Newsletter

GREENACRE WRITERS NEWSLETTER December News: Reflections from #diverseauthorday Greenacre Writers organised a #diverseauthorday in September on Twitter. A group of writers and readers got together and began tweeting about diversity, mainly authors and books. #diverseauthorday began trending on Twitter and this continued throughout the day. According to the stats, there were over 5,000 tweets that reached over 3,000,000 million people throughout the world. Click here, to read more about the reflections from the authors involved. Finchley Literary Festival 2016 Finchley Literary Festival 2016 will adopt a very different format. Rather than narrowing it to a few days we will be holding a number of varied literary events in and around Finchley over the course of the summery months. We will get this off to a great start in April with a talk from Rosie Canning ‘Orphans in Literature’ relating to her PhD research. A literary walk will hopefully make the best of the weather on Sunday May 1st. We also expect to be hosting another Poetry and Music Palooza, writing workshops, as well as author events. Keep an eye on the blog and Facebook pages. We will also be emailing you about each event so you don’t miss anything. A Conversation with... Among the many conversations published on the Greenacre Writers website, we have Sunny Singh who likes to rewrite stories in her head, reworking the characters and storylines in ways that she prefers. Lucy Cruickshanks whose novel began life after she sat beside a man on a flight who made his fortune selling women. Katarina Bivald who still hasn't decided whether she prefers books or people. Catriona Ward who writes about uncanny events in her childhood, at a cottage on Dartmoor. Nikesh Shukla who defies the stereotypes of what is expected of authors from the South Asian Diaspora. Vaseem Khan, who'd like to write a novel in the High Arctic. Kathy Rentzenbrink who talks about her emotional writing journey. And Simon Mawer who wishes he'd written Lolita.  Book Club Greenacre Writers has a monthly book club. We read and discuss the book online or at the next writers group. The December book is A Brief History of Seven Killings by Man Booker winner Marlon James. If you want to join in with the GW online book club either comment via Twitter @greenacrewriter or email: greenacrewriters@gmail.com New Books: Vaseem Khan's debut novel The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was published in August 2015 to excellent reviews. It is the first in the Baby Ganesh detective agency series and Vaseem is currently working on books two and three. In this Indian-set mystery, Inspector Chopra inherits an elephant and an unsolved murder on his last day at work. A joyful, charming read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Rachel Joyce. Greenacre Writers tutor and award-winning editor Allen Ashley has a brand new book out called Creeping Crawlers. This is an anthology of science fiction and horror stories centred on insects, worms, spiders… and other things which creep or crawl. The book contains 19 stories; almost 400 pages. Contributing authors include Dennis Etchison, Storm Constantine and John Grant as well as some newer voices. Book Reviews: A lovely book about books and clues about books, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald. A review from Rosie Canning Some non-fiction for a change. Sebitically Speaking by Nana Awere Damoah reviewed by Mumpuni Murniati Carol Sampson reviews recent Tying Down The Lion by Joanna Campbell, who was the winner of the 2015 London Short Story Prize. Local happenings: A local happening from a long time ago. A riveting, moving story about Dorothy Lawrence, who was an English reporter, who secretly posed as a man to become a soldier during World War I from Lindsay Bamfield Competitions: Nottingham Writers' Club Short Story Competition 2016 1st prize: £200; 2nd Prize: £100; 3rd Prize: £50; plus five runners up prizes. The theme of the competition is 'Fire', and is for new and less experienced writers to 'have a go'. Opening date: 1st February; Closing date: 29th February 2016 Mslexia Women's Short Story Competition 2016 1st Prize: £2,000; 2nd Prize: £500; 3rd Prize: £250; three other finalists will receive £100. All winning entries published in Mslexia. Stories can be up to 2,200 words in length and on any subject. Closing date: 14th March 2016. Seasons Greetings advent style from Mezzanotte Publishing. A traditional publishing house. No need to pay for editing and proofreading, cover design or similar services. Is your manuscript in need of a guardian angel? Find out more here. “One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone