Sophie Parkes is the author of ‘Mother of God’ in our folkloric anthology Oaths and Offerings.
Sophie is a writer of novels, short stories, music journalism, and life writing. She gained her PhD in Creative Writing and Folklore in 2024 from Sheffield Hallam University, where she is also a researcher in folklore. She teaches creative writing at Leeds Arts University. Her first novel, Out of Human Sight (Northodox, 2023) was shortlisted for the NorthBound Book Award.
In this blog, Sophie talks to us about the significance of everyday folk culture and how this fed into her story, tips for short story writing, and her favourite Northern bookshop.
How did you approach the theme of folklore through your story?
Sophie Parkes: Folklore is often framed as fantastical, creepy, and macabre. All of that is wonderful, and certainly has its place, but I’m also interested in the everyday-ness of folklore: the unthinking traditions we perform, or the knowledge we’ve gained from who-knows-where that governs how we do things. Folklorists often give examples of this as the ways in which we hang the toilet roll (the end away from you, if you want to know), or the order we display our cutlery in the drawer (forks, spoons, then knives).
So ‘Mother of God’ grew out of this everydayness: something that takes place on annual basis, that children will have grown up with, that is deeply rooted in the collective calendar. But I also wanted to explore who is included in and excluded by folk culture. We’d like to think that folk culture, being ‘of the people’, is wholly inclusive, but that’s not always the case.
Were there particular folk histories, traditions or stories you drew from?
‘Mother of God’ was borne out of my interest in the calendar customs that attract tourists and how this might make the resident population feel. I was especially thinking of those places that are home to calendar customs, but where working class people might find it difficult to buy or rent homes, such is the demand for second or holiday homes. What then for folk culture? The relationship between folklore and established religion is also enduringly fascinating, and I wanted to dip in a toe or two there, too.
What advice would you share with budding short story writers?
Short stories are seriously difficult little blighters, aren’t they? I never feel I know what the hell I’m doing with a short story, so my advice is simply to read read read. Read until you feel you can write. And concentrate on the ending: short stories that peter out or stop dead are maddening.
Could you tell us about your favourite Northern bookshop?
Read in Holmfirth, one hundred per cent. It may be small, but it’s immaculately curated that I want to buy everything in it.
Finally, do you have a favourite piece of folklore you’d like to share?
When I was researching my novel, Out of Human Sight, I found a gorgeous piece of folklore that I tried to shoehorn in, but it was glaringly obvious it was shoehorned-in so it met the cutting room floor: in areas where the wool industries proliferated, many people left out their urine for the workers to collect and clean the cloth. Methodists and people with ginger hair were believed to produce more effective urine and were paid more for their donations.
You can find Sophie’s website here, and read her tale in our upcoming anthology, out 4th June.
