Zed and the Cormorants wins YA category in Holyer An Gof award

An exciting weekend for Clare Owen, author of Zed and the Cormorants, who describes herself as ‘beyond chuffed’ that not only did Zed win the YA Holyer An Gof award for 2022,  but Clare herself  won the Ann Trevenen Jenkin cup for authorship of a book for children or Young Adults.

We’ve agree the cup can stay with Clare for the year – it’s all hers! We get a certificate.

There will be an interview between Tiffany Truscott, who chaired the ceremony and Clare and winners in other categories on Radio Cornwall in the near future, when we find it we’ll let you know!

The Holyer An Gof awards are administered by Gorsedh Kernow

Upcoming Events – Summer 2021

Launch of Incorcisms by David Hartley, and 100neHundred by Laura Besley – May 27th 2021 

You can get tickets here, free; or for £8.99 to include a copy of ONE of the books; or for £17.98 to include a copy of BOTH books.  Books will be sent post free.

The evening will include readings by, and chats with, Laura and David, and they will also be joined by the narrators of their respective audiobooks.  Also, THERE WILL BE CAKE (BYO): we’d like you to join us in celebrating the launch by baking (or buying) cake to eat during the event, and drinking lemonade (the reason behind lemonade drinking will be made clear on the night!).   

There will be Q&A opportunities throughout the event, and even a chance to write your own 100 word story.  So put your thinking caps on, and start making a note of all those burning questions about flash/short story/micro fiction or anything else you may wish to know about these writers and their work.  And dust off those notebooks and pens.

You can also (pre-)order the books now from our Webshop.

Arachne at Brockley Max Online – May 30th, 31st and June 1st, 2nd and 3rd 2021

This year we are running THREE events at this brilliant community arts festival, as well as hosting an evening of readings by Writers of our Age (WooA).  All events can be booked through Eventbrite (see individual links below).

May 30th, 16:00 BST – Keeping Up With Paper and Pencil

Catch Clare Owen, author of our recent YA novel, Zed and the Cormorants, in conversation with Sally Atkins, who did the beautiful illustrations for Clare’s book.  Entitled Keeping Up With Paper and Pencil, Clare and Sally will discuss creating vivid characters through words and images – so one for both writers and artists.  They’ll share their notebooks, sketches, extracts from the novel and new ways to get characters up on their feet and ready to sprint off the page. 

You can get tickets here, free; or for £10 to include a copy of the book.

May 31st, 19:00 BST – Short, Flash, Poem? 

Join Arachne authors Laura Besley (100neHundred), David Hartley (Incorcisms) and poet Rob Walton (This Poem Here) for an evening of readings and discussions dealing with issues around their chosen literary forms and touching on questions such as, do authors know what a piece will be when they start writing it?  When is flash a prose poem?  Do poems sometimes change into stories? How dark does fantasy have to be to qualify as horror, and is it allowed to be funny?

You can get tickets here, free; or for £8.99 to include a copy of ONE of the books.

June 2nd, 19:00 BST – Imagined Spaces – A Writer’s Approach to Place

Join authors and ex-Brockley residents, Lily Peters and Jackie Taylor for readings and discussion around the use of ‘place’ in their forthcoming titles with Arachne, Accidental Flowers (Lily) and Strange Waters (Jackie).

You can get tickets here, free; or for £9.99 to include a copy of ONE of the books.

June 3rd, 19:30 – WooA – Back in the Water

Join Writers of our Age (WOOA), a well established, published mix of local writers, for readings of specially written stories under the heading ‘Back in the Water’.

You can get tickets here, free.

Last Night’s Q&A with Alex Smith

A wide ranging discussion of Devilskein & Dearlove, and children’s books in general over the last 100 years, the invention of Childhood and all sorts!

find the discussion on GoodReads here

The group is public so anyone can join, read and comment. You can always ask more questions, which Alex will answer if & when she notices them! (We get an email when someone posts, so should be able to prompt if necessary).

If we can get the technology to work, Alex will be live on skype from Cape Town tomorrow (Wednesday 23rd) at The Story Sessions, at the Cafe of Good Hope 216 Hither Green Lane, SE13 6RT. Doors 7pm. £3.

Devilskein & Dearlove is after the interval – so you can grab the mic and ask her something ‘face to face’ (ear to ear??). If we don’t manage that, you can at least listen to a section being read by the lovely Malini Stevenson, and catch up with our other readers and authors present in person. You can even join in with your own YA influenced 100 word ‘Flash From The Floor’.

Alex Smith Live Q&A and give away on GoodReads

If you have a GoodReads account, join us on Monday 21st July at 7pm for live Q&A with Alex Smith, you can join the group now, and leave questions about Alex’s writing and Devilskein & Dearlove in particular, as soon as you like. If you aren’t already on GoodReads it’s very simple to join, you can sign in via Facebook or twitter. We are also running a giveaway (UK only) on GoodReads from 21st July to the end of the month to celebrate publication of Devilskein & Dearlove on 24th July – see below.

And you can hear a section of the book read at this month’s The Story Sessions.

Q&A with YA Author Alex Smith

Q&A with YA Author Alex Smith 2 members

Alex will answer your questions live between 7pm and 8pm (British Summertime) – (That’s 8-9pm if …

Books we’ve read





View this group on Goodreads »

Share book reviews and ratings with Q&A with YA Author Alex Smith, and even join a book club on Goodreads.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Devilskein & Dearlove by Alex    Smith

Devilskein & Dearlove

by Alex Smith

Giveaway ends July 31, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

The Devil in The Detail

Read an interview with Alex Smith about her forthcoming (only 23 days to go!!) novel Devilskein & Dearlove, at Teen Librarian, Matt Imrie’s excellent blog about Young Adult books.

ANDREW SALOMONIn it, Alex talks about the filmic quality of the story, and her love of animation. Of course when the interview was done, I hadn’t told her we were planning a miniature animation as a trailer for the book. If you haven’t seen it yet you can find it here.

And if you want to know even more about Alex, you can read her blog, where she has a wonderful photo of a doorway made of books.