Hennigan’s language is explosive, Baroque, think Henry Millar meets Jim Cartwright and Violette Leduc with the intelligence of Mark Fisher orchestrating the tune.

Keshed is a wild, lyrical, journey through the labyrinth of Northern English working-class culture. A story of escape and belonging, hope and loss, this is a beautiful, blazing debut, burning from first page right to last.

Another endorsement for Keshed, in two parts below, from the inordiantely talented @susannacrossman.bsky.social. Ngl these are knocking me over, and so many of them too 😱 @ortacpress.bsky.social @beelitmag.bsky.social

We published @lukeathompson.bsky.social's Domadomadoma-Blumblumblum just over a year ago. It's a fascinating and surreal journey through our attempts - real and imagined - at conversation with other species. Order a copy from your bookshop of choice, or from our website: tinyurl.com/4xyf24ck

Bristol! Join @richardjamesfoster.bsky.social and Joshua Jones for some Punk Rock Birdwatching at the brilliant East Bristol Books on Friday 10th October. More details here! Spread the word, this will be fun. www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/eas...

ICYMI. Tix available now for the first Manc area Keshed gig @serenitybookshop.bsky.social, with thanks to David for this ringing endorsement.

Lucky enough to have read an early copy of Stu’s Keshed and it’s stunning - a brilliant and brutal beast of a book that will be one of THE novels of 2026 for those who know their stuff. Stu and Terri are a match made in heaven and I cannot wait for this event!

In news unrelated to shit mental health, tech hassles or grindcore......Tix now available for the @serenitybookshop.bsky.social Keshed gig in Feb, hosted by the force of nature that is Terri White. Get em while you can 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/sto...

Internals from Detour, a photobook we publish next month in partnership with Pendle Press. Combining striking photography and stark memoir, Detour documents Tokyo architect Abele's experience with Bipolar disorder. A meditation on the power of creativity in managing mental health. ortacpress.com

Done 12 hours on this today and finally, FINALLY feel like i'm actually WRITING the fucker. What a buzz. Gonna be a long old haul but with Keshed out next year this won't drop till mid-2027 i don't reckon so i got all the time in the world. The blag is truly afoot. @ortacpress.bsky.social 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

BEYOND delighted to announce that @weare1of100.bsky.social is making a Punk Rock Birdwatching Club teeshirt! You can successfully hide in scrub near a cycle path and not look dodgy! In fact, you’re better dressed than Beau Brummell with this on, phwoar! Details soon, add this in your spotter book.

Join @richardjamesfoster.bsky.social at @krankenhausfest.bsky.social this BH Sunday! Richard is part of an excellent lineup.

Heads up to anyone in Rotterdam tonight. I’m going to be reading from my first book, Flower Factory, at WORM tonight. 19.30 in the foyer, free. worm.org/production/b...

And another here that the UK print media wouldn't touch with a bargepole but was good enough to get a personal rejection from the literary editor of the New Yorker. Thankfully 3 A:M supremo @andrewgallix.bsky.social doesn't flinch at the tough stuff. www.3ammagazine.com/3am/shit-lif...

For a flavour of ny fiction, here's a tiny Christmas ghost story, first published in 2022 in a micropress anthology by Massive Overheads, republishwled online at the legendary 3:AM magazine. www.3ammagazine.com/3am/last-cal...

There's also a BIG list of books here that are linked to the text in one way or another if anyone's interested in trying to figure out what kind of book could possiblty be the bastard offspring of this lot 🤣 uk.bookshop.org/lists/how-to...

"Like reading a Molotov Cocktail." -Rose Ruane, Women's Prize longlisted author of Birding

"What a fucking triumph. Heartbreaking, vicious and so brilliant." - the great Heidi James, author of Wounding, So the Doves and The Sound Mirror

"Keshed is a beautiful, visceral, gut-punch of a novel. Hennigan is one of the country's finest writers on the confluence of capitalism and class." - Angharrad Hampshire, Wallter Scott Prize shortlisted author of The Mare

“Keshed is an incredibly powerful book. Immersive, visceral and compelling. For long stretches of it I was right back in the world of my upbringing, the stink and the glory.” - Mark Bowles, Goldsmiths Prize shortlisted author of All My Precious Madness

"Keshed brilliantly captures the reckless, intoxicated energy of an unforgettable cast of characters. Profane, darkly funny, unflinching in its focus on the wreckage of ordinary lives: Henngian is a voice we need." - Naomi Booth, Edge Hill Readers Choice Winner, author of Raw Content

“I want to use the words 'gritty and brutal’ to describe this phenomenal work but ‘beautiful and intricate’ need to be alongside them to fully do justice to this visceral textual landscape.It’s a book that both takes and gives.Like great art.” - Juno Roche,writer of A Working Class Family Ages Badly

“KESHED is a novel of fierce power, with a voice that rips from the page. It's propelled by desperate yearnings: for feeling, for connection, for release from the tethers of addiction and trauma, of society and the self. It stares down hopelessness, and bursts with defiant desire.” - James Scudamore

"Stu Hennigan is one of my favourite writers. His voice is unmistakable and always compelling. Keshed, in its presentation of class and fatherhood, displays verve, fearlessness and total commitnent to its characters and their world. It's brutal and beautiful." - Wendy Erskine

A pinned thread about my new novel, Keshed, publishing on 12th Feb 2026 with @ortacpress.bsky.social. Pre-orders available now from all the usual bookshops/websites. See thread for some early pre-press takes from some AMAZING writers and links to other stuff. www.ortacpress.com/product-page...

As if that's not exciting enough, the judging panel in this landmark year for the prize consists of the brilliant @susannacrossman.bsky.social, the equally brilliant @marinabenjamin.bsky.social and, er, me.......

The Republic Of Consciousness Prize is undergoing a slight change as it celebrates it's tenth year. #Booksky, get this on your radar if it's not already. therepublicofconsciousness.substack.com/p/new-name-a...

Just been rehearsing with @ratsonrafts.bsky.social for Haldern Pop. Expect a full on review using my book as a narration - @ortacpress.bsky.social

Promo drive starts in Sept. Eyes peeled for events and all manner of other stuff. Pre-orders already available via @ortacpress.bsky.social Waterstones,Blackwells etc. Need as many of these as poss but gonna let you enjoy the summer afore i start pestering 🤣 www.ortacpress.com/product-page...

Thank you @stuhennigan.bsky.social I am now part of the Keshed elite.

Congratulations to Jeff Young, winner of this year’s TLS Ackerley Prize for his highly original and exhilaratingly written memoir ‘Wild Twin’, published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social‬

Our new catalogue. Dropping these around London bookshops this week! Cover design by @pietroga.novaramedia.com Cover art: Brighton Pierrots (1915) by Walter Sickert

In collaboration with Pendle Press for this one, @ortacpress.bsky.social proving once again why I was tipping them as one of the most interesting, innovative and original indies on the scene for aaaages before we started working together. www.ortacpress.com/product-page...

Phenomenal selection & I've only read about half. Good to see Tim O'Brien get a nod, amongst so many others. Have a look & go dig some out - you won't regret it 😎👍

This is one hell of a list. I have a copy of Keshed which I swear glows in the dark and gives off a continuous low rumble. It's at the top of my TBR list although I'm not up to much R at the moment. Will tackle it when I'm compus.

Soft touch for this cos it's gonna be part of a "thing" later in the year but here's some Keshed-adjacent tomes for you to ponder while you wait for the main event. uk.bookshop.org/lists/how-to...

Always hard reading a book by a mate but needn’t have worried here. @stuhennigan.bsky.social’s KESHED is a brilliant and brutal beast of a book which unflinchingly explores themes of class, masculinity, addiction, depression and parenthood. Not an easy read but pretty much an essential one.

No council, or councillor, has the right to "ban" any books. The library service are the only body that makes decisions on stock selection. A councillor, as a member of the public, can *request* books are removed on a title-by-title basis, but the reply should come that under @cilip.bsky.social

Very much enjoyed this collection of stories by @richardjamesfoster.bsky.social I can almost feel the grime from the flower factories and smell the wafts of pungent weed smoke hanging in the air. Recommend

A top afternoon with literary (& publishing) greatness at @leedslitfest.bsky.social and always good to have a quick catch up with @stuhennigan.bsky.social 😎

We’ll be doing our pop-up bookshop thing this coming Saturday at the beautifully refurbished Derby Market Hall - come and say hello, have a natter about books… we’ll have all the good stuff on the sales table!! 😊📚

Cheers to Rick for this. Not often you see your work alongside that of a Nobel laureate 😱😱😱😱😱

New post - upcoming Timothy O'Grady, @jenteposthuma.bsky.social, @stuhennigan.bsky.social, and Jon Fosse(!)

This is always such a lovely thing to see and reflect upon. That someone has decided to buy my book, and decided to tell others. It beats most other feelings hollow.

#IndieBookshopWeek book purchase from the fab Book Case in Hebden Bridge… THE PUNK ROCK BIRDWATCHING CLUB by @richardjamesfoster.bsky.social @ortacpress.bsky.social

Cheers to comrade @robinince.bsky.social for sharing these early thoughts. Tattooing his insides is a wonderful take, to go with my dark soul sister @regretteruane.bsky.social saying "it's like reading a Molotov cocktail." Loving these visceral reactions 🙏🖤 @ortacpress.bsky.social

Just started @stuhennigan.bsky.social ‘s new novel - Christ, it drags you in and won’t let you out - I have briefly come up for air - vivid is not the word, I think it is tattooing my insides

#Keshed has made another friend, the wonderful Jane Claire Bradley 🙏🖤🏳️‍🌈 "Incredible work. Couldn't put it down. It's got real soul and grit, beauty and horror, love and tenderness, momentum and energy [.....]I'm in awe." 💜💜💜💜💜💜

Luckily for Cath and all fellow Fall fanz, there are Fall-like elements in my latest book, both from Monsieur Camus and Salford’s finest rockaboogie band.