Birmingham Writers’ Group

Birmingham Writer’s Group is thrilled that our very own Rachel McCollin, AKA author Rachel McLean, has been shortlisted for the 2021 Kindle Storyteller Award!

There were a record number of submissions for the award, now running for its fifth year. Clare Balding will help select the winner who will receive a £20,000 cash prize, a dedicated marketing campaign on Amazon.co.uk, a golden Kindle and more.

Congratulations Rachel, and good luck!

The Corfe Castle Murders by Rachel McLean

Rachel is a crime, thriller and mystery writer from Birmingham whose first experience with storytelling started in 2003. Since then, Rachel took a much-needed break to raise her two boys before returning to her deep-rooted passion in 2010. After self-publishing her first book in 2017 Rachel has seen success and continued writing several crime, thriller, and mystery stories. Now, her shortlisted novel, The Corfe Castle Murders and first book in her Dorset Crime series follows DCI Lesley Clarke a straight-talking city copper as she investigates a murder at one of England’s most iconic landmarks.

The Noirwich Crime Writing Festival is the region’s largest annual celebration of crime writing and one of the fastest-growing literary festivals in the UK.

Many incredible crime writers have attended the festival in recent years, including Val McDermid, Attica Locke, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Louse Doughty, James Runcie, Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Peter James, Anthony Horowitz, Nicci French, Paula Hawkins and Benjamin Black.

Noirwich is about the reading and the writing of crime fiction. We explore how the genre works and where it is going, thanks to our unique connection with the University of East Anglia’s creative writing department. Our crime writing workshops provide attendees with the opportunity to enhance their own skills.

The festival is a co-production by the National Centre for Writing and the University of East Anglia, bringing together our expertise to deliver a celebration of crime writing like no other.

A hybrid Festival for 2021

In 2021, Noirwich will take place in a hybrid online and in-person format. A small number of workshops will take place in Norwich, with everything else airing online.

See the Noirwich Festival website for more information.

Abridged is looking for poems and artworks on contemporary judgement.

You can send up to three poems and three artworks. Poems should be sent to abridged@ymail.com in Word format or similar and artworks should be jpeg or the like. The deadline is 03rd September. Please put your name on submissions otherwise we may think it is spam. This issue is in collaboration with Belfast Photo Festival and is funded by The Arts Council of Ireland. See their website for more information.

Aesthetica is looking for the best new writing talent. The international literary prize is open to poetry and short fiction submissions on any theme, celebrating innovation in content, form and technique.

What We’re Looking For

Bluemoose Books is an award winning independent publisher based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Kevin and Hetha Duffy started Bluemoose in 2006 and as a ‘family’ of readers and writers we’re passionate about the written word and stories. Stories are transformative and as publishers we delight in finding great new talent. We don’t have the heft of a London publishing house with the millions of pounds to promote our writers but we do manage through innovative marketing to get our books into high street bookstores and reviewed in the national press.

Submissions

We do not publish children’s books, YA or poetry. Please send the first three chapters and a synopsis. Unfortunately we can’t get back to you straightaway but will do our best to let you know if we want to see the full manuscript hopefully within sixteen weeks. Thanks for your patience.

Submissions should be sent electronically to kevin [at] bluemoosebooks [dot] com.

What better time to focus on your writing than the Easter bank holiday weekend? The National Centre for Writing’s new, short, free, online writing courses will help boost your confidence, increase your productivity and demystify the writing process. Bite-sized chapters make it easy to progress even while balancing work, school or family commitments. All you need is a computer and a love of writing!

• Make fast progress with bite-sized chapters
• Fits in around your busy life and responsibilities
• Study from anywhere on your computer or mobile device
• No deadlines, no pressure, take it at your own pace
• Gain new techniques and insights

See their website for further information.

Bazaar has celebrated original fiction within its pages since its foundation, having published the work of everyone from Virginia Woolf and Thomas Hardy to, more recently, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ali Smith. Continuing this literary legacy, we are once again launching our short-story competition in celebration of original fiction, this year adjudicated by a panel that includes the author and former Man Booker International Prize judge Tahmima Anam, who is renowned for her Bengal trilogy of novels. Joining her on the panel are the editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury Publishing Alexandra Pringle, the literary agent Caroline Michel, our contributing literary editor Erica Wagner and our editor-in-chief Lydia Slater.

To enter, submit up to 2,200 words on the theme of ‘Threads’ to shortstory@harpersbazaar.co.uk by midnight on 15 March. If possible, please submit as a Word document attachment, titled with your own name, and please provide a wordcount.

The winner will receive a two-night stay at The Mitre in Hampton Court, plus the chance to see their work published.

For full details please see the competition page.