London Writing Workshops

Archive for the ‘Writing News’ Category

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Good Housekeeping is looking for previously unpublished writers in any genre apart from children’s, with first prize a £25,000 advance, help from the Orion editorial team and Bonomi, and the chance to have the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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Flash fiction – also known as micro fiction, short short stories or smoke-long fiction (because a story lasts as for long as it takes to smoke a cigarette) – is a form that’s growing in popularity. It exists somewhere between traditional short prose fiction and poetry, combining narrative with economy and intensity.

Writer, editor and creative writing lecturer Calum Kerr has come up with the idea of creating a day in 2012 to celebrate the form. To join the movement you can sign up to the Facebook Page Or follow on Twitter @nationalflashfd

Or visit Calum Kerr’s website for updates.

and its many great creators.

National Flash Fiction Facebook Page

Having publicized the debut novel competition on this site, it’s nice to announce that  independent publisher Route Online have picked a winner – 27-year-old Sophie Coulombeau (pictured) from York. The competition, supported by Arts Council England, was aimed at novelists under 30 living in Yorkshire.

Coulombeau’s book, provisionally titled Rites,  tells the story of a group of four teenagers who make a pact to lose their virginity away from the watchful eyes of parents and priest. Ten years later, they look back on the events and unravel how it all went horribly wrong. Route editor Ian Daley said of the award, ‘We are thrilled to be publishing this book and to be working with Sophie. She’s a great talent, with an exciting future in front of her. The book manages to have that rare combination of being both richly complex and a riveting read.’ The novel will be published in summer 2012.

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Independent booksellers across the country have formed an alliance. On October 1st, with backing from the Guardian newspaper, they are launching their own national loyalty card scheme. Participating bookshops – 114 in total – can be found on the Love Your Indie website.

The other news is that independent booksellers in London have produced a new map showing the location of  87 independent bookshops across the city, including shops selling new, antiquarian, specialist and second-hand titles. The map features a text work from the artist David Batchelor and is available,  free, in bookshops and galleries.  Among the bookshops which have donated money to fund its publication are Housman’s Bookshop in Kings Cross, Woolfson and Tay in Bermondsey and the Atlantis Bookshop in Bloomsbury.

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A reminder that the deadline for the inaugural Mslexia Competition for Best Unpublished Female Novelists is approaching. The judges include literary agent Clare Alexander, author Sarah Waters and broadcaster Jenni Murray. The competition is open to novels in any genre for adults or young adults written by previously unpublished (female) authors. Entries should be the first 5,000 words of the book, which must already have been completed, and must total at least 50,000 words. Closing date: 30 September. Entry fee: £25. First Prize £5,000. See the Mslexia website for more information about how to enter.

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