
  Enoch escapes, `eighteen and out of England', to the brutality of Spain during Franco's final months, where he turns tricks in hostels while dodging riots, gunfire and marriage. Eventually, the story circles back on itself, and Tester burrows into the murk of Enoch's genesis: an industrial landscape populated with teenage factory girls, holy joes, virgins in ditches, and, ringing throughout, disembodied voices `like someone reading the Lord's Prayer backward all the time, or shouting directions in Latin from inside a bowl of porridge.'
  
  Summat else indeed.

Other Short Fiction

• After Queen Zenobia's Telephone (2007)
  The Antigonish Review, Winter. 147. 91-97

• An Island in the South Pacific (2006)
  Grain Magazine, 34:1. 64-71

• Pouffe (2005)
  Blithe House Quarterly, U.S. Online Literary Journal, Spring. 9:2

• Now Showing (2004)
  Pagitica, 2:4. 11-21

• Travestis (2004)
  Lodestar, U.S. Online Literary Journal, July

• You Dress Up; You Dance (2004) -- Runner-Up 2004 Annual International Literary Contest
  The Antigonish Review, Fall

• Let Us Eat and Drink (2003) -- Submitted by NQ for National Magazine Award 2004 – Fiction Category
  The New Quarterly, Special Issue – Bad Men Who Love Jesus, Spring. 86. 122-137

• Once Upon a Prissy (2003)
  Prism International, Fall. 42:1 64-72

• Turn Your Back (2003) -- Submitted to Journey Prize Anthology Competition 2004
  Descant, Spring. 120. 34:1. 155-62

• Unmentionable (2003)
  The Antigonish Review, Winter. 131. 29-39

• Enoch Jones and the Bombmaker (2002) -- Finalist New Century Writer Awards (U.S.); Shortlisted for 2002 Prism International Short Story Competition; Nominated for e2ink-2 Best of the Online Journals Anthology 2003

  • Pagitica, 2:2. 60-75

  • Blithe House Quarterly, U.S. Online Literary Journal
    Feature story. Summer. 6:3

• Who Knows Where (unabridged) (2002)
  The New Quarterly, Fall. 84. 152-168

• Who Knows Where (abridged) (2001)
  Queen Street Quarterly, Winter. 5:3. 21-32

• Disguised by Night (1999)
  Church-Wellesley Review, Fall

• Dog in a Red Waistcoat (1999)
  Queen Street Quarterly, Winter/Spring. 2:4 &3:1. 9-13

• Summat Else (1999)
  The Malahat Review, Fall. 128. 76-84

• Redwater (1998) -- Winner Chapters Prize
  B&A New Writing. Annual Short Story Contest, Summer

• Notfall (1997)
  Prism International, Fall. 36:1. 26-36

• Lessons in Space (1996) -- Submitted for Journey Prize Competition 1997
  Quarry Magazine,44:2. 111-122

• Mrs. Shooter, Burning (1996) -- Finalist Annual Short Story Contest
  Prism International

• Crooked Hollow (1995) -- Winner 1996 Fiction Prize, Annual Literary Awards
  Hamilton and Region Arts Council
  B&A New Writing

• Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men About More-or-Less Gay Life (2005), Wendell Ricketts, ed.
  See Heaven

• Quickies 3 (2003), James Johnstone, ed.
  See Service

• Intersections: Fiction and Poetry from The Banff Centre for the Arts (2000), Edna Alford and Rhea Tregebov, eds.
  See First Steps First

• Rip Rap: Fiction and Poetry from the Banff Centre for the Arts (1999) , Don McKay, Edna Alford, Rachel Wyatt, and Rhea Tregebov, eds.
  See Crooked Hollow

• Quickies 2: Short Short Fiction on Gay Male Desire (1999), James Johnstone, ed.
  See Naked Night

• The Golden Horseshoe Anthology (1992)
  See First Appointment.  Story used in Walking Alone – a multimedia journey – CD-ROM for College Literature courses, Canada, 2001, Pearson Educational Publishing.

• The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name: Essays on Queer Sexuality and Desire (2003), Greg Wharton, ed. -- Finalist 2003 Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction Anthology
  See (very) Trying Monogamy

• Life, Sex and Impotence in the 90's (1995)
  Globe and Mail, Facts and Arguments. August 16, Toronto, Ontario

• Qingdao: Wind in its Sails (July 1, 2008 release)
  In mandarin, the name of this sailing city can sound like "Please come to…" as well as "green island"--- which is a fitting ambiguity---and very much an invitation: Qingdao, Qingdao. Such a beautiful resort on China's NE coast, yet the spot is little known beyond the mainland and its Yellow Sea reach: Korea, Japan---and is referred to as "Little Switzerland" or "Bavaria" for its unusual, European architecture, mountain scenery, beaches and emerald waters. Greater Qingdao is also home to some remarkable ancient treasures and sites---over 6,000 years old---as well as hot springs, ski-ing, and golf, easily accessible from the urban downtown. China's seafront city---a choice location for the 2008 Olympic Sailing events---has become an object of global attention. Its twenty-first century building designs and world-class facilities at the International Sailing Centre, for example, carry a stunning---and highly "green"---appeal. In town, there is a significant German cultural legacy to savour, prize-winning beaches and bays, and a forty kilometre seaside boardwalk. The Shandong Lo cuisine is to die for, and economically priced. Not to mention the Tsingtao beer---with an annual festival to accompany it. Why would anyone not take a break to regenerate here? Visit China and find Europe into the bargain? Qingdao is an unbelievably inspiring haven on the Shandong Peninsula---nestling beneath one of the Middle Kingdom's holiest peaks: Mount Laoshan. It will leave you with a craving to return…memories of red roofs, Taoist temples…and those yachts at full sail in Fushan Bay.

• Qingdao ('China Through the Looking Glass' Series) (May 2008 release)