Meet Jay King

Please tell us about your current line of work and how you got started in it.

I'm working on the Solomou 30 series, which will be a five-part crime series based in an apartment block in Exarcheia, an activist neighbourhood in central Athens (Greece) that has a lot of foreigners living in it. It was inspired by an experience in our block where a confidence trickster moved in - no bodies in real life fortunately, but the guy had stolen a good few thousand from his neighbours besides causing all kinds of other chaos before he got away. I was inspired by the fact that it took the experience of uniting to combat this totally unscrupulous person to bring the community together. In the books, the residents have a more exciting skill set than us, and come together to form an underground detective agency...

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On the translation front, I've just submitted the English text of Makis Malafekas' Greek neo-noir novel Deep Fake to Foundry Editions for publication in the UK next year. I've got various other translated crime novel pitches out or looking for homes in French and Arabic. I'm also trying to find a home for an interesting Iranian novel by Roya Shakibai based on her experiences working for an international aid organisation in Afghanistan - it's called I Wanted to Say Look at the Blood, and my translation of a sample of it was recently longlisted for the John Dryden Award. Her perspective and voice are really unusual, so I'm going all out to try and get her heard in English.

Do you have any mentors or sources of inspiration?

Hmm, nobody specific, I'm inspired by a mishmash of life, other people's work and the need to earn a living - more important for me in terms of the people around me is to have someone/where I can go when things get bumpy - like the Society of Authors or other peer groups offering friendly advice and support. And to feel I can contribute by offering the same where I can.

What parts of your work do you enjoy most? Why?‍

Absorption is my favourite part of the work - disappearing into it. It's energising and fulfilling. And it’s very satisfying to feel productive and see the result of the time you spent.

What are your favorite things to do when you have free time?

Playing 3-course bouzouki (rebetiko, which quite often gets called the Greek blues), being in nature. Exercising with no particular goal in mind. Audiobooks. Agitating against nastiness with the Green Party. Husband-bothering (my own only).

Are there any dream projects you'd like to pursue?

I'd love to work more on theatre projects. I went to a drama school that taught devised theatre, where you compose as an ensemble moving together in a room rather than as an individual sitting at a desk or a cafe table - so obviously it's more difficult/expensive to organise than writing a novel. But I think theatre is the ideal format for exploring stories with a transnational, multi-lingual set of characters, so I've always got half an eye on how I can make this possible.

How can we learn more about you? ‍

I've got a website at https://www.jayking.art/, and I'm also currently on Bluesky with @jay-king-art.bsky.social  as my handle.