London Writing Workshops

Archive for the ‘Writing News’ Category

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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The Bookseller reports that  Bloomsbury is to launch a new imprint called Bloomsbury Circus. The new  list  will be a mix of debuts and more established names:  ”mostly fiction, unashamedly literary, always fresh and sometimes surprising”. In the first year there will be  nine titles, and after that  they will build up to publishing four books a month.

Alexandra Pringle, Bloomsbury’s editor-in-chief, is quoted as saying: “With fiction, you can’t successfully publish more than four titles a month because, selling into the fiction buyer, you have to have your lead, second lead, dark horse and a crime title. If you do more, you lose the focus. If we are going to grow, we have to do it in an exciting, imaginative way. This is a way we can grow, and continue to offer the service we do.”

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26 is a network of professional writers who care about words (the name 26 stands for the 26 letters of the alphabet).

In 2010, they persuaded London’s Victoria & Albert museum to choose 26 objects from its British Galleries and randomly assigned them to 26 writers. Each person wrote exactly 62 words – 26 in reflection – in response to the object. In 2011, 26  took the idea to the National Library of Wales, the Ulster Museum and the National Museum of Scotland, where writers were let loose on objects as disparate as a medieval illuminated book, a beggar’s badge and a 16th century Scottish guillotine. Now they have produced a book of the results, including contributions from Lucy Caldwell, Gillian Clarke, Alexander McCall Smith, Paul Muldoon, Bernard McLaverty and Maura Dooley.

But the book will only be produced if enough people sign up – in advance –  to buy a copy, because 26 have teamed up with the innovative startup Unbound Books and this is the way Unbound runs things. 26 has 35 days to gather enough support to make the book happen.  Click here to visit 26 Objects on the the Unbound site and buy a piece of the future (and the past).

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Plymouth University’s journal Short FICTION accepts entries to its competition between January 1st and March 31st each year. There is no restriction on theme and stories should not exceed 5000 words. Entry is £10, which allows you to submit 2 stories, as well as entitling you to a free copy of the next issue of Short FICTION. More information from their website:
 

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London-based writers’ development agency Spread the Word is inviting applications from poets and/or prose writers between the ages of 18 and 24 for a mentoring scheme funded by 
The Garrick Charitable Trust, Coutts  and Arts Council England.

They say:  ’You don’t need to be published or have had your work performed. All you need is commitment to writing, the time to attend seven sessions, and the hunger to explore new possibilities. Flight is FREE and places are limited. You need to apply for a place before Monday 30 January 2012.

For more information email susannah@spreadtheword.org.uk or visit www.spreadtheword.org.uk.

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The Bookseller reports that Good Housekeeping has launched a £25,000 competition for budding novelists in association with Orion and agent Luigi Bonomi.  The competition is announced in the magazine’s January issue, which goes on sale today (1st December).

Good Housekeeping is looking for previously unpublished writers in any genre apart from children’s, with first prize a £25,000 advance, help from the Orion editorial team and Bonomi, and the chance to have the winning book published with coverage in the magazine. Judges will include Kate Mosse, Bonomi, Orion fiction publishing director Kate Mills and Good Housekeeping editorial director Lindsay Nicholson.

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Mainstream publishing suddenly seems to have fallen in love with the idea of issuing short stories in digital formats. Orbit Short Fiction, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of the Hatchette Book Group which launched in the US in April, has announced that it will be publishing short stories in the UK from the start of 2012. And last week, Dan Franklin announced that Random House is launching a company-wide short story brand called Story Cuts, which will publish stories by the likes of Ruth Rendell and Julian Barnes.

The Bookseller reports Franklin as saying: “This is the iTunes model, really. It hasn’t ever been applied to books yet . . . ‘ Not so!! In the UK, Etherbooks and Shortfire Press are two digital-only publishers that have been specialising in short fiction for quite some time.

Etherbooks have a free app available from the AppStore, and via that you can download short content by various authors –  including Paul MacCartney, Hilary Mantel and me – at various prices (mostly 69p). Shortfire stories can be read in PDF form or on Kindles, e-readers and mobiles and cost 99p.  Both companies have been active  for some time and can be congratulated on being ahead of the pack.

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One of the books on this year’s Guardian First Book Award shortlist is from a brand new not-for-private-profit publisher, And Other Stories, established in 2010 with funding from the Arts Council. Down the Rabbit Hole, by Juan Pablo Villalobos (pictured left), is a darkly comic novel about Latin-American drug-dealers. The other titles vying for the £10,000 prize are Stephen Kelman’s Pigeon English (Bloomsbury), which was also shortlisted for this year’s Booker; Amy Waldman’s The Submission (William Heinemann), a novel about the tensions arising around the building of a 9/11 memorial; Kashmiri author Mirza Waheed’s The Collaborator (Viking); and – the only non-fiction book to make the shortlist this year - American cancer specialist Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies (Fourth Estate), a biography of the disease. You can read extracts of all the books with introductions by the authors on the Guardian website.

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On Dec 1st at the Free the Word Centre, The Literary Consultancy is hosting a fundraising evening on behalf of The Maya Centre, a charity providing free psychodynamic counselling and group psychotherapy for women in Islington

Novelist, journalist and campaigner Melissa Benn will host an illustrious line-up of writers including Jill Dawson, Margaret Drabble, Helen Simpson and Sarah Waters who will read from their work highlighting a variety of experiences from women’s lives. Tickets include a glass of wine and canapes.

Tickets are £25 but you can donate more if you wish. Click here to book. All proceeds go to the Maya Centre.

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