Julian Gough (born June 1966) is an Irish musician, novelist, and poet. Initially known as the singer and lyricist for the Galway band Toasted Heretic, he has since established a career as a satirist, novelist, commentator and writer of children's books. Musically, he is best known for his songs "Galway and Los Angeles", "You can Always go Home" and "LSD (isn't what it used to be)"; his fictional works include "The Orphan and the Mob" (the first chapter of his novel Jude: Level 1), which won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2007, and the End Poem that appears at the end of Minecraft.

Career

Gough grew up near Heathrow Airport in London, before moving to Nenagh aged seven.^[1] He was studying English and philosophy at University College Galway in the late 1980s when he and some friends founded Toasted Heretic. The band recorded four albums and had one top-10 hit, "Galway and Los Angeles", in 1992.^[2][3] Gough's first novel, Juno & Juliet, was published in 2001 by Flamingo, almost a decade after Toasted Heretic split up. His second novel, Jude: Level 1, was published in 2007^[4] at Old Street Publishing, shortly after he won the 2007 National Short Story Award for the book's first chapter, titled "The Orphan and the Mob".^[5]

In 2010, Salmon Poetry released Gough's first poetry collection, Free Sex Chocolate, which juxtaposes Gough's more recent forays into poetry with his earlier lyrics written for Toasted Heretic.^[6] He is also the author of several short stories and novellas that satirize global economic policies, including 2003's Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble^[7] and CRASH! How I Lost a Hundred Billion and Found True Love. In 2015, Gough signed a book deal with Picador.^[8]

In November 2011, Gough was invited by Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft, to create a story for the ending of the game, in preparation for its release.^[9] The resulting work, called the End Poem, has been described as both confusing to^[10] and revered by^[11] the Minecraft community. After a psilocybin trip prompted Gough to consider the poem's line "The Universe loves you because you are love" and the love he had received but not accepted for the poem, he wrote an essay on his Substack in December 2022 explaining that he had never signed a contract with either of Minecraft's parent companies, releasing the original version of the poem into the public domain.^[12][13]

Gough writes columns and opinion pieces for various newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian,^[14] Prospect Magazine^[15] and A Public Space.^[16] His novel Jude in London came third in the 2011 Guardian Not The Booker prize^[17] after the author threatened to share pictures of him "wearing only the [Not The Booker trophy] mug" should he win the competition.^[18]

Since 2016, he has been the author of the Rabbit and Bear series of children's books, illustrated by Jim Field.^[19]

Publications

• I Totes Love the Christian Brothers (Self-published)
• Juno & Juliet (Flamingo) ISBN 978-0-00-710810-7
• Jude: Level 1 (Old Street) ISBN 978-1-905847-24-2
• Free Sex Chocolate (Salmon Poetry) ISBN 978-1-907056-36-9
• Jude in London (Old Street) ISBN 978-1-905847-83-9
• CONNECT a novel (Doubleday) ISBN 978-0-385541-33-6
• Trapped in a Stephen King Story: My Spiraling Descent into Madness (Macmillan, forthcoming)
• "End Poem" from Minecraft.