Bloc Party's Kele Okereke writing a book

Singer moving to New York to complete first book, thought to be a collection of erotic short stories

Kele Okereke is writing a book. The Bloc Party frontman has revealed he is moving to America to finish his first tome, possibly an "erotic memoir".

"I'm moving to Manhattan in the next couple of weeks," Okereke told NME. But although the singer recorded most of his solo album, The Boxer, in New York, this time it is wordcounts, not mixing boards, on his mind. "I'm writing a book and I want to go somewhere and finish it," he said.

Okereke has made no formal announcement about a book or a publisher. But last summer the singer said he was working on a collection of short stories, an "erotic memoir detailing my experiences with groupies over the last five years". One of these stories was published last August in the online literary journal Five Dials.

"I'm just finishing a collection of short stories," Okereke told Eye magazine last June. "By the end of next week I want to finish them all so I can start looking at putting them out. I wrote them in 2009 when we were touring. There's just nothing to do when you're on the road all the time, so it's good to do something to engage my mind. We can expect some totally sexually charged material. We can expect some naming and shaming of celebrities as well. It's gonna be hot."

As for the possible re-formation of Bloc Party, who have been on hiatus since late 2009, "I'm not thinking about anything like that right now," Okereke said. "[Bloc Party] had a meeting before Christmas, but I'm just focused on the book at the moment."

Contributor

Sean Michaels

The GuardianTramp

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