With apologies again for the IT meltdown, hoping that people will be receiving our newsletter right now, and with links to all stories to follow - we're delighted to announce the 2025/26 GBP Short Story Prize longlist:

Big congrats to @kinnesonlalor.bsky.social's #story Clean Sheet on @galleybeggars.bsky.social longlist. I THINK I was the 1st to read it - awe-struck, admiring & answering the question: should I read it at the conference? with MAYBE!? or no - YES. www.galleybeggar.co.uk/07-ssp-clean...

The 2025/26 Short Story Prize Longlist - with links:

With apologies again for the IT meltdown, hoping that people will be receiving our newsletter right now, and with links to all stories to follow - we're delighted to announce the 2025/26 GBP Short Story Prize longlist:

GBP SHORT STORY PRIZE: A quick announcement and apologies - we'll be posting the GBP Short Story Prize longlist at 17:00 tonight; it would have been much earlier but alas, an IT meltdown has scuppered that... (Working on it now!) (Please share if you can.)

As someone from the north of Bradford I find this journalist’s co-opting of my pain deeply offensive and isolating: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe... When will they have the decency to make it all about me instead? I also find this Yorkshire-centrism so troubling. I’m so tired!

On the 'white-washing' of Wuthering Heights - and the imposition of contemporary problems on a book from another time. "... a shame to impose one narrow and divisive way of looking at the world on this complicated, expansive, terrifying and big-hearted work of art" open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/w...

Our latest episode features a real gem of a novel: Mr Outside by Caleb Klaces: interabangbooks.com/across-pond A lovely, moving, funny, sad, insightful novel. Caleb was also great to talk to.

Grey squirrels were only introduced in 1876 - wow… www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Thanks to @galleybeggars.bsky.social for their care and help at every step of the way! Can’t wait until July..

Very much looking forward to this by @markabowles.bsky.social

I love these joyous GBP newsletters, especially all the overspilling PS's. Excited to read the new @markabowles.bsky.social, didn't realise it due so soon!

There is a new book by Mark Bowles on the way. It's called How Do People Stay The Same. It is, as you might expect, a thing of beauty and wonder. Details here: www.galleybeggar.co.uk/campaigns/vi...

"the sea itself had become a gaseous, voluminous, screamingly hot malformation of its proper self, out of which was ejected a writhing column of angels." WATERBLACK by @alexpheby.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social

Yesterday, we launched Brave New World? a ground-breaking report about the impact of Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). This major new study has been published in partnership with other creator-led organisations. buff.ly/vIuLqfn

New Substack up, featuring @stuhennigan.bsky.social @ortacpress.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social @davidcollard.bsky.social @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social @renardpress.com Laurel and Hardy, Some Like it Hot. And me. open.substack.com/pub/drewgumm...

This sounds like actual good news: www.thebookseller.com/news/governm...

Some thoughts on Hamnet: open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/w...

Deforestation, fascism, cults, resistance and more in our latest episode, a fascinating conversation with Chilean writer Simón López Trujillo about his novel Pedro The Vast: www.buzzsprout.com/1728150/epis...

This is lovely. A reading from Telenovela - and glowing review! amandacoreishy.substack.com/p/live-with-...

@galleybeggars.bsky.social Current read👍

Links, Tips and Suggestions: "Disgustingly lewd" French poetry, Sappho, an absurd (and frightening) attack on Plato, the bloody end of American civilisation and some sustaining literary diversions. open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/l...

Our latest episode features a conversation with writer and musician Ausyn Wohlers about her book Hothouse Bloom: interabangbooks.com/across-pond freight.cargo.site/w/422/q/75/i... A very interesting book by a talented writer. Just what we enjoy talking about.

To celebrate the publication of the 5th edition of our Indie Press Guide and the amazing work of independent presses, we're hosting an ✨ Indie Extravaganza ✨ in the Salon this February! mslexia.co.uk/shop/indie-p...

Some books I managed to get through over the break! My favourite Tokarczuk after FLIGHTS, a big Dickens (a Christmas tradition), a new one from @galleybeggars.bsky.social and Gonzalo C.Garcia! Plus not pictured including SWIMING STUDIES by Leanne Shapton, Ben Pester’s novel, and Tim MacGabhann!

Great review of Telenovela just arrived in the Irish Times: www.irishtimes.com/culture/book... "a convincing portrait of the darkest period in Chile’s modern history, which, by homing in on those on the wrong side of history, reflects the subtle weaponry of silence and language"

So… we got a real shedder this year… #ChristmasTree

Hello from Norwich!

A chance stroll through Norwich Cathedral and this - (happy new year)!

Thank you so much @galleybeggars.bsky.social. Great to read this about @benjaminmyers76.bsky.social and so touched - and delighted! - by what you say, Sam, about The Benefactors. samj.substack.com/p/three-books

Loving the tone of @noemikissdeaki.bsky.social’s ‘Mary and the Rabbit Dream’ from @galleybeggars.bsky.social

Christmas dinner soup - and tomato and coconut for the vegetarian…

NORAD Santa tracker is Woke

Galley Beggars Die Hard Christmas bonanza!

“For us to co-exist with AI we must engage with it.” Is pure AI regardless of who/ what wrote it!!

My pick for @review31.bsky.social's Books of the Year 2025 is Alex Pheby's Waterblack, the third volume in the Cities of the Weft trilogy. Superb, strange fantasy that has reinvigorated the genre. @alexpheby.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

Cake!

64. Telenovela, Gonzalo C Garcia Funny, sad, and very thoughtful novel set in the Pinochet dictatorship. It's primarily a brilliant slice of life novel, but that allows it to subtly explore the creeping, deadening effects of authoritarianism on everyday life. Great stuff.

This doesn't sound good: www.thebookseller.com/news/waterst... (And it's already terrifying that such an important asset to the UK economy, cultural soft power and to generally making life better is owned by a US hedge-fund.)

Fab to be nudging shoulders in this spotlight series with the brilliant @papillotepress.bsky.social @prototypepubs.bsky.social Peirene Press @roughtradebooks.bsky.social @deadinkbooks.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social, brilliant publishers flourishing in difficult times. 📚 🙌

“Married women living with their husbands need not be included…” Amazing scenes for women in the 1910 governmental report on national health insurance (introduced in 1911):

Thank you @galleybeggars.bsky.social samj.substack.com/p/three-books

Our latest conversation is with Gonzalo C Garcia about his incredible novel Telenovela, Chile, Pinochet, and much more. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

On today’s Advent Calendar, Gonzalo C. Garcia gives us a Xmas song he cannot stand. Listen podfollow.com/hellish Gonzalo’s excellent ‘Telenovela’ is out now on @galleybeggars.bsky.social - to hear more about it from Gonzalo himself listen to the latest @acrossthepondbooks.bsky.social!

Sirius takes keeping warm and comfortable very, very seriously

If you are still looking for a "stocking filler" please bear in mind that "The Anechoic Chamber" is a slimline A-format paperback, so it fits snugly in a standard men's sock or the pocket of a winter coat. This also means savings on wrapping paper, postage, etc. and it's only £9.99.

'No human being is just one way, then. And Telenovela also suggests, quietly but boldly, that no political side is wholly virtuous either.' Lorna Scott Fox on politics, art and authenticity in Pinochet-era Chile

Loved reading this: www.theguardian.com/news/2025/de...

This morning / this evening (… Christmas!)