Thank you so much to our guest author @benpester.bsky.social for visiting us at Colchester WriteNight this week! Such a fascinating interview about writing, short fiction and his extraordinary debut novel #TheExpansionProject Thank you everyone who came, joined in the Big Interview & wrote with us.

Yay! And So Did I (Boiler House Press, 2025) is now on the dedicated Malachi Whitaker stand at Waterstones, Bradford. Alongside The Journey Home & Other Stories (Persephone, 2017) and Benighted by JB Priestley (who went to the same Bradford school).

@benpester.bsky.social is visiting Colchester WriteNight for The Big Interview about writing, short fiction and his surreal novel, The Expansion Project, shortlisted for The Goldsmith’s Prize and the Nero Prize for Debut Fiction. We’ll all be interviewing/writing together, you’re welcome to join us

@benpester.bsky.social is visiting Colchester WriteNight for The Big Interview about writing, short fiction and his surreal novel, The Expansion Project, shortlisted for The Goldsmith’s Prize and the Nero Prize for Debut Fiction. We’ll all be interviewing/writing together, you’re welcome to join us

Cannot wait to hear these stories!!!!

CALLING BOOK REVIEWERS Boiler House Press are looking for reviewers of their Recovered Books series -- including Malachi Whitaker's super-relevant 1939 memoir, "And So Did I". Interested? Message @bhousepress.bsky.social

Best British Short Stories 2025 is here – the fifteenth volume of our landmark annual anthology. Edited by Nicholas Royle, it gathers the most exciting short fiction of 2024 from major names and brilliant new voices. A perfect festive gift for the reader in your life. #BBSS2025 #ShortFiction

Congratulations @benpester.bsky.social! 👏🎉👏

My Monday had been brightened by this! Thank you to @fictivedream.bsky.social #fkashfiction #microfiction #amwriting @ninearchespress.bsky.social

ICYMI today we're thrilled to be featuring Hidden Leopard by Olga Dermott-Bond @olgapoet.bsky.social #microfiction #MicroMonday. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/11/10/m...

'Challenge is part of our lives, make it part of our reading lives too' @cdrose.bsky.social on winning the Goldsmiths Prize

'A book with an innovative approach will ... deliver no message.... But, lord, you will have experienced something.' @cdrose.bsky.social talks to the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social's Emily Lawford about the wonderful #GP2025 shortlisted novel, We Live Here Now www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

October reads! Get yer October reads! Paaaahnd a bowl! See what I read and otherwise got up to last month: https://www.draliceviolett.com/what-i-read-in-october-2025 #bookstodon #bookmastodon

Another great Colchester WriteNight session on Symbols this week hosted by talented local writer @clareshaw.bsky.social. Thank you Clare and everyone who comes along and joins in! Next session is our pre-Christmas party on 24 November. See you there @writingcommunity.bsky.social

We’re meeting this evening (27 October) at Colchester WriteNight. The brilliant @clareshaw.bsky.social is leading on Symbols! Everyone is welcome to join us for writing activities and refreshments. DM for details! Pls RT? @writingcommunity.bsky.social

We’re meeting this evening (27 October) at Colchester WriteNight. The brilliant @clareshaw.bsky.social is leading on Symbols! Everyone is welcome to join us for writing activities and refreshments. DM for details! Pls RT? @writingcommunity.bsky.social

Out today: BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2025, edited by... me! So so many great stories in here. I can't wait for you to discover them and their talented writers.

Our October sale has gone EVEN deeper! 🤩 33% off selected items while stocks last! 🚀 Discount applied automatically in our checkout. Head now to: www.saltpublishing.com/collections/...

Last chance to sign up for the FREE Online Book Launch of Malachi Whitaker's light dark n witty 1939 memoir, 'And So Did I'. With Boiler House Press Editor, Brad Bigelow, and Malachi Whitaker's Literary Executor, Valerie Waterhouse. TONIGHT, 14/10. 7pm UK, 8pm CET Link below

Celebration day for editor, Nicholas Royle and all the contributors of Best British Short Stories 2025! 🥳🎉🎈🥂

On my way home! @saltpublishing.com @nicholasroyle.bsky.social #booksky @ensfr.bsky.social

Two fantastic #BMHS events this October! 🎭 📚 Archive on Show @ Lambeth Archives – Thu 9 Oct, 2pm 🎤 Kirsty Roberts Talk @ The Water Rats – Tue 21 Oct, 7pm (celebrating Black performers in Morecambe’s history) 📖 Book here: britishmusichallsociety.com/events

Our first guest on the new ACL Essex podcast was @drabbiecairns.bsky.social 🙌 We talked art, teaching, writing her new book pub’d by Routledge & her ice skating antics. We had a lot of fun! Link below to her book & the new podcasting course Lewis Walsh & I are running here, if you fancy having a go

Applications now open (until 27 June 2025) for the Institute of Historical Research's non-stipendiary IHR Fellowships. Ideal for active, non-affiliated historians who would benefit from a period embedded in @ihr.bsky.social 's community of public, local & academic historians, archivists, curators.

Tonight at Colchester WriteNight 7-9pm Quaker Meeting House, Colchester #booksky #writerssky essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/colche...

This weekend at Essex Book Festival is a treat!!! Saturday: Marina Warner, @poetclare.bsky.social, Holly Pester and Phil Terry at St.Leonard’s Church, The Hythe Sunday: Tony Peake, James Cahill, Maggie Hambling, Radhika Howarth and Marley Karazimba at The Minories #booksky #essexbookfestival

Come to this on Saturday! Going to be such a lovely afternoon #essexbookfestival

This weekend at Essex Book Festival is a treat!!! Saturday: Marina Warner, @poetclare.bsky.social, Holly Pester and Phil Terry at St.Leonard’s Church, The Hythe Sunday: Tony Peake, James Cahill, Maggie Hambling, Radhika Howarth and Marley Karazimba at The Minories #booksky #essexbookfestival

Thank you to @moniqueroffey.bsky.social for the wonderful conversation last night at Essex Book Festival. My mind was buzzing afterwards and I’m still thinking! Thanks to the Maldon Library staff who were fabulous hosts as usual 💕 Good luck with the crowd funding the Hey! Festival is going to be👌

Looking forward to chatting to you this evening, Emma at Maldon Library. #Passiontide

Preparing to interview @moniqueroffey.bsky.social at Maldon Library for Essex Book Festival tonight (5 June) at 7pm. Thrilled to be chatting about her latest book Passiontide! What would you ask Monique? What are your favourite author interview questions? Join the conversation - link above #booksky

❤️ ESSEX BOOK FESTIVAL has launched! 📚 Sir Ben Okri at Electric Palace Cinema with ‘Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken Hearted’. Inspiring thoughts - to write with lightness of touch and knowledge of darkness, continual transformation (writers! humans!) ✍🏽 with Colchester WriteNight

This sounds great @saltpublishing.com. On the need-to-read list!

Tomorrow!! City of Literature Publishing Fair Sunday 25 May National Centre for Writing at Dragon Hall 10.00 - 16.00 Price FREE Discover the vibrant publishing culture of the East of England at our popular biannual publishing fair! nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/events/city-...

Some of my best PhD experiences @universityofessex.bsky.social included presenting and attending @ensfr.bsky.social conferences. Here is my spotlight on writing short fiction (thanks Ines Gstrein & Paul Anthony Knowles). The challenge was answering 3 questions in 75 words! ensfr.univ-angers.fr

Thank you @livimichael.bsky.social Another great episode, this time on getting back to the source of your creativity and being realistic about the publishing world. Congrats on the publication of your next novel with @saltpublishing.com #booksky #writingandpublishing

Dear #BookSky, Times are tough. We’re fundraising to share even MORE fabulous books and authors with the world. Can you help? Share this post, and buy ANY of our books at 20% off, using discount code TheBigSaltSale in our checkout: www.saltpublishing.com/discount/The... Offer ends May 31st.

Listen to Carl Phillips discuss his 2025 Griffin Poetry Prize–shortlisted collection Scattered Snows, to the North on the prize’s YouTube! 'It’s one of those interviews,' Phillips says, 'where you suddenly find you're learning a lot about yourself.' www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVJk...

Friendly reminder: send us your poems and stories relating to the topic of the climate crisis by Thursday, 15 May, 5pm (Irish Time). more info here stingingfly.org/news/submiss...

Delighted to announce we will be publishing Livi Michael’s extraordinary Victorian novel, Elizabeth and Ruth in 2026.

Every book published in the United States is sent to the Library of Congress. Also, if you are under 16 you cannot use the reading room or order books.

My thoughts on short stories

we swapped our flash fiction with writers from Austria & Hungary, today we discussed responses & read together at Flash in Translation, PesText festival. Thanks to PesText & @ensfr.bsky.social for hosting/a fab idea. More please! with @wivenhoewriter.bsky.social @paulknowles.bsky.social #writesky

Our new Small Pleasures episode! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac0U... @ensfr.bsky.social @ailsacox.bsky.social

With @wivenhoewriter.bsky.social at @universityofessex.bsky.social today! Join us in conversation about her new ‘fantastically accomplished’ sci fi/spec fic/alternative history novel The Mune @goldsmithspress.bsky.social @sfgold.bsky.social #academicsky #booksky www.essex.ac.uk/events/2025/...

On May 1st #IndiePressDay Please give love to indie books and publishers, so important to the wider ecology of stories out there for readers #booksky

A VERY special @colchesterwritenight on Mon 28 April celebrating the launch of Sue Dawes @wivenhoewriter.bsky.social ‘fantastically accomplished’ novel #themune, pub’d by @sfgold.bsky.social. Join us to chat & write at the Quaker meeting house Colchester 7pm #booksky #scifisky #scifi #althistory

I’m sharing the contents and the first page of a short story of mine (“The Enormous Man”) which came out last week in the Quarter(ly), published by @quarterpress.bsky.social . Many thanks to Chris Smith for accepting the piece. Link in first comment.

A fun exercise planned breaking all the writing rules !

A VERY special @colchesterwritenight on Mon 28 April celebrating the launch of Sue Dawes @wivenhoewriter.bsky.social ‘fantastically accomplished’ novel #themune, pub’d by @sfgold.bsky.social. Join us to chat & write at the Quaker meeting house Colchester 7pm #booksky #scifisky #scifi #althistory