Alan Beard has had two pieces published online. The first ‘Snow, 1979’ was also nominated for Best Microfiction 2024. Here it is: https://trampset.org/snow-1979-b0827903e7c3

The second story ‘Green Man’ was published by Fictive Dream . Find it here.

TSFG members Mick Scully, Alan Beard, Gaynor Arnold and Steve Bishop talked about their personal memories of Joel Lane and his time in the group at the recent Joel Lane day at Voce Books, Digbeth. The event was well attended; it was good to see Joel picking upp a new audience.

Pictures below: Steve (top) and Alan reading (giving Gaynor a headache by the look of it), and the new editions of (some of) Joel’s books.

Update, Nov 26th 2023: Proof copies arrive:

Long time member Anthony has his fourth novel coming out from Fairlight Moderns. Here’s what the cover will look like:

Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

“Alone in his Madrid apartment and faced with the prospect of losing his family, David Aguilera confronts his conflicting Catholic and Jewish identities to reconnect with his wife and children.”

Anthony adds: ‘the action takes place in an only slightly parallel Europe that is fraying at the edges… Aguilera is a naval captain with the ‘European Defence Force’, awaiting the judgement of a court of inquiry into the sinking of his vessel on the Baltic Sea and watching his family life founder along with his career.’

TSFG members appearing at Joel Lane Event, The Witnesses Are Here.

Hosted to coincide with the republication of Joel’s extraordinary books The Blue Mask & Where Furnaces Burn, ‘The Witnesses Are Here’ will feature talks, panels, music, readings, screenings, live art & more, brought to our Birmingham home by a roster of writers, poets & artists all inspired by the work of Joel Lane.

4 members of Tindal Street Fiction Group will be talking about Joel Lane’s tenure in the group before his untimely death in 2013, as part of the event at Voce Books, Digbeth on November 11th, 2023. Our slot begins at 4pm.

Here’s a link to the whole programme: https://www.influxpress.com/events/2023/11/11/joel-lane-the-witnesses-are-here

‘Digbeth Stories’ – an anthology of new writing from the Second City – is launched tonight (19th July 2023) at Voce Books, Digbeth @ 7pm. It features two current members of TSFG: Alan Beard and Rachel Sambrooks and two ex members, Kit de Waal and Garrie Fletcher.

After three novels and a book of essays ex TSFG member Julia has published her first collection of poetry, a memoir in verse about growing up as the daughter of an evangelical vicar in Wales. It is attracting rave reviews:

‘These full-throated poems bring to resonant life the story of a daughter whose father’s calling “sits on all our shoulders like a fog”’. (John McCullough).

‘..vivid, intense and freeing.’ (Maggie Mackay)

‘superb, intriguing’ (nation.cymru)

Charlie has another book ‘The Harmony of the Stares’ out with Egaeus Press. They say:

‘Egaeus Press and the marvellously unique Charles Wilkinson join forces once more for The Harmony of the Stares: Ten diversely strange tales, steeped in menace, linked in the most unexpected ways by an auricular theme… These are tales in which music often plays a role: music as ritual, music as language, impossible music, lethal music. But here also are the silences, the stop-gaps between notes, the attempted retreats from the audible world.’

More information here.

Associate member Elizabeth was at the centre of a ten-way auction for her first novel, which was eventually won by Picador. The novel ‘Whale Fall’ has been described as one ‘of incredible intensity, immense control, and devastating beauty. It is that rare combination of a thrilling read and a novel of profound resonance.’ Read more here.

Readers will have to wait until 2024 for its publication. We’re looking forward to it!

Helen has written a piece for the Royal Literary Fund on researching for her novel set in post first world war Ireland and Russia. Tindal Street Fiction Group has a role. Read it here.

Kit’s autobiographical book about growing up in Birmingham has been garnering wonderful reviews. Here’s one from the Guardian, and another from The Scotsman. It has been called intelligent, angry, very funny, and richly observed. It was serialised on BBC Radio 4.