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Archive for the ‘News About Past Participants’ Category

I was so pleased when I spotted Cristin Terrill’s debut novel All Our Yesterdays  (Bloomsbury, 2013) on the shelves in Waterstones’ YA section, in Greenwich the other day. Here’s a pic I took on my phone. Cristin took part in the first Novelists’ Club six-month course back in 2009. I remember her incredible dedication to writing 750 words a day, EVERY day. It’s clearly paid off. Congratulations, Cristin!

To read reviews of the book on Goodreads click here. Her Amazon page is here.

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Congratulations to 28-year-old Emma Healey who attended a couple of LWW workshops way back in 2008 and 2009.  Her debut novel was the object of intense interest at the London Bookfair this year, with publishers from all over the world bidding for rights.

Strange Companions is the story of Maud, an elderly woman slipping into dementia while also struggling to find her best friend Elizabeth. As her mind drifts back to the 1940s, Maud leaves notes around the flat to remind her of her quest but struggles to remember what she had for lunch or whether her daughter has been to visit yet. It’s described on the Curtis Brown site as ‘a fast-paced mystery and a moving meditation on memory and identity, told through Maud’s unforgettable voice.’

Until recently, Emma was employed as a web content administrator at UEA, which is where she met her agent Karolina Sutton of Curtis Brown. She’s now given up her job to focus on her writing full-time. Strange Companions is due to be published in the UK in 2014 by Penguin, in the US by HarperCollins and in Canada by Knopf. Translation rights have been sold in five languages … and the bidding continues!

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Congratulations to Nicola Gill who has been awarded second prize in the 2013 Chapter One International Short Story Prize for her story ‘A Walk in the Park’.

Nicola has attended quite a few London Writing Workshop events, most recently November 2012’s day on characterization and dialogue. She is also at work on a novel of which I have high hopes!

For more information about the Chapter One award and to read the judge’s report click here.

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Cristin Terrill, who took part in the first LWW Novelists’ Club in 2010 has her first novel for young adults coming out in 2013. It will be published on Aug 1 in the UK (Bloomsbury)  and in the autumn in the US (Disney-Hyperion).  It’s described as “A brilliantly brain-warping thriller and a love story that leaps back and forth in time – All Our Yesterdays is an amazing first novel, perfect for fans of The Hunger Games.” Click here to pre-order it on Amazon.

Cristin’s email says:  “Yours was the first creative writing class/critique group I was ever a part of, and it was definitely a big confidence builder for me, so thank you!”

Also one of the six participant on the same course was Annemarie Neary. Her novel A Parachute in the Lime Tree came out in the UK and Ireland last year. ‘Tense, edgy, beautifully written. I wouldn’t be surprised if it got nominated for a handful of prizes’  (Books Monthly, UK). Click here to buy Annemarie’s book.

Other people connected to London Writing Workshops have books out this year. Lane Ashfeldt, who talked us through the mysteries of crowd-funding at the seminar ‘Going Digital’, has now brought out her collection of short stories  Saltwater.  ‘Raw and elegant’ (Bookmunch),  ‘A gorgeous collection by a bright talent,’ (writer and poet Nuala Ní Chonchúir). Click here to buy Lane’s book or for the Kindle version, click here.

Also at ‘Going Digital’, Jane Rusbridge, talked about using social media to publicise her second novel Rook, voted Guardian Readers’ Book of the Year, and described by the TLS as: ‘A mesmerising story of family […] which brings to life the shifting Sussex sands and the rich seam of history lying just beneath them’.  Click here to order Rook.

Jaqueline Jacques who attended the event has a novel out from Honno this year: The Colours of Corruption.  ‘A Victorian murder mystery with a strong and interesting central character, a police artist. A nice one’  says the review in The Bookseller. Click here to buy Jacqueline’s book.

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Alexei Sayle, who has taught several writing workshops for London Writing Workshops over the past few years, has gone back to his old love: stand-up comedy – or as Time Out put it: ‘A true legend goes back to his roots.’

Alexei has been on tour in the rest of the UK, now London has a chance to see his first full-length, solo, stand-up show in 16 years with a series of dates at Soho Theatre’s new comedy venue (’20s Berlin meets 50s New York, meets 21st century Soho’).

A rare opportunity to see a comedy legend at work. ‘His comic control remains something rare and wonderful’ says The Times. ‘Still gobby and self-deprecating’ says the Evening Standard.
More information on the SOHO THEATRE WEBSITE.

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Andy Hayes, who attended ‘Writing Short Stories’ in 2011, came up with the idea of gathering abandoned lists, crumpled doodles, binned post-it notes –  scraps of text that would normally be viewed as litter – and using these a prompts for pieces of creative writing. After talking to other members of  writers’ collective 26, the project Throwaway Lines was born.

Now the work has moved into a new, three-dimensional phase. 15 top designers have been brought in to create frames for the scraps that inspired the pieces of writing. The results will be on display from October 29 onwards at the Free the Word Centre in Farringdon.
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Gerry Byrne (who took part in LWW’s weekend workshop on character and dialogue in 2010)  has organized a series of talks in Oxford this autumn. Between the Lines brings poets and psychotherapists together in conversation, interspersed with readings from the poets’ work.

The first talk on Thursday October 11^th features poet, author and translator David Constantine (pictured left) in conversation with child psychotherapist Gerry Byrne.

On Thursday November 8^th, the poet Bernard O’Donoghue will be in conversation with psychoanalyst David Morgan and on  Thursday November 29^th, the poet Jane Draycott talks to  psychoanalyst Caroline Garland. All events: 7.30 – 9.30pm.

Venue: Friends Meeting House, 43 St. Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LW. Cost:  £10 per talk/£25 for the series of 3 events

Tickets available online or by telephone from OxBoffice.co.uk  /  www.oxboffice.co.uk. Telephone:   0845 680 1926 (Mon to Fri 9 – 5pm, Sat 10 – 1pm).

More information coming soon on Bolam and Byrne website: http://www.bolamandbyrne.co.uk/

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Congratulations to Annemarie Neary, who attended the first Novelists’ Club in 2009. Having gathered a slew of honours for her short stories in recent years, including winning the 2011 Columbia Journal fiction prize, she is about to publish her first novel: A Parachute in the Lime Tree.

Synopsis: Easter Tuesday 1941, and German bombers are in the air, about to attack Belfast.  Oskar is an unwilling conscript whose Jewish sweetheart Elsa was forced to flee Berlin for Ireland two years before. Alienated from the Nazi state and from his own family, he has taken the fateful decision to bail out over neutral Ireland in search of her.

The unpredictable Kitty awakes in remote Dunkerin and finds a parachute caught in one of the trees on her land. When she discovers Oskar, injured and foraging for food in her kitchen, he becomes a rare and exciting secret. But Ireland during the Emergency is an uneasy place, and news of the parachute soon spreads…. 

Copies will be available from March 1st. To buy a copy of A Parachute in the Lime Tree directly from the publishers, click here: The History Press 

More information about Annemarie on her website: Annemarie Neary.

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Congratulations to Bren Gosling, who attended the Novelists Club in 2010. His novel, Sweeping up the Village,  has been picked as one of five shortlisted titles for the 2012 Harry Bowling Prize, an award dedicated to novels set in London. The  prize is backed by the publisher Headline, and administered by the literary agency MBA.

Novel synopsis: “At 14 in Kosovo his dreams of becoming a professional basketball player were shattered by war. Fast forward to 2002; Almir is 21, newly arrived in London and working as a Walthamstow street sweeper. One day his broom strikes a pair of discarded women’s sandals, triggering a series of crippling flashbacks which threaten his sanity. When he is moved onto a quieter beat – sweeping up Walthamstow’s village – Almir finds himself attracted to an older man with issues of his own. In the weeks surrounding the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, Almir struggles to rebuild his life. Can he conceal the guilty secret tormenting him? Sweeping up the Village is a novel about lost identity, love and the need to belong.”

To follow the fortunes of Bren’s book, visit his blog: Evolution of my novel. Bren is interested in hearing from literary agents and can be contacted  at: <nicke17@clara.co.uk>.

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Brittle Star is a great little magazine of poetry and short fiction published three times a year – without a penny of subsidy –  by an indefatigable team of editors, among them Louisa Hooper who took part in last year’s Novelists’ Club. They will be launching issue 28 on Wednesday 30 March 2011 at the Barbican Library, Silk St, London, EC2Y 8DS.

There will be readings of poetry and short stories,  refreshments, a chance to meet the editors, and – most importantly – the opportunity to get the latest copy hot off the press. The event is free, but you need to book tickets through the Barbican Library (020 7638 0569) as numbers are limited.