FORWARD FIRST COLLECTION

Steve Spence's book A Curious Shipwreck has been shortlisted for the Forward 2010 best first poetry collection prize. It's great that Steve's book has been recognized among the best debut poetry collections this year. You can find more information about Steve's work on the Shearsman website here.

SCOTT PRIZE WINNER

I just heard that Tom Vowler is a winner in the Scott Prize run by Salt Publishing for new short story collections. Tom's collection They May Not Mean To But They Do was one of four winners in this open competition to find new talented fiction writers for this highly successful publisher of poetry and fiction. Tom's winning book will be published in hardback in UK and Australia and paperback in USA. Congratulations to Tom and to all the prizewinners in the competition.

A CURIOUS SHIPWRECK

If you're at the Language Club you might want to get a copy of this new poetry title now available from Shearsman Books of Exeter. It's Plymouth poet Steve Spence's first collection A Curious Shipwreck. Steve's work has appeared in Stride, Tears in the Fence, Tenth Muse, Great Works, Shearsman, and The Rialto. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Plymouth in 2007. Steve has been performing poems from this book for some time now; he's a regular at the Language Club and I saw him read a while back at Exeter Phoenix with Kenny Knight. Michael Mackmin of The Rialto writes: 'I think these poems are likeable, funny, intelligent, their satire exact for these times'. Good luck with the book, Steve.

SCOTT PRIZE SHORTLIST

Tom Vowler's short story collection 'They May Not Mean To But They Do' has been shortlisted for the Scott Prize for Short Fiction. Four of the shortlisted collections will be published by Salt. Tom is a Plymouth graduate MA in Creative Writing; I posted a previous story last year about his award from Arts Council England. He works on the editorial team of the journal Short Fiction. Tom's blog about writing is here.