Congratulations!
The past few weeks have been marvellous ones for writers I know personally and I want to congratulate (in alphabetical order):
Vanessa Gebbie - who has beaten literally thousands of writers to be one of five finalists in the Telegraph Novel Competition
Bunny Goodjohn - whose novel, Sticklebacks and Snowglobes, has been picked up by Australian publishers Scribe to complement her American publication by Permanent Press
Susan Hoivik - whose wonderful book, Born In Nepal, will be published there by Vajra Press under the auspice of Eco-Himal. Susan has helped so many books into life, it's about time she was recognised as the superb writer she is in her own right, so these congratulations are particularly heartfelt, coming as they do from somebody who has benefited from her intelligence and insight over several decades
Roger Norman Morris - whose A Gentle Axe has been reviewed in The New York Times Book Review section (regular readers will know I beat the NYT to it).
And yes, they really are congratulations.
Let's be honest, it can be difficult to watch people you know getting the things you dream of but haven't achieved, but on the other hand, I remember something Steve Ovett once said to a group of young runners, 'It doesn't really matter if you win or lose today. But it matters a lot that you're out there, running. Because one day it will be your day ...'
I trust the man with the gold medals on this one. I'm running with the medal winners and one day it will be my day.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Choosing material for a reading
It's not something that gets taught anywhere, as far as I can gather, and yet for most writers a reading is both a terrifying and an important experience. Out there in the audience are friends and family, but also people who may well have influence - editors, publishers, agents, arts body staffers and so on, let alone booksellers if you're holding your reading in a bookshop. To do well in front of such a gathering is important, but nobody seems to tell you how to go about it.
My own experience is varied. When you're reading a complete work; a flash or short story, you can relax into the process and at least know the narrative should be coherent to the listener - all you need to do is focus on your delivery and body language. But when you're reading an excerpt from a longer work you have to achieve much more. Here's what I've learned:
It's not something that gets taught anywhere, as far as I can gather, and yet for most writers a reading is both a terrifying and an important experience. Out there in the audience are friends and family, but also people who may well have influence - editors, publishers, agents, arts body staffers and so on, let alone booksellers if you're holding your reading in a bookshop. To do well in front of such a gathering is important, but nobody seems to tell you how to go about it.
My own experience is varied. When you're reading a complete work; a flash or short story, you can relax into the process and at least know the narrative should be coherent to the listener - all you need to do is focus on your delivery and body language. But when you're reading an excerpt from a longer work you have to achieve much more. Here's what I've learned:
- It's best to leave the audience wanting more - cut every word possible from your excerpt to make it sing - the audience will NOT complain that you didn't read exactly what was in the book!
- Setting the context is as important as reading the section - do not assume you can improvise this bit; write down your introduction to the story and what the listener needs to know and either read it or learn it by heart.
- Read it aloud until you are sick of it - it always takes longer to read a piece than you think. The more you relax into it, the longer it takes because you're confident about using pauses and gestures to bolster your text. Read, cut, read, cut. Your audience will thank you.
- You don't have to be an actor but you do have to prepare. It's an insult to the audience if you can't find your place in the book or turn up with a dozen messy pages. It's offensive if you say you didn't bother to prepare for the reading you thought you'd 'just turn up and see how it goes' - how would you feel if a waiter said he hadn't bothered to check the menu, you could just order and random and he'd go and 'see if the chef felt like cooking'? If you really want to improvise, take a hint from stand-up comics and rehearse your ad-libs! Spontaneity is very hard to pull off and takes as much rehearsal as preparing a piece to read, so you might as well prepare one anyway.
- It's painful if the reader loses their way, but most listeners will be rooting for you to do well if that happens - don't panic and remember we are all human, most of us listening are also writers and we have all shared your experience - take a deep breath and start again.
- As for practical hints - don't try to read from the book unless your eyesight is brilliant and you are very confident; the layout of the printed page is inimical to good performance - that's why actors work from scripts not galleys. Use a BIG CLEAR font. If you need to, give yourself instructions in the text (breathe) is a good one, as is (slow down) - and put them in red ink or highlight them. I love readings when I'm doing them, but my hands shake like stink - to get round this I print my excerpt and paste it into a big heavy book. The advantages are threefold: 1, the book weighs down my hands so their shaking doesn't show; 2, I'm familiar with the book and the layout I use, so my confidence is boosted by remembering how many other nice readings I've taken part in with this book in my hands and 3, if I ever get asked for an encore (it's happened twice now), all my other readings are pasted into the book so I can choose one and launch right in.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
The Dilemma
Here's the cover of Bravado - isn't it stylish? I think this illustration sums up all that the Bravado Collective, in New Zealand, wish to express and achieve in their journal.
And in this edition they published Galanthus, one of the last of the Green Thought in an Urban Shade stories to find a home, and one of my favourites. So I was happy to see my copy arrive in the post.
But - they spelt my name with an 'e'. Kaye Sexton. And I know why; it's because they have a design person called Kaye Hubner and so if anybody bothered to copyedit the text, their eye probably glossed my name as hers. It is infuriating though - utterly infuriating, a bit like finding half a maggot in the apple you're eating.
So would you mention it, or not? I never do, on the basis that what's done is done, but then I wonder if perhaps it would help the journal do better in future if one pointed these kinds of things out ... what do other writers do, I wonder? Get famous enough not to be misspelt, probably!
Here's the cover of Bravado - isn't it stylish? I think this illustration sums up all that the Bravado Collective, in New Zealand, wish to express and achieve in their journal.
And in this edition they published Galanthus, one of the last of the Green Thought in an Urban Shade stories to find a home, and one of my favourites. So I was happy to see my copy arrive in the post.
But - they spelt my name with an 'e'. Kaye Sexton. And I know why; it's because they have a design person called Kaye Hubner and so if anybody bothered to copyedit the text, their eye probably glossed my name as hers. It is infuriating though - utterly infuriating, a bit like finding half a maggot in the apple you're eating.
So would you mention it, or not? I never do, on the basis that what's done is done, but then I wonder if perhaps it would help the journal do better in future if one pointed these kinds of things out ... what do other writers do, I wonder? Get famous enough not to be misspelt, probably!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Reading aloud for grown-ups ...
Tales of the Decongested Friday 25 May, 2nd Floor Gallery Space, Foyles, Charing Cross Road, London at 7pm.
Paul and Rebekah say, 'It's May and we've got some wonderful writers for you to dance attendance to and around:
Tickets
Entrance - £3 (concs. £2.50)
Drinking (includes 2 glasses of wine if Foyles have sorted their license) - £5 (concs. £4.50)
Tales of the Decongested Friday 25 May, 2nd Floor Gallery Space, Foyles, Charing Cross Road, London at 7pm.
Paul and Rebekah say, 'It's May and we've got some wonderful writers for you to dance attendance to and around:
- Emily Bromfield
- Sara Hiorns
- Dariush Alavi
- Leslie Mapp
- Katy Darby'
Tickets
Entrance - £3 (concs. £2.50)
Drinking (includes 2 glasses of wine if Foyles have sorted their license) - £5 (concs. £4.50)
Thursday, May 17, 2007
If you want to be a writer …
Focus on new opportunities.
Every so often a writer gets to hear about some new publishing initiative – most of them remain just that, ‘things you get to hear about’ because the hard work and determination required to get even the smallest literary project off the ground are impossible to overestimate – trust me, I’ve been involved in enough ‘new initiatives’ to know. But at least three exciting new possibilities are opening up in the UK and over the next few months I shall be exploring each of them, I hope in some depth, with their founders.
First up is Flosca – part publishing house, part collective, home of two new writing competitions (yes, I thought you’d spot that and zoom in, dear reader!) and a forum. I asked the collective for an interview, and Jean Kennedy Smith agreed to field my questions and gather responses from some other collective members. She’s a writer living in Galway, Ireland, who received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 2001, and held a series of jobs in art galleries and auction houses in Manhattan. She moved to Galway in 2005 to receive her Masters in Writing at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her work has been published in local journals, including Ropes Galway and the chapbook The Whole Building Could Be on Fire. She is currently working on her first novel. She is also – and for my purposes, most importantly - the Secretary of Flosca Teo.
Why did you get into publishing?
Flosca was started by the fifteen members of our Masters in Writing course at NUIG. We are a disparate group, ranging in age from 60 to 22, coming from various places in Ireland, England, the United States and Canada. Despite our difference in age, nationality and background, we had amazing chemistry as a collective in terms of literary discussions, workshops, and overall support for each other as writers.
As we were each preparing to graduate and face the perilous life that awaits the working writer, we realized that we could extend our community and network with aspiring writers on a larger scale. Flosca is a unique enterprise in the publishing world in that we approach the business from a place of sympathy toward the writer’s plight. The notion of ‘marketability’ is not our driving force—we are far more interested in encouraging dialogue, experimentation, and hearing new voices.
What’s the best thing about being a publisher, so far?
We just launched our first two writing competitions, the Flosca Short Story Competition and the Flosca Irish Language Poetry Competition. The anticipation of receiving more and more submissions, and discovering new writing/writers, is the most exciting thing.
And what’s the worst thing?
The most difficult part is getting our name out there on a limited budget! The new writing contests, with David Means as short story and Liam O’Muirthile as Irish poetry judges, offer such great new opportunities for writers that we want to give as many people as possible a chance to submit, so we are relying greatly on word of mouth and the power of the Internet.
Who do you most admire as a writer, and why?
My own favourites include Joseph Mitchell, Flannery O’Connor, Jean Rhys, James Salter and J.D. Salinger. I could go on about each of them for ages, but I suppose what appeals to me about the lot of them is that I find each of their writing relatable-- lucid and honest, and with a certain heartbreaking quality.
This is just my own particular taste, though. I asked some of the other Flosca members and their answers include James Joyce, Octave Mirbeau, Albert Camus, Russell Hoban, William Trevor, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Annie Proulx, Theodore Roethke and Harper Lee. Our taste has a really broad range, but our discussions about who we admire and why has really helped us pare down our own different intentions as writers. This is the pursuit of the Flosca Forums, as well - to encourage literary discussion, in order for writers to figure out what work they respond to and why.
What advice would you give somebody who is thinking of getting into publishing?
Go into it without too much emphasis on the commercial aspect of literature. When writers are encouraged to approach the craft in terms of what is marketable, it does everyone a disservice.
And what advice would you give writers hoping to be published?
To write, to continue writing, and to get your work into the world by any means possible. We all know how daunting it can be to face rejection, but there are so many resources out there to get your work seen.
Is there something else you can see yourself doing if you weren’t a writer/publisher?
We do all wear hats that are not related to publishing/writing. Given the choice, I know we’d all love to be published, celebrated, and financially independent enough to write full-time. In reality we all have other pursuits that sustain and nurture our craft, as well as get the rent paid: we have a PhD student, a technical writer, a visual artist, two mothers of small children, a musician, an entrepreneur, a Box Office manager, a baker, and an I.T. guy, among others.
If you were abandoned on a desert island, with just one book for company, what would it be?
My choice would be East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. It is such a beautiful book, and so big in scope I could read it a few times before I resented being stranded, and they’d eventually have to pry it from my skeletal fingers.
Other Flosca members said:
“Ludwig Wittgensein’s Tractatus still amazes me, however flawed it's been proven to be, and despite the fact that Wittgenstein renounced it in later years as erroneous, just for a slice of sheer logic, for something I've haven't fully grasped yet and it's philosophy of language. I think I'd go for the Tractatus.” C.N.
“I’d be practical and bring Stephen King's unabridged The Dark Tower, because it accumulates about 3500 pages (I'd presumably have plenty of time to read), is exciting and incredibly well imagined and beautifully written and is a Postmodern Western; it is also built on and influenced by some of my favourite artistic works (The Wizard of Oz, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, The Magnificent Seven, Bob Dylan, Eliot's The Waste Land, and a lot of the Bible too.). Plus the hero is based on Clint Eastwood's character in the Few Dollars More trilogy. And by the time you get to the end you're bursting to just start and read it all again and figure out how King was able to do all the things he did to you in the book and because you love the characters so much you just want to spend more time with them.. If I couldn't bring that, I'd bring John Moriarty's Turtle Was Gone a Long Time, and spend my days trying to figure out what it was about.” D.D.
“Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. There is some good alchemy regarding the construction of rafts.” B.McC.
Focus on new opportunities.
Every so often a writer gets to hear about some new publishing initiative – most of them remain just that, ‘things you get to hear about’ because the hard work and determination required to get even the smallest literary project off the ground are impossible to overestimate – trust me, I’ve been involved in enough ‘new initiatives’ to know. But at least three exciting new possibilities are opening up in the UK and over the next few months I shall be exploring each of them, I hope in some depth, with their founders.
First up is Flosca – part publishing house, part collective, home of two new writing competitions (yes, I thought you’d spot that and zoom in, dear reader!) and a forum. I asked the collective for an interview, and Jean Kennedy Smith agreed to field my questions and gather responses from some other collective members. She’s a writer living in Galway, Ireland, who received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 2001, and held a series of jobs in art galleries and auction houses in Manhattan. She moved to Galway in 2005 to receive her Masters in Writing at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her work has been published in local journals, including Ropes Galway and the chapbook The Whole Building Could Be on Fire. She is currently working on her first novel. She is also – and for my purposes, most importantly - the Secretary of Flosca Teo.
Why did you get into publishing?
Flosca was started by the fifteen members of our Masters in Writing course at NUIG. We are a disparate group, ranging in age from 60 to 22, coming from various places in Ireland, England, the United States and Canada. Despite our difference in age, nationality and background, we had amazing chemistry as a collective in terms of literary discussions, workshops, and overall support for each other as writers.
As we were each preparing to graduate and face the perilous life that awaits the working writer, we realized that we could extend our community and network with aspiring writers on a larger scale. Flosca is a unique enterprise in the publishing world in that we approach the business from a place of sympathy toward the writer’s plight. The notion of ‘marketability’ is not our driving force—we are far more interested in encouraging dialogue, experimentation, and hearing new voices.
What’s the best thing about being a publisher, so far?
We just launched our first two writing competitions, the Flosca Short Story Competition and the Flosca Irish Language Poetry Competition. The anticipation of receiving more and more submissions, and discovering new writing/writers, is the most exciting thing.
And what’s the worst thing?
The most difficult part is getting our name out there on a limited budget! The new writing contests, with David Means as short story and Liam O’Muirthile as Irish poetry judges, offer such great new opportunities for writers that we want to give as many people as possible a chance to submit, so we are relying greatly on word of mouth and the power of the Internet.
Who do you most admire as a writer, and why?
My own favourites include Joseph Mitchell, Flannery O’Connor, Jean Rhys, James Salter and J.D. Salinger. I could go on about each of them for ages, but I suppose what appeals to me about the lot of them is that I find each of their writing relatable-- lucid and honest, and with a certain heartbreaking quality.
This is just my own particular taste, though. I asked some of the other Flosca members and their answers include James Joyce, Octave Mirbeau, Albert Camus, Russell Hoban, William Trevor, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Annie Proulx, Theodore Roethke and Harper Lee. Our taste has a really broad range, but our discussions about who we admire and why has really helped us pare down our own different intentions as writers. This is the pursuit of the Flosca Forums, as well - to encourage literary discussion, in order for writers to figure out what work they respond to and why.
What advice would you give somebody who is thinking of getting into publishing?
Go into it without too much emphasis on the commercial aspect of literature. When writers are encouraged to approach the craft in terms of what is marketable, it does everyone a disservice.
And what advice would you give writers hoping to be published?
To write, to continue writing, and to get your work into the world by any means possible. We all know how daunting it can be to face rejection, but there are so many resources out there to get your work seen.
Is there something else you can see yourself doing if you weren’t a writer/publisher?
We do all wear hats that are not related to publishing/writing. Given the choice, I know we’d all love to be published, celebrated, and financially independent enough to write full-time. In reality we all have other pursuits that sustain and nurture our craft, as well as get the rent paid: we have a PhD student, a technical writer, a visual artist, two mothers of small children, a musician, an entrepreneur, a Box Office manager, a baker, and an I.T. guy, among others.
If you were abandoned on a desert island, with just one book for company, what would it be?
My choice would be East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. It is such a beautiful book, and so big in scope I could read it a few times before I resented being stranded, and they’d eventually have to pry it from my skeletal fingers.
Other Flosca members said:
“Ludwig Wittgensein’s Tractatus still amazes me, however flawed it's been proven to be, and despite the fact that Wittgenstein renounced it in later years as erroneous, just for a slice of sheer logic, for something I've haven't fully grasped yet and it's philosophy of language. I think I'd go for the Tractatus.” C.N.
“I’d be practical and bring Stephen King's unabridged The Dark Tower, because it accumulates about 3500 pages (I'd presumably have plenty of time to read), is exciting and incredibly well imagined and beautifully written and is a Postmodern Western; it is also built on and influenced by some of my favourite artistic works (The Wizard of Oz, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, The Magnificent Seven, Bob Dylan, Eliot's The Waste Land, and a lot of the Bible too.). Plus the hero is based on Clint Eastwood's character in the Few Dollars More trilogy. And by the time you get to the end you're bursting to just start and read it all again and figure out how King was able to do all the things he did to you in the book and because you love the characters so much you just want to spend more time with them.. If I couldn't bring that, I'd bring John Moriarty's Turtle Was Gone a Long Time, and spend my days trying to figure out what it was about.” D.D.
“Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. There is some good alchemy regarding the construction of rafts.” B.McC.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Late post ...I nearly forgot for all kinds of reasons, but primarily because I've only just found out that my fabulous home is slightly less fabulous now. Brighton is no longer a Peace Messenger City.
So what, I hear you say? And you're right. But for those of us who worked in the Conflict Resolution field in the 80s and 90s it was a tiny glimmer of sanity, if not hope, that some cities and municipal authorities were prepared to move into the controversial territory of activism to the extent of receiving this status from the UN. So, for my beloved Brighton, home to more Jedi Knights than any other place on the planet, city of smiles and almost unlimited alternative lifestyle tolerance to turn its back on its twenty years of Peace is - well it's shite, to be blunt.
In other news, Carmel sold a story and a reprint, Kay sold a reprint and Ren sold a flash - whoo hoo and all that. But I'd actually rather have our Peace Messenger status back ...
PS - that's the Peace statue in case you were wondering, with symbolically bloody feet at present. They'll probably tear her down and put up a monument to Tony Blair ...
Thursday, May 10, 2007
If you want to be a writer ...
Learn the rhythms of the literary world. Like now: May and June are the months all writers can expect an avalanche of rejections as editors of USA magazines clear their decks for the summer break, as agents clear theirs in preparation for their holidays, and as autumn-based publications finalise their shortlists and reject all those stories they've been hanging onto 'just in case'' one of their top choices turned out to be unavailable for some reason.
The odd acceptance or two leaks through as well, but the painful and crippling weight of all those people who are saying 'no' far outweighs the pleasures of the 'yes'.
But it's not just you. Seven rejections a week is not a judgement on your literary merit (although it feels like it!) it's simply the result of spring cleaning. Knowing this doesn't lessen the pain, but it does help you dig your way to the surface and move on.
And another thing to consider. When all those American journals cease reading for three months, it's the ideal time to focus on a longer piece of work; a novel, a play, a screenplay or opera - whatever it is that you've been putting off because of the busy round of submissions and rejections, this is the moment to get it back out and devote your summer to its progress.
Learn the rhythms of the literary world. Like now: May and June are the months all writers can expect an avalanche of rejections as editors of USA magazines clear their decks for the summer break, as agents clear theirs in preparation for their holidays, and as autumn-based publications finalise their shortlists and reject all those stories they've been hanging onto 'just in case'' one of their top choices turned out to be unavailable for some reason.
The odd acceptance or two leaks through as well, but the painful and crippling weight of all those people who are saying 'no' far outweighs the pleasures of the 'yes'.
But it's not just you. Seven rejections a week is not a judgement on your literary merit (although it feels like it!) it's simply the result of spring cleaning. Knowing this doesn't lessen the pain, but it does help you dig your way to the surface and move on.
And another thing to consider. When all those American journals cease reading for three months, it's the ideal time to focus on a longer piece of work; a novel, a play, a screenplay or opera - whatever it is that you've been putting off because of the busy round of submissions and rejections, this is the moment to get it back out and devote your summer to its progress.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Ren ascending ...
My science fiction and horror persona is fighting back. His/her short story has been reviewed here: http://ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com/ and he (or she) has a horror story that can be downloaded as a free podcast here: http://www.latelateshow.net/
It won't last, but right now, Ren is definitely on a roll!
My science fiction and horror persona is fighting back. His/her short story has been reviewed here: http://ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com/ and he (or she) has a horror story that can be downloaded as a free podcast here: http://www.latelateshow.net/
It won't last, but right now, Ren is definitely on a roll!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Admission of guiltRegular readers are probably wondering if I have any neuroses at all, as I seem to always be declaring that this, that or the other writer's problem is not my problem. So it's time to come clean. Becoming a finalist in the University of Hertfordshire Writing Award brought my biggest neurosis to the surface. They wanted a photograph for their press release.
I hate having my photograph taken.
Now that may sound odd from somebody who used to be a model, but it's not. The point is that I hate having MY photograph taken, because it's a picture of ME. Being photographed as a model is to enter into a deception with the photographer to produce a picture of an unreal person - it's a bit like writing fiction actually. You reinvent yourself, rather than characters, and somebody else sets the narrative and location, but otherwise it's quite similar.
A picture of me though, is somehow meant to represent me - the person. And the reason I write, in part, is to represent, or at least express, myself to the world. And no photograph, no matter how flattering or otherwise, can ever come close to the means of expression I've chosen as my own. So having my picture taken causes all kinds of confusion, resentment and fear in my psyche. Hundreds of shots result in one or two images that I can actually bear to look at (although none that please me) and a whole sunny day is wasted as I snap at my nearest and dearest and scowl at the lens.
The me I see has already been taken.
Stephen Donaldson has a wonderful jacket photograph on his Gap series; it shows his head in eclipse, almost entirely in darkness, wrapped (or possibly rapt) in cigarette smoke. It's like a Leonard Cohen song as portraiture. And that's how I see myself - and it's not a bad representation of a lot of my writing which is, as one agent said 'dark, lovely and unmarketable' - may she prove wrong on the last one! Sadly though, I'm actually a gerbil-cheeked, rather sweet looking woman, with a completely undistinguished face and a good body for my age.
So, having reduced 137 photographs to two, I am being brave and sharing with you the one I decided wasn't suitable for a press release - would you buy a novel from this woman? Please say yes ...
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The University of Hertfordshire Writing Award is a joint initiative of UHArts, UH Press and the University's School of Humanities, celebrating creative writing and supporting new writers.
U H Writing Award
We are pleased to announce that the following entrants have been selected as finalists in the UH Writing Award. Please note that finalists are listed in alphabetical order.
Nathalie Abi-Ezzi The Snow Child
Juliette Adair Grandma's yellow, autoptic, hypnogogic moon glasses
Kate Baggott Three Wives
Heleina Burton Hurricane Season
Sue Butler Capital Gains
Stephina Clarke The Colour of Webs
Christy Collins The Lady of the Hilltop
Daniel Kaysen No Flowers
Zdravka Evtimova Pale
Clare Girvan The Picture of Edward Downie
Chris Hill So Which is the Way From Here?
Jason Jackson Barefoot and Running
Steven Kelly Replacing the Main
Toby Norways Anonymous Anonymous
Jane Paterson The Hughes Mearns Man
Dena Pezet Dirty Pictures
Jonathan Pinnock Convalescence
Kay Sexton The Mad Women of Guanajuato
Chika Unigwe Growing My Hair
David Weaver Finding Uncle
The top four winners will be announced at the official prize-giving ceremony to be held at the University of Hertfordshire on 27 June, 2007. 1st prize winner will receive £1,000; 2nd prize winner £500; 3rd prize winner £300; and 4th prize winner £200. As stated in the Rules, the judges' decision is final and binding. Neither the judges nor the organisers will enter into any correspondence about the result of the UH Writing Award.
UH Writing Award Anthology Vision
The twenty shortlisted stories will be published in an anthology by the University of Hertfordshire Press. Copies will be available from July 2007.
So there.
U H Writing Award
We are pleased to announce that the following entrants have been selected as finalists in the UH Writing Award. Please note that finalists are listed in alphabetical order.
Nathalie Abi-Ezzi The Snow Child
Juliette Adair Grandma's yellow, autoptic, hypnogogic moon glasses
Kate Baggott Three Wives
Heleina Burton Hurricane Season
Sue Butler Capital Gains
Stephina Clarke The Colour of Webs
Christy Collins The Lady of the Hilltop
Daniel Kaysen No Flowers
Zdravka Evtimova Pale
Clare Girvan The Picture of Edward Downie
Chris Hill So Which is the Way From Here?
Jason Jackson Barefoot and Running
Steven Kelly Replacing the Main
Toby Norways Anonymous Anonymous
Jane Paterson The Hughes Mearns Man
Dena Pezet Dirty Pictures
Jonathan Pinnock Convalescence
Kay Sexton The Mad Women of Guanajuato
Chika Unigwe Growing My Hair
David Weaver Finding Uncle
The top four winners will be announced at the official prize-giving ceremony to be held at the University of Hertfordshire on 27 June, 2007. 1st prize winner will receive £1,000; 2nd prize winner £500; 3rd prize winner £300; and 4th prize winner £200. As stated in the Rules, the judges' decision is final and binding. Neither the judges nor the organisers will enter into any correspondence about the result of the UH Writing Award.
UH Writing Award Anthology Vision
The twenty shortlisted stories will be published in an anthology by the University of Hertfordshire Press. Copies will be available from July 2007.
So there.
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