Bookplates It’s a truism that a writer does not get to choose his or her publisher. The publisher chooses the author, of course. But if I could choose, right now, I would choose William Morrow in the USA. Why? Because they have just sent my good friend Ellen Meister a stack of bookplates to give […]
Pushcart Nominations The Pushcart Prize confuses me. Here’s what they say about it: ‘Little magazine and small book press editors may make up to six nominations from their year’s publications by our December 1 deadline. The nominations may be any combination of poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot. Editors may nominate self-contained portions of […]
Still nothing … From One Chapter Promotions – obviously they just don’t respond to emails. I wonder if the people who pay them £10 for their contest would feel to know that this competition organiser can’t even be bothered to answer simple questions when they are asked politely – let along the folk who hand […]
The best prose I know … Is to be found in the Chiltern Seed catalogue. It’s not an original discovery, and I’m indebted to Beverley Nichols, my favourite garden writer, for talking about how seed catalogues could produce spring in the gardener’s mind in the depths of winter. Here’s an example of their elegant, informative […]


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