Writing Magazine March 2020

WRITERS’ NEWS

94 MARCH 2020 http://www.writers-online.co.uk

FLASHES

UK BOOK MARKET

Mass appeal

Gary Dalkin

Established in 1991,

John Blake Books

is a division of

Bonnier Books UK

and specialises in

publishing popular

biographies and mass-

market non-fiction.

They also publish

children’s titles under

the Dinosaur label,

as well as true crime,

football books, gift

books and humorous titles. The Blake catalogue of

almost 500 titles ranges from a biography of Sir Michael

Parkinson by Charlie Burden to A Statin Nation by Dr

Malcolm Kendrick and Tom Oldfield’s biography of

Arsene Wenger. Check out the catalogue at https://writ.

rs/johnblake to

see if your project

might be a good fit.

Do not send

a complete

manuscript, but

rather make a

pitch consisting

of a cover letter,

synopsis and no

more than three

sample chapters,

sent by email to

[email protected]. If the editorial team is interested

you should hear back within two months. The company

website is currently being redeveloped, but is at https://

johnblakebooks.com and should offer much more

information soon.

Applications for

Jerwood Bursaries

for funding up to

£1,250 are invited

from early-stage

practitioners in all

creative art forms

including writing.

The deadline for

applications is 9

March.

Website: https://

jerwoodarts.org/

opportunities/

jerwood-bursaries/

Entries are invited

for the March

contest from the

Henshaw Short

Story Competition.

Enter short fiction

up to 2,000 wrods

to win prizes of

£200, £100 and £50.

The entry fee is £6.

Website: http://www.

henshawpress.co.uk

Journalist Elizabeth

Wurtzel, the author

of 1994 memoir

Prozac Nation, has

died aged 52.

Weekly local

newspaper The

Basingstoke

Gazette has

appointed its first

female editor in its

140-year history.

Katie French will

also edit The

Andover Advertiser.

A twelve-part TV

adaptation of Sally

Rooney’s Normal

People will be

screened on BBC3

this spring, starring

Daisy Edgar Jones.

‘I was actually

able to write

Neuromancer

because I didn’t

know anything

about computers.

I knew literally

nothing. What I did

was deconstruct

the poetics of the

language of people

who were already

working in the

field.’

Cyberpunk pioneer

William Gibson,

The Guardian

Antimony and Elder Lace Press is a relatively new

publisher of mystery, speculative fiction and graphic

novels, proud to be author-centric and aiming for

quality over quantity.

Novel submissions are closed until July but two

anthologies need stories now.

The first is Omens, about ‘seeing the future or

having warnings of what is to come’, which could be

good or bad but affecting us all. The deadline is 25

July, but submissions will close if enough good stories

are secured early.

The second is To Love Again, exploring ‘the idea of

resurrection and conquering death... and of course,

its aftermath’. The closing date is 25 December.

For both submissions, submit stories, 1,000-7,500

words, in standard format by email: submissions@

aelpress.com

Response time is shortly after the deadline. Payment

is 1¢ per word and a percentage of royalties.

Website: http://aelpress.com

Explore the dark side

The Enfield

Poets Poetry

Competition

is open for

entries.

The

competition,

which has

a £500 first

prize, will

be judged by

Ruth Padel.

Enter original, unpublished poems up to

fifty lines.

There are prizes of £500, £250 and £100.

Enfield Poets are celebrating their

twentieth anniversary in April 2020. The

winners will be awarded their prizes at the

Enfield Poets twentieth Anniversary Literary

Festival on 25 April.

The entry fee is £4 for one poem and

£10 for three. The closing date is 7 March.

Website: https://enfieldpoets.com/

ENFIELD OF

POETRY DREAMS

Enter the arts club

Enter stories up to

2,000 words to win a

first prize of £1,000

in the Scottish Arts

Club Short Story

Competition.

This year the

international

competition has a

new chief judge,

author Andrew

O’Hagan. The first

prize is £1,000. The second is £500 and the third, £250.

The £600 Isabel Lodge Award will be awarded to a story by

an unpublished Scottish writer. These four winners will be

offered a year’s membership of the Scottish Arts Club. The

top twenty stories will be published in the next Scottish Arts

Club anthology.

Enter original, unpublished short stories on any theme, up

to 2,000 words. Stories do not need to have a Scottish setting

or theme.

There is an entry fee of £10 per story.

The closing date is 29 February.

Website: http://www.storyawards.org/shortstoryaward