Tweet

Submissions are now OPEN for the Hot Keys Young Writers Prize, running in conjunction with the Guardian. The prize is aimed at young writers between the ages of 18 and 25, who are passionate about writing for children. The prize has two categories: fiction for readers aged 9-12 or 13-19. Entrants should be unpublished talents new to the literary world.

To be considered, send 4,000 words plus a full plot synopsis; the full manuscript should be available by October. The winners, one for each age category, will be selected by a panel of judges who will consult with school children. Each winner will be given editorial support and the chance to be published by Hot Key Books. The closing date for entries is May 31st. Winners will be announced at the 2013 London Bookfair.

More details on the Hot Keys website.

Tweet

Write Now! is aimed at un-agented, UK-based authors aged 18 and over. The books should be written for children aged between nine and 16 years old.

Editors Rachel Petty and Emma Young came up with the idea for the prize as part of Macmillan’s Innovation from Within programme, which supported the launch of the Bello digital imprint last year.

More information at the Pan Macmillan site.
Tweet

Last year, in association with the de Groot Foundation, the bookshop established a Literary Prize to champion the novella form and to discover new writers. Judges of the 2011 prize included Times literary editor Erica Wagner, novelist Breyten Breytenbach, Darin Strauss and Dennis Loy Johnson. Over 450 novellas were submitted for the prize and the winner was Rosa Rankin-Gee.

This year, the prize will run again and the closing date is 1 September.

Novellas  (17,000 – 35,000 words) on any subject by previously unpublished writers are eligible.

For more details visit their website:The Paris Literary Prize .

Tweet

James Joyce has been in the news recently. N. Quentin Woolf has launched Big Reads, a (free-to-participate) multimedia project designed to tackle ‘one massive book each year’ – beginning with James Joyce’s Ulysses. There will be a monthly podcast, as well as an opportunity for anyone, anywhere to contribute via social media.

Woolf says: “At the end of it all we might just know a little more about the book in question, or we might have more questions than answers – but at least we’ll have read the book.” For more information: email contact@bigreads.co.uk or visit his blog www.nquentinwoolf.com

Also, the Bookseller reports that independent publishers Alma Books are launching a new imprint to make classic titles available via print on demand. Having taken over the Calder Books list in 2007 they already have 300 titles by authors including Raymond Queneau, Dante and F Scott Fitzgerald. Publisher Alessandro Gallenzi promises that the initiative will ‘rediscover more neglected classics and try to bring them to readers inventively and in a new way’.

One hundred of the books are already available via print-on-demand, and Alma aim to have 150 titles available in PoD format by the end of the year. Among the first titles to be published in September –  James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Tweet

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.

Tweet

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>.

Tweet

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.”

Tweet

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).

Tweet