TSFG 40 year anniversary anthology ‘Thursday Nights’ Launch!

Come along and help us celebrate on Tuesday 5th December 2023 at Voce Books, Digbeth. Book your free admission here.

Hear member Rachel Sambrook talk about the book on Radio WM here. (Rachel is on the 2/12/23 programme at around the 37 minute mark).

Praise for Thursday Nights from former members:


‘A wonderful collection… told with warmth and verve from some of the best Birmingham writers. I loved it.’ Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon and Without Warning and Only Sometimes.


‘This collection is gold. Pure gold.’ Amanda Smyth, author of Black Rock, A Kind of Eden and Fortune.


‘Full of heart and voice and the concerns of the contemporary moment.’ Julia Bell, author of Dirty Work


‘A really excellent anthology.’ Annie Murray, author of Chocolate Girls, Birmingham Friends and more.

Where to buy ‘Thursday Nights’ – From December 5th available at book sellers instore and online:
Voce Books, 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth, Birmingham.
Waterstones | Blackwell’s  | Amazon 

Amanda Smyth to have new book of stories out in the new year.

Amanda says:

Great news just in—LOOK AT YOU, my collection of short stories, dated from 2001 to now will be published by Peepal Tree Press in 2024. I am overjoyed. The linked stories which are located inTrinidad and UK, explore themes of displacement, belonging and loss. So happy to have Peepal bring them into the world.

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TSFG members remember Joel Lane at Voce Books event

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.

Anthony Ferner’s fourth novel is to be published in March, 2024

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

Julia Bell’s poetry collection ‘Hymnal’ is out now!

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)

Charles Wilkinson has new book out.

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.

Elizabeth O’Connor’s ‘extraordinary’ debut novel snapped up by Picador.

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!