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RLF Writers’ News: July 2026

Publishing

Tony White’s new novel Phantom at the Feast has been published by No Exit Press.

The latest book in the Detective Sergeant Rex King series sees King summoned back to London and into a labyrinth of memory, music, and political unrest. He must work alongside a sharp young detective, a seasoned former soul boy, and the National Crime Agency’s unsettlingly brilliant new AI. Yet the deeper he travels, the more he finds the investigation folding back on him…

Phantom at the Feast features in the Indie Alliance summer reading campaign of new titles recommended by eighteen indie publishers.

Courttia Newland’s new book, The Art of Opposition: On Hope, Resilience and Creative Expression Beyond the Mainstream has been published by Faber.

A collection of essays exploring what it means to create art from a place of opposition to the mainstream, The Art of Opposition is a bold, provocative examination that sees Newland reflect on what it means to be an artist operating in the margins as he shares his experiences and observations for those facing similar hurdles and choices – including Percival Everett, Lou Mensah, Iain Banks, Jean Binta Breeze and others.

Jackie Wills’ new collection of poetry has been published by Salt.

In Making the Wedding Dress, Wills gives readers the exceptional at the heart of daily life, beginning with a quote from a handbook on sewing that prompts her to ask – what can be fixed, and what does it mean to make a daughter’s wedding dress?

Other poems explore bullying, money, trade, rats and sinkholes, exits and entrances, home, absences within a family and the fragility of care. It is a collection that makes many unexpected connections, marrying the mundane with the surreal.

Genevieve Carver’s new book, The Ocean and the Bones, an adventure story aimed at children aged 8-12, has been published by Oneworld Publications.

A former Times Children’s Book of the Week, this fantasy tale follows Little Meg, chosen as the Sunhealer’s Shadow and devoted to learning the ways of the Spirits. After the Spirits’ anger sends a ferocious storm sweeping through her village, Meg discovers a girl washed up on the shore, who speaks a strange language and scratches pictures in the sand. Little by little, the pair become friends. But if Meg wants to save her village, she must help the girl find her way home.

Rebecca Colby has two new picture books out in July from Nosy Crow.

The Wheels on the Bus, a singalong board book with moving wheels, interactive sliders and a sliding counter, invites children to singalong to the classic nursery rhyme as they spin the wheels , open and close the doors, swish the windscreen wipers, and watch the people on the bus go up and down all day long.

The Wheels on the Digger gives the song a bit of a twist, taking children will love singing on a singalong journey around a building site, aboard a big yellow digger.

A delight to share before bedtime or to take on travels, both books are illustrated by Lydia Nichols, and each includes a free Nosy Crow Stories Aloud® song.

Broadcasts

Bernie McGill‘s The Day of the Papering, a short story commissioned exclusively by BBC Radio 4 for their Short Works series, is available to listen to now.

“In an abandoned military fort in Ireland, an artist attempts to install her latest work despite the scepticism of the local caretaker.”

Read by Amy Molloy and produced by Michael Shannon, The Day of the Papering is available to listen to now on BBC Sounds.

Collected: Live 

This month’s Collected: Live panel events include:

All You Read Is Love – Royal Literary Fund Writers on Books that Inspire Creativity at Norton Library, Stockton-on-Tees on Tuesday 14 July, 6.15 – 7.15pm.

As a kid, did you ever try the back of your grandmother’s wardrobe looking for Narnia? Did you ever run into the bricks at King’s Cross station hoping for a magical train to Hogwarts? Or go looking for a tell-tale pair of red shoes to click together in the hope they’ll whisk you home?  Bestselling crime writer David Mark, scriptwriter Lydia Marchant and poet and playwright Harry Man share their experiences of classic novels, plays and poems that have stayed with them and influenced the worlds they write about for page and stage.

Tickets here.

RLF Writers on the Theme of Inspiration at Portico Library, Manchester on Wednesday 15 July, 6 – 7pm.

Livi Michael, Marnie Riches, and Louise Mulvey will be talking about the craft of writing, publishing and where they get their inspiration from, as part of the National Year of Reading.

Each writer will read for 15 minutes, followed by a 15 minute Q&A.

More information and ticket available here.

Events and appearances 

WritersMosaic Presents: What We Leave We Carry at Bradford Literary Festival on Saturday 4 July.

Anni Domingo, Abha Sharma and Isabelle Dupuy join event chair Dawn Cameron to talk about their stories of migration, reflecting on the question of what we leave behind when we move to a new place and asking – what do we carry with us, physically and emotionally, wherever we land?

With music provided by Rory A. Green, the event is drawn from WritersMosaic‘s What We Leave We Carry series, with many of the stories also featuring in a new book by WritersMosaic Director Colin Grant – out now.

Tickets and more information available here.

Also at Bradford Literary Festival, writer and Mosaic Monologues series producer John Siddique will chair WritersMosaic Presents: Mosaic Monologues on Sunday 5 July.

Joining John will be award-winning playwright Ishy Din – who directed the recent WritersMosaic audio drama series – and poet Tahmina Ali, who will share her monologue, Shifting Shadows, which tells the story of Anika, a woman caught between motherhood, marriage and the weight of expectation. The evening also features live music from Rory A. Green.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit the Bradford Literary Festival website.

Also appearing at Bradford Literary Festival are:

• WritersMosaic‘s Saima Mir, in conversation with David M. Barnett, about her new book, Deliverance, on Saturday 4 July 2.30 – 3.30pm. Tickets here.
• John Siddique will be among the writers taking part in the annual and much-loved Lyrical Mehfil, Bradford Literary Festival’s celebration of lyrical poetry, on Saturday 4 July from 7.30 – 10pm. Tickets here.
• John Siddique will present The Tao of Winnie-the-Pooh, drawing on Benjamin Hoff’s beloved classic The Tao of Pooh, on Sunday 5 July from 1.30 – 2.30pm. Tickets here.
• RLF Fellow Chitra Ramaswamy will be taking part in the Polari Literary Salon, an evening of live literature, performance and celebration featuring established and emerging LGBTQ+ writers, on Sunday 5 July from 6.30 – 8pm. Tickets here.
• WritersMosaic‘s Joelle Taylor will deliver a solo performance inspired by her acclaimed collection Maryville, winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize and Polari Book Prize, on Wednesday 8 July from 7.30 – 8.30pm. Tickets here.
• RLF Fellow Dan Richards is one of three writers reflecting on the night skies in a panel called In Praise of Darkness, on Saturday 11 July from 5.45 – 7pm. Tickets here.
• Award-winning writer, rapper and RLF Fellow Testament brings his live show Saints on a Bridge – a blend of spoken word poetry, hip hop, beatboxing and theatre – to the Bradford Literary Festival on Saturday 11 July from 8 – 9pm. Tickets here.

WritersMosaic‘s latest Live at the British Library event, Meet the Pioneers: The Revolutionary Publishers, is on Thursday 16 July 2026 at 7pm.

An evening of conversation, poetry and song, in tribute to revolutionary publishers of the global majority in Britain, Margaret Busby and Guyanese-born political activists Jessica and Eric Huntley.

The event will be hosted by WritersMosaic‘s Colin Grant with Margaret Busby – a former RLF Trustee – herself. They will be joined by Lemn Sissay, Lemara Lindsay Prince, Beverly Mason and Alexander D Great to celebrate the achievements and experiences of the Huntleys and Margaret Busby, whose record of excellence is evident in her latest book, Part of the Story.

For tickets and more information, visit the British Library website.

Miranda Miller will give an illustrated talk about new novel, The Fairy Visions of Richard Dadd, at Camden History Society on Thursday 23 July from 7.30 – 9pm.

The novel is narrated in the first person by celebrated Victorian painter Richard Dadd, who was confined to the Bedlam hospital after killing his father. It is the second in a trilogy of books exploring the stories of Bedlam.

The talk will be followed by a conversation with RLF illustrator and author Sally Kindberg.

More information and tickets available here.

Awards

The Forward Prizes for Poetry have been honouring poets and poems since 1992. This year, following submissions from 500+ poets, the judges have for the first time decided to release their longlists in advance of the shortlist announcement, declaring this a brilliant year for poetry. RLF and WritersMosaic poets longlisted include:

• On the Longlist for the 2026 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem are Jonathan Edwards for ‘The Frogmore Papers’ and Hannah Lowe for ‘The Rialto’.
• On the Longlist for the 2026 Forward Prize for Best Collection are Anne Caldwell, Tishani Doshi, Sarah Howe, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Clare Pollard, Joelle Taylor, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch and RLF Trustee Michael Symmons Roberts.

For the full longlist, visit the Forward Arts Foundation website.

Translator Rosalind Harvey has been awarded one of the Society of Authors Travelling Scholarships.

Established in 1944 to enable British creative writers to keep in touch with their colleagues abroad, recipient of the Travelling Scholarship Award are nominated by the assessors. Applications are not accepted.

More information on the Travelling Scholarships can be found on the Society of Authors website.

RLF Fellow Jack Mapanje and WritersMosaic‘s Joelle Taylor are two of this year’s Society of Authors Cholmondeley Awards winners.

The Cholmondeley Awards for Poets were founded by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966 to recognise the achievement and distinction of individual poets.

More information here.

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