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Archive for the ‘Places to Read New Fiction’ Category

Those who have attended workshops with Kathy Page over the years might like to know that she has a new book of short stories out, Paradise & Elsewhere, described by her publisher as ‘a collection of dark fables at once familiar and entirely strange’. The book – as a physical object – looks and feels beautiful and the writing is as sharp as a knife.

The book has already attracted warm praise from established names like Amy Bloom and Barbara Gowdy. ‘The unforgettable prose is moody, shape-shifting, provocative and always as compelling as a strong light at the end of a road you hesitate to walk down…but will’ (Amy Bloom) and ‘Kathy Page is a massive talent: wise, smart, very funny and very humane’ (Barbara Gowdy). And a fantastic review of the book has just appeared in the Winnipeg Review: ‘the stories in this collection are realistic, feminist, apocalyptic, fairytale, cautionary tale, origin story, mystery. She’s got it all, and she is unapologetic about delivering the goods.’

It’s all true! More information on her Canadian publisher’s website, here Biblioasis

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London Metropolitan Archives house an extraordinary range of documents, images, maps, films and books about London and it’s free to use – worth a visit.

The Archives are  hosting a weekend of creative writing workshops, talks and readings  on Friday 11 & Saturday 12 April 2014. Events include ‘Getting noticed in the children’s book world’, a talk by Nicky Potter, Publicist for Frances Lincoln Children’s Books; ‘Archiving  publishing collections’ with Eric Huntley, Bogle- L’Ouverture Publications, Margaret Busby of  Allison & Busby, Verna Wilkins and Richard Wiltshire, LMA Archivist, and author readings by Meltem Arikan, Catherine Webb, Chris Fowler, Mike Carey

1 Day Ticket £15; 2 Day Ticket £25 (Attend all events except ‘Special’); Family Day Ticket (parents accompanying children pay £5, children under 16 FREE!) To book a ticket on EventBrite click here

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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I have a piece of creative non-fiction in the new edition of Harvard Review and have thus – temporarily – become their UK distributor. This issue is a wonderful collection of essays, stories, poems and images, including work by Anne Fadiman and the 2012 T.S. Eliot-prize winner Sharon Olds. Two pieces have already been picked up by other publications. Jaquelyn Pope’s poem ‘Housebound’ appeared on Poetry Daily on March 25, and Canadian author Judith McCormack’s story ‘Creation Stories’ will be published in the 2014 edition of Best Canadian Short Stories. The editors are very open to receiving more work from writers in the UK.

It’s £9.99 to purchase a copy, including p&p. Remember to include the address for posting.

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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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A new poetry competition has been established to raise funds for flamingofeather, a London-based multimedia arts organisation specialising in Physical Theatre, Dance and Literature.

flamingofeather has strong connections with Brazil, and has created and performed works based on the short stories of Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa. The Competition aims to raise money to develop strands of its work: Abundance, a professional dance company and Sage Dance Company, a community ballet company for people aged 55 and over. Both are directed by Simon Rice, a former member and first soloist with the Royal Ballet.

The Judges  of the Poetry Competition are  Mimi Khalvati  and Peter Daniels. Poems of any length up to 120 lines. First Prize £1,000. Closing date : 15 March 2013

More information at the flamingofeather website.

 
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It’s a good year for Deborah Levy. Not only is her novel Swimming Home on the shortlist for the Man Booker prize, but her  story “Black Vodka” has been shortlisted for the £15,000 BBC International Short Story Prize. Also on the list for the 2012 prize are “The iHole” by Julian Gough, who won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2007, and “Even Pretty Eyes Commit Crimes” by M J Hyland, who was shortlisted last year.

To mark the Olympic year, the award has extended its remit to writers from across the globe, and the shortlist does have an international flavour: “The Goose Father” by Krys Lee (South Korea / United States); “East of the West” by Miroslav Penkov  (born in Bulgaria, now living  in the United States); “In the Basement” by Adam Ross (United States); “Before He Left the Family” by Carrie Tiffany (Australia), and “A Lovely and Terrible” by Chris Wormersley (Australia).  The rest of the shortlist is: “Escape Routes” by Lucy Caldwell; and “Sanctuary” by Henrietta Rose-Innes.

The winning author, to be announced on October 2 live on Front Row, will receive £15,000, the runner-up £2,500 and the eight other shortlisted authors £250 each.

The stories will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 3.30pm from Monday 17th onwards. Each story will become available on the day of broadcast as a free download available for two weeks. Then it will be available as a commercial audiobook via AudioGo. The BBC International Short Story Award 2012 Anthology, published by Comma Press, is available at all good bookshops and the Comma Press store from Monday, as well as in Kindle format.

 
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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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The Bookseller reports that Britain’s first e-Book Festival, held in July in Kidwelly in West Wales, did not attract the numbers hoped for, but the organizers vow to run the event again next year.

At the festival, a £10,000 prize for the best e-book was awarded to the Brixton-based writer and organizer of the Brixton Book Jam, Zelda Rhiando, who won with her self-published novel Caposcripti.  She said: “I’m very happy to win. I’m hoping to use the money to fund a research trip for my next book.” For more information about her book, visit the Caposcripti website. 
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In October 2012, writer Jennifer Matthews of the Munster Literature Centre, Ireland, is launching a new online publication called Long Story Short, which will specialise in short fiction between 4,000 and 9,000 words long.

The Long Story, Short literary journal will publish a short story every month, favouring tales that take their time:  “Longer than flash; fewer strings attached than a novel”, says the website. To submit your story or artwork, please visit the Submissions page of the website.

 
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