Books From Scotland has done an interview with Editor Nick Holdstock and contributor Angus Woodward. Have a look at the inspiration and method behind Stolen Stories – HERE .

Read what The Skinny says :

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Forest Publications invites you to celebrate our new anthology with readings in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Please pass this invite along to any you think might be interested.

Forest Publications Presents

Stolen Stories

Never, ever trust a writer. One minute you’re pouring your heart out over Bacardi Breezers, the tale of you and him, or you and her, the tears, the anguish, the pain. Next thing you know it’s all over the papers, the hilarious and best-selling tale of some twit who resembles you in every way except they have black hair and better music taste. But this is what writers do. They steal, they take, they lie. We feel there is no shame in this, quite the opposite. In order to celebrate this fact we have

complied an anthology of the finest ‘stolen’ stories, a collection of 16 tales from both established and eager, new thieves, all of whom have been forced to confess the source of their thefts.

Featuring:

Craig Bayne • Louis E. Bourgeois • Lindsay Bower • Ron Butlin • Regi Claire

Rusty Harris • Nick Holdstock • Alison Key • Alison Miller • Nicole Reid • Sarah Salway

Lauren Simpson • Jo Swingler • Lucille Valentine • Dinh Vong • Angus Woodward

I helped edit this new anthology.

The New Anthology From Forest Publications

Never, ever trust a writer. They cluck and nod and listen and then three months later they splash your tragedy/foolishness/very embarrassing incident involving a raspberry jelly and a pair of warm curling tongs over the tawdry pages of a literary quarterly. We feel there is no shame in this. Quite the opposite: we believe this ugly fact deserves to be celebrated with all the pomp and hullaballoo we can possibly muster. Therefore we are compiled an anthology of the finest stolen stories, the anecdotes and overheard conversations that simply demand to be told. We feel that it is time to be honest. This is where our ideas come from.

Enquires: 

stolen.stories.book@googlemail.com

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Featuring

Craig Bayne – co-editor of Glasgow literature and arts magazine ‘Are Volitional’

Louis E. Bourgeois – founder and editor of VOX PRESS. His collection, The Gar Diaries, was nominated for The National Book Award in 2008.

Lindsay Bower

Ron Butlin – Edinburgh’s Makar (Poet Laureate).

Regi Claire– her  published books are Inside~Outside (shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award) and The Beauty Room (longlisted for the Allen Lane/MIND Book of the Year Award)

Rusty Harris

Nick Holdstock– his work has recently appeared in Stand, the Edinburgh Review, and Textualities.

Alison Key– her story, The Ground Beneath Her Feet,  won first prize in the Cinnamon Press short story award 2008

Alison Miller – Alison’s first novel Demo was published by Penguin in 2006.

Nicole Louise Reid – editor of Southern Indiana Review and the author of In the Breeze of Passing Things (MacAdam/Cage).  Her stories have appeared in The Southern Review, Quarterly West, Meridian and many more. She is the winner of the 2001Willamette Award in Fiction

Sarah Salway – Her third novel, Getting the Picture, will come out with Random House in Summer 2009.

Lauren Simpson – her fiction has been published in The Golden Hour Book and V: New International Writing from Edinburgh.

Jo Swingler– has been longlisted for the Bridport Prize and Cinnamon Press First Collection Award.

Lucille Valentine

Dinh Vong– former international editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review.

Angus Woodward– Margaret Media published his collection of short stories, Down at the End of the River, in 2008.

An Old Photographer Gives Up

Dear camera, today we are glaucoma.
Better now to use you in some other way:
    paint you for the suffering,
    walk you like a broke dog,
    give you to the Slav reporter.

I cannot hold you any closer, stand
to hear painters tease money from seaside faces:
    noose you around another neck,
    sink you with stones in your pocket,
    cut your lens deep, leave you in the tub.

We have seen so much black and white, have toned
and contrasted. I never thought it could get so dark.
    I would take you with me
    but I cannot see to shoot,

cannot wait till milk develops; half clear, half white,
cannot half-watch the while pass.

<originally published in November 2007 in V: An Anthology of International Writing From Edinburgh from Edinburgh University Press>

“Everyone Always Talking About Jesus” and “Retrieving the Dead” have been published in Northwords Now. It is available throughout Scotland and the UK for free in most major cities.

The Chemical Poets Performing Live at the SPL

My article about being Reader in Residence is in the Skinny and available on-line.

poster by Jason Morton

The Golden Hour Featuring:

The Forest Chior!
Jason Morton
Ben Lancaster
The Forest, Edinburgh

IKTOMS : 8pm
upstairs at The Liberties Bar, 100 Camden High Street, Camden

Folkadot : 8pm
London, The Green Note (One of the most beautiful venues in london), 106 Parkway, Camden, NW1 7AN