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RLF Fellows’ News: November 2024

Publishing

Sonia Faleiro’s new book How I Write is a landmark collection of interviews with South Asian writers talking about their craft. The writers featured include Pankaj Mishra, Kamila Shamsie, and VV Ganeshananthan, who recently won the Women’s Prize for fiction.

How I Write was created by South Asia Speaks, a literary fellowship programme empowering outstanding emerging writers from South Asia.

Find out more here. 

Sheena Wilkinson’s new novel First Term at Fernside has just been published by The O’Brien Press.

Described in The Irish Times as “vivid” and Inis magazine as “uplifting”, it is set in Belfast in 1925 and follows the adventures of schoolgirl Robin, her younger cousin Linnet, and their friends at Fernside boarding school.

Ideal for school story fans aged from 9-90.

Ian Duhig’s new collection An Arbitrary Light Bulb is out on 14 November, published by Pan Macmillan.

Previously described as “the most original poet of his generation” by Carol Ann Duffy in The Guardian, this collection is Duhig’s most personal yet. The book’s title is inspired by the most common type of household bulb – yet one whose name is virtually unknown, like many people these poems celebrate.

 An Arbitrary Light Bulb is a Poetry Book Society Winter 2024 Choice.

Alison Joseph’s new Sister Agnes novel A Poisoned Chalice has just been published by Joffe Books.

The latest book in Joseph’s eight-part crime fiction series sees investigative nun Sister Agnes puzzling over the disappearance of Jay Sorrell, whose wife comes looking for him at Agnes’s homeless shelter. But the search ends in tragedy as late one night Agnes wakes to the sound of sirens — and the smell of smoke. 

You can buy the book here.

Cath Senker has co-authored Brighton Bound: Stories of moving to, around and out of the city, 1920s–2020s, with Ben Rogaly and Amy Clarke.

Published by QueenSpark, it tells the story of migration and movement in the history of Brighton and Hove, revealing the joys and struggles of individual Brightonians, as well as looking into the ways in which local, national and world politics have impacted upon them.

Find out more about the book here.

Vayu Naidu‘s latest book, The Living Legend: Ramayana Tales from Far and Near, is available now.

A new retelling of the great Indian epic Ramayana, the book follows Rama, Sita and Lakshmana as they travel through the forests, reflecting on the strength of their relationships with nature and how they restore balance in life.

You can buy the book here.

Broadcasts

Alison Joseph’s five-part drama about crosswords, One Down, is also due to be repeated by BBC Radio 4 Extra from 4 November, to coincide with the centenary of the first published crossword. It will be available after broadcast on BBC Sounds, with a real crossword to accompany it on the website. Find out more here.

Clare Bayley’s unsettling drama Snares is part of BBC Radio 4’s Breaking the Rules season.

Snares, which explores whether the way you choose to live your life inevitably has an impact on those around you, follows partners Skye and Kezia as they begin a new life in an eco-community set up so-called idealistic disruptor Tobias, who is trying to find a more sustainable way to live. But is he really the visionary environmentalist he claims to be?

Available now on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Listen here.

Diana Evans and Sanjida O’Connell (writing as Sanjida Kay) both have short stories coming up on BBC Radio 4’s Short Works programme.

Evans’s story ‘Freedom Corner’ will be broadcast on Friday 1 and Sunday 3 November, while Kay’s story ‘Grace’s Cave‘ will be broadcast on Friday 15 and Sunday 17 November.

Isabel Ashdown has given an interview to the RNIB Audiobook Show discussing her new book One Girl, One Summer in which she speaks about her experiences as an RLF Fellow:

I’m such a huge fan of the RLF and they’ve made a big difference in my career in encouraging me to keep going. Having the RLF support you is a really reassuring thing.
– Isabel Ashdown

You can listen to the interview with Isabel in full here – scroll to 31:26 on the time bar.

Events and Appearances

Having previously collaborated with artists, composers and scientists, for her latest poetry collection Memory Foam, Dilys Rose has “collaborated with herself” on a series of eight etchings corresponding to the poems.

To replicate the handmade aspect of printmaking, each poem in the collection is presented alongside a unique, handwritten copy to create an exhibition, ‘Yellow Polka Dot Dress,’ which is on display at Cockenzie House in Edinburgh until 6 November. For more details, visit Dilys’ website.

Charlie Hill will launch his new collection of travel/psycho-geographical essays This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land at a HOME event in Birmingham on 7 November.

Kerry Hadley-Pryce called Charlie Hill “a modern-day walker-writer. This is a collection of thought-provoking, often joyous, always fascinating observations that blaze with insight about the dynamic link between people and place.”

The event will be chaired by Clive Judd. Buy tickets here.

Colin Grant, together with writer Jason Okundaye and critic Alex Clark, will be at this month’s Cambridge Literary Festival to discuss the legacy of writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin in his centenary year.

‘The Life, Writing & Legacy of James Baldwin’ event is on 23 November at the Old Divinity School, University Of Cambridge, and also available to watch on Livestream.

Chaired by Erica Wagner. Tickets and more info here.

Productions

John Donnelly has co-written a feature film called The Assessment, which centres on a successful couple facing scrutiny over their fitness to have a child, in a climate change-ravaged world which optimises life.

 Recently screened at the BFI London Film Festival, the film is set for for release in early 2025. Find out more here.

Michael Abbensetts’ (1938-2016) 1979 play Alterations is set to be revived at the National Theatre in February 2025, with additional material by Trish Cooke. 

It will be the largest ever staging of the piece from the Black Plays Archive. Directed by Lynette Linton, the reinvigorated version of this seminal work, which tells the story of 24 hours in Walker Holt’s tailor’s shop, illuminates the Guyanese experience of 1970s London, and the aspirations and sacrifices of the Windrush generation.

Find out more and book tickets on the National Theatre website.

Awards

Em Strang and Marjorie Lotfi have both been longlisted for the Saltire Poetry Book of the Year Award 2024 as part of Scotland’s National Book Awards.

Em Strang is longlisted for her new poetry collection Firebird (Shearsman Books) and Marjorie Lotfi for her first book-length collection The Wrong Person to Ask (Bloodaxe Books).

For more information and to see the full longest, visit the Saltire Society website.

Marjorie Lotfi also recently won the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection 2024 at the Forward Prizes for Poetry with The Wrong Person to Ask.

The winners of the four Forward Prize categories were announced at Durham Book Festival following performances from the shortlisted poets at which Marjorie read her powerful poem of migration and home, ‘The Hebridean Crab Apple’.

Kenny Emson has been announced as the inaugural Literary Associate of Mercury Theatre.

Described by The Stage as “a move that cements the stage and screen writer’s 16-year association with the building,” Emson will help lead the expansion of the Colchester venue by providing writer development, script reading and reporting services.

Read more here.

Charlie Hill and C.D. Rose have been longlisted for the 2024 Edge Hill short story prize. Charlie Hill has been longlisted for Encounters with Everyday Madness (Roman Books) and C.D. Rose for Walter Benjamin Stares at the Sea (Melville Press UK).

The longlist announcement also features another RLF Fellow, last year’s winner Bernie McGill. You can read it in full here.

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