RofC Newsletter - Oct 2023
A bumper issue of small press news, featuring: upcoming releases, workshops and opportunities, a special offer, and a new prize.
Hello! My name is Alex, and I’ll be taking over the next couple of newsletters while on a work placement (supported by my AHRC funder) with the RofC.
It’s a big one with lots happening across the small press community, featuring: 3TimesRebel Press, Prototype, 404 Ink, époque, Cassava Republic, Holland House, Deixis, Comma, Confingo, Dead Ink, and Emma Press.
Here, I’ll briefly introduce myself and what I’ve been up to with RofC, but feel free to skip on to the updates below!
Originally from Caithness in the Highlands, I’m based considerably further south as a PhD student down in Cambridge (via Aberdeen and Edinburgh). I’m interested in modern and contemporary literature, especially formally innovative, experimental, or maximalist writing. I’m currently studying the complete works of Ali Smith: looking at all of her novels and short stories, nonfiction, introductions to other writers and artists, and everything in between (there’s a lot!). I also incorporate lesser-known works, such as early satirical plays, the hybrid criticism/fictional Shire, and an almost forgotten adaptation of Antigone for children.
I’m delighted to go beyond my research day job and help out with RofC’s work supporting small presses. We live in a time where there is simply a phenomenal amount of good writing, and this is thanks in no small part to the efforts and risk-taking by small presses. Since September, I’ve been doing a deep dive and discovering the breadth of this literary ecosystem. I’ve also been curating the monthly Book Club for 2024, which is very exciting but also a challenge. Inevitably, it’s only a snapshot from a much larger frame, but I hope this list gives a sense of the diversity, quality, and versatility of writing and presses out there.
For an ending note, I’m going to pinch a quote from a 1995 essay by Ali Smith. Here, she’s talking about feminism and Scottish modernist writers. However, snipped out of context I think this excerpt has a wide ranging resonance for the work of small presses today:
“Sustain the alternative, because the alternative isn't just an alternative, it's been the real issue all along.”
- Alex Calder
JULIAN, A Memoir by Fleur Pierets
Published by 3TimesRebel Press | 14th September 2023
At once devastating and uplifting, Fleur Pierets turns grief into art, in a LGBTQ+ reimagining of Joan Didion’s ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’
What started as a beautiful act of LGBTQ+ protest art quickly turned to tragedy when Belgian artist and activist Fleur Pierets suddenly and unexpectedly lost her wife Julian P. Boom to brain cancer. In 2017, the soulmates were embarking on a special project they had conceived – “Project 22” – so named after the number of countries which had legalised same sex marriage at the time. With an ambitious plan to marry in every country on the list, the pair only managed to cross off New York, Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Paris, before Julian received her devastating diagnosis. Shortly after, she died.
Translated from Flemish into English for the first time by Elisabeth Kahn, Julian also marks the debut nonfiction title from fairtrade indie publisher 3TimesRebel Press.
The Prototype Development Programme is a new scheme offering extended support and career development to eight emerging writers and artists, in partnership with New Writing North, and runs alongside the recently established Prototype Prize.
The programme is open to writers and artists who have not yet had a book published, and are at a formative stage in their careers.
The six-month programme will offer remote learning and personal development through a series of group workshops and feedback sessions, alongside a programme of five seminars led by different pairings of curators, writers, publishers, editors, and literary agents, all carried out online, making them widely accessible.
Further details available here.
404 Ink are open for submissions for their Inklings non-fiction series from the 1st to 31st October 2023. Inklings are big ideas captured in small books. 404 Ink recommend checking out the Inklings titles published so far to get a sense of the series.
TO PITCH AN IDEA, PLEASE EMAIL submissions@404ink.com WITH:
Up to 200 word description of your Inkling idea
150 word biography about you / why you are the person to write about this topic
Some samples of your writing: links or email attachments both fine
The latest title from époque press is published this month!
The Shape of Guilt, the debut novel by Lisa Fransson, is published by époque press on Thursday 12th October.
‘Robert Bunny, a toy bunny rabbit, observes the steady decline of a family he so desperately wants to be a part of.
His is the only voice of reason as he connects the crumbling mind of Deborah to her son Alex, whilst she tries to save him from the very worst of himself.
The Shape of Guilt charts a pattern of secrecy and trauma, one which culminates in a brutal and drastic action. Will Robert Bunny be able to save the ones he loves?’
Georgine Bruce (author of ‘This House of Wounds’): ‘Lisa Fransson writes with compelling sensitivity and black humour about the complicated hauntings of family life. Her debut novel is emotionally complex, disturbing, and beautifully weird. This is literature at its most gorgeous and provocative best.'
Cassava Republic
Being Black in Publishing is a month-long forum of panel sessions of different career paths in publishing; from editorial and digital marketing to design and literary agenting. These insightful panel sessions will be led by an incredible array of publishing professionals from publishing houses all over the globe, including Blackbird Books, Penguin Random House, Walker Books, Narrative Landscape.
And that’s not all. After the program, Cassava Republic is partnering with Masobe Books, Roving Heights, Narrative Landscape and Rasmed to offer a paid three-month internship programme for publishing and book selling enthusiasts based in Nigeria.
We developed this program targeting African and Afro-diasporic individuals who are underrepresented in publishing. Through this program, we hope to bridge the gap between the industry and talent from this community.
The forum is free and open to African and Afro-diasporic individuals from across the world.
Details - including the schedule, speakers, and registration information - can be found on our website.
The Island Prize 2023-2024 For Unpublished African Authors
Holland House Books and Booker-longlisted author Karen Jennings are delighted to announce the third Island Prize to promote new African authors.
The aim is to increase the representation of African voices in fiction, offering a £500 first prize, making sure that all shortlisted manuscripts are read by an agent/s, and the possibility of a publishing contract with Holland House Books.
In its first two years, the prize received over 250 submissions from across the continent, with authors from South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan, and Algeria being shortlisted.
Karen Jennings says: “As African writers, we are often faced with a double dose of challenges. […] Having experienced these challenges first-hand – being told that a novel is ‘too African’ or ‘not African enough’ – I know how important it is that stories from Africa be given a wide variety of platforms so that they can be shared at home and abroad without the need to fit certain moulds…”
See here for further information about the prize and how to submit.
Deixis Press
Deixis Press was founded in 2021 by Angel Belsey. While they lean toward literary fiction, they are passionate about publishing beautifully-crafted genre fiction—as well as work that defies categorization.
At the end of this month Deixis will release the latest novel from the award-winning author Richard Gadz. Part gritty crime thriller, part atmospheric psychological horror story, The Burn Street Haunting is a tightly woven novel about the grip held on us by the past. Sublimely creepy, this masterwork of suspense and surprise carries the reader into a nightmare world where nothing is quite what it seems.
Richard Gadz is the author of gothic thriller The Workshop of Filthy Creation, which won the Best Horror Award in the 2022 New Generation Indie Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Rubery Prize for Fiction. Richard Gadz is also the pen name of Simon Cheshire, the author of the highly acclaimed horror novel Flesh & Blood.
On 24 October Confingo will publish the debut collection of stories by Sonya Moor, The Comet and Other Stories (full details here).
By turns tender, playful, provocative and poignant, these are stories of women ready to disrupt, subvert, reinvent and transcend the boundaries of their worlds. ‘Exacting. Disturbing. Beautiful. A marvel of a collection.’ ALISON MACLEOD
Sonya Moor is a French and British writer of short fiction. Her work is published in literary journals and anthologies, and has been recognised for awards such as the Fish Short Story Prize, Cinnamon Literature Award, Seán O’Faoláin International Short Story Competition and Bridport Short Story Prize.
The book will be launched at the Saul Hay Gallery on 26 October at 7 p.m. Tickets, which are free, can be reserved here.
On 26th Oct, Comma releases latest installment in its Reading the City Series:
The stories collected in this anthology show Prague to be a city of myriad layers and multiple histories. Famous for its untouched architecture and its trapped-in-aspic charm, Prague has lived through numerous traumas over the last century and learned to conceal its scars, perhaps a little too well.
Just as its landmarks should be preserved, so should these hidden histories, and sometimes the best place to preserve them is in stories.
The Dead Ink Bookshop is an offshoot of Dead Ink Books – a neighbourhood bookshop from an independent publisher. In October 2022 we opened the doors to 375 Smithdown Road in Liverpool, a real brick-and-mortar bookshop.
All the books we stock are from independent publishers, our stationery is from small producers and even our coffee is sourced from a local roaster. Our website intends to do the exact same thing online. Everything you buy here is posted out from our little shop in Liverpool.
Preorders now open for January 2024 release of Blood Red by Gabriela Ponce (trans. Sarah Booker). More information available here.
Updates from Emma Press
Malachi McIntosh's debut collection of short stories, Parable, Fables, Nightmares was launched at the Birmingham Literature Festival on 5 October.
Filled with tales of tragedy, love, hope and frustration, these surreal and satirical accounts explore the many perils of contemporary life.
Indie press offer ~ 'a bold slice of contemporary Indonesian literature':
Pre-order Reda Gaudiamo's About Us - a short story collection offering intimate snapshots of domestic relationships - and claim a free copy of Vivarium, How The First Sparks Became Visible, or The Secret Box from our Women in Translation bundle.
Just type RoC and the title you'd prefer in your 'order notes' and we'll post out both books to you when About Us is released on 16 November together with a copy of our latest zine.
The autumn edition of 'Get Inspired to Write', a series of online workshops & masterclasses aimed at writers, translators, critical readers and anyone looking to inject some play into their creative practice launched earlier this month with Jan Carson and Vanessa Onwuemezi delivering masterclasses on the short story form.
November features a 2 hour masterclass on Life Writing and a workshop with Lawrence Schimel on writing and translating poetry for younger readers - and getting it published!
Tickets £15 (recording and materials available for one month on demand) free spaces available, more info here.
See you in the next one, Alex.