Issue 64 (Dec/Jan/Feb 2014/15)

Special

Agenda
Jam sessions: Viv Groskop demystifies the sticky world of literary festivals – and explains how to get on the programme

Survey
Are you a hermit? Results of our survey into your attitudes towards courses, groups and networking

Interview
Sadie Jones talks to Alex Clark

Features
Writing for nowt: Diane Shipley on why writing for free is a feminist issue
Is that a gun in your pocket? What happened when Juliet Platt became a man for a day
From page to stage: Claire Trévien on turning a reading into a performance

Directory
12 pages of competitions, calls for submissions, grants, courses, events, contacts, venues.

Regulars

New writing
Julia Blackburn introduces poetry and prose on the theme of ‘ancestors’

Publishing trends
Books to look out for: Danuta Kean on trends in science writing
What’s new in spy fiction, by Jane Thynne
How to write a bestseller: Divergent
Literary agent interview, Felicity Bryan

Author insights
Making a poem the Karen McCarthy Woolf way, interviewed by Fiona Sampson
It works for me: advice from novelist Elizabeth Day

Guides and masterclasses
Short story masterclass by Margaret Wilkinson
Digidoings: turning a blog into a book, by Katy Evans-Bush
Synopsis Surgery being selective by Kathryn Price
Self-help by Caroline Sanderson

Plus…

What went horribly wrong
for Elif Shafak

Bedside table
The table, the costume, the method, the books of Lucy Porter

Book reviews
Poetry, short story, nonfiction choice, reading group, independent press

And to keep you going between issues…
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