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RLF Writers’ News: November 2026

Publishing

Elizabeth Cook’s new poetry pamphlet Tumbling has been published by Mariscat Press.

The poems in Tumbling are written from loss. There is grief but also curiosity and openness to the sometimes-surprising ways in which these essential relationships persist and change. The poems are written with Cook’s characteristic precision and intensity, never heavy and with humour often breaking through.

Tumbling will launch at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, on Monday 2 November, with readings from Michael Stephenson and Elizabeth Cook and music from The Self-Righteous Brothers. Tickets available here.

Nicola Baldwin and Professor Julie V. Gottlieb’s new book The Nervous State – F.L. Lucas and the Internalisation of Crisis in Britain, 1938 is available to preorder from White Rose Press. Combining history and drama for an exploration of life in 1938 Britain, it is based on the journal of playwright F. L. (Peter) Lucas, who began documenting his experiences on 31 December 1937, ultimately recording not only the unfolding international crisis but also the deterioration of his artist wife Prudence’s mental health and the breakdown of their marriage. The journal offers an insight into the impact of public events on private experiences at a pivotal moment in European history.

The Nervous State book will be launched at The Nervous State – Drama and History in 1930s Britain, an event at The Diamond Theatre in Sheffield on Thursday 26 November celebrating the creative connections between historical research and the insights of dramatisation. Tickets and more information can be found here.

Broadcasts

Archaeologist and non-fiction author Max Adams is the subject of Episode 11 of History Time: Unearthed, ‘What REALLY Happened In Post-Roman Britain?’, a YouTube series  hosted by historian Pete Kelly.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Max talks about how his archaeological research connects with his writing and his series of books on early medieval Britain and the Post-Roman twilight. A Consultant Fellow for the RLF, Max also works with writers having other skills to develop their writing. 

Watch the episode here.

Productions

Kenny Emson’s new play The Disappearing Man is a bold new drama about legacy, illusion, and second chances as one man risks everything for his last great trick.

Returning to a once-glittering seaside town, washed-up magician Bazza Cadabra is ready for a final comeback, determined to reclaim the spotlight and prove he’s still got what it takes 20 years on. But every trick has a price…

A Queens Theatre Hornchurch and HighTide Co-Production, The Disappearing Man is touring through November at:

• Blackpool Grand Theatre, from 5 – 7 November
• Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, from 10 – 14 November
• Key Theatre, Peterborough, from 17 – 20 November

For more information and tickets, visit the HighTide website. 

Roy Williams and John Donnelly have co-written Pierre, an original six-part contemporary legal drama, broadcast on Channel 4, starring David Harewood as the London solicitor investigating institutional corruption following the death of a young black man.

The Guardian praised “Harewood’s rounded, charismatic performance, and themes [that] are current and complex”.

Available to watch on Channel 4.

Collected: Live 

This month’s Collected: Live panel events include:

• The Writers Who Inspire Me at Sale Library, Greater Manchester on Monday 9 November from 6pm. Chaired by Marnie Riches with writers Carys Bray and David Swann, the event will be followed by a discussion and audience Q&A. Tickets here.
• The Classic Book I’d Like To Rewrite And Why at Leigh Library, Wigan on Thursday 19 November. Chaired by Marnie Riches with writers Lizzie Nunnery and James Friel, who will be reimagining classic novels, revealing the books they would reinvent and the creative possibilities they see within them. Tickets here.

Zoë Howe’s monthly series of Creative Reading and Writing courses inspired by the RLF Collected sound archive also continues at Liverpool Central Library this month. A Place For Us is a series of four monthly workshops in which participants will read and discuss writing about place, as inspiration for their own writing. Begins Tuesday 3 November from 11am. Details here.

Events and appearances 

WritersMosaic Director and author of What We Leave We Carry: Voices of Migration to Britain Colin Grant will be in conversation with actress, director and writer Anni Domingo and writer Isabelle Dupuy at Brixton Library on Tuesday 10 November.

What do we leave behind when we move to a new place – and what do we carry with us, physically and emotionally, wherever we land? Colin Grant has travelled the country and listened to their stories – foundational tales of arriving in a new land, along with rarely spoken stories of love and loss. Together, these accounts ask questions about assimilation, identity, belonging and the emotional cost of migration in twenty-first-century Britain.

Tickets and more information here.

Zoë Howe will be appearing at two events in November to promote the newly expanded ‘remastered’ edition of her Slits biography, Typical Girls? The Story of the Slits:

• At the Museum of Youth Culture, London, in conversation with Slits founder Palmolive for the Up Yours Collective Festival, on Friday 13 November. Details here.
• At Louder Than Words Festival, Manchester, in conversation with Helen McCookeryBook, author, academic, punk singer-songwriter and writer of foreword to Typical Girls, on Sunday 15 November. Details here.

Wren James will be in conversation with Heartstopper author Alice Oseman at the Thoughtbubble Comic Festival in Harrogate on Sunday 15 November.

For tickets and more details, visit the Thoughtbubble website.

Awards 

Felicity McCall’s short story anthology What We Did on Our Holidays, published by Colmcille Press, has won the Best Anthology category at the Carousel Publishing Awards 2026 held in Chapters Bookshop in Dublin.

The collection – which Felicity has described as ‘part-memoir’ – features themes such as intergenerational PTSD, alcoholism and parental dementia. Irish Times Northern editor Freya McClements commended its “insightful reflections on living with the legacy of conflict…suffused with warmth, empathy and the joy of acceptance.”

The CAP Awards recognise excellence in independent publishing and celebrate the impact of distinctive new books, helping them find visibility, readers, and the celebration they deserve.

Bernie McGill has been awarded a Major Individual Artist Award (MIA) from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Bernie, along with poet Padraig Regan, visual artist and painter Pádraig Mac Cana and inclusive theatre maker and director Andrew Standford, will each receive a National Lottery funding award of up to £15,000 to create ambitious new work. Bernie will use her award to create a new work of fiction based on Eleonora Giulia Amalia Duse, an Italian actress active around the 1890s – 1920s and rated by many as the greatest of her time. As part of the award, Bernie will spend time researching Duse at the Cini Foundationi and Museo Civico di Asolo in Italy.

More information here.

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