The Literary Sofa
Isabel Costello
The notebook, the craft and the long hard graft
Firstly, thanks so much to everyone who entered the Literary Lunch competition and a big welcome to new subscribers. The number of entries topped all previous years and once again resulted in a brilliant and eclectic list of book recommendations. Next week I’ll publish them in list form and you can join me in picking … Continue reading
Literary Lunch Competition 2019 – now ended
*COMPETITION NOW ENDED* Every autumn I run this competition to celebrate another year in business on the blog, which turned 8 a couple of weeks ago. There was too much going on at the time, with my Month of Canadian Fiction and last week’s guest post by Ken Elkes on Flash Fiction, both of … Continue reading
Guest Author – K M Elkes on Flash Fiction
This is not only the first guest post of the autumn season, it’s also the first time flash fiction has appeared on the Literary Sofa. This wasn’t a gap I was actively looking to fill, although it’s certainly long overdue – the vitality of the flash scene and the increasing popularity of the ultimate short … Continue reading
A Month of Canadian Fiction
You’ve seen the mountains, now let’s talk about the books! After last week’s travel post on Canada, here’s the one I promised on my month of reading exclusively Canadian fiction (an action-packed two week trip didn’t give me much time to read, so I kept going). When I asked my Twitter followers for recommendations of … Continue reading
Two Weeks in the Canadian Rockies and NW Montana
There’s nothing like mountains, or any vast natural landscape formed millions of years ago, to remind us humans how tiny and temporary we are. When you look at it that way, our trip to the Canadian Rockies and north-western corner of Montana wasn’t as long ago as it feels (back at the beginning of my … Continue reading
Autumn 2019 on the Literary Sofa
Hope you’ve had a great summer. This is a quick post to say that the Sofa is back in business after the break (although if you missed Charlie Fletcher’s wonderful Writers on Location piece on the Outer Hebrides which magically appeared last week, do check it out) and an update on what I’ve been doing. … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Charlie Fletcher on the Outer Hebrides
This is the first time a post has appeared on the blog when I’m not officially ‘here’ (on the Sofa or on Twitter). Normal service will resume next week but for anyone who needs a late summer away-from-it-all trip, today I’m hosting a Writers on Location on the Outer Hebrides, a setting I was keen … Continue reading
Summer Reads Extra 2019
How’s your summer going? Mine’s been great and incredibly busy so far – definitely time to wind down with my last post before taking a nice long break*. I’m glad to hear that many of you are enjoying books you discovered on my Summer Reads selection and/or the guest author series which ended last week … Continue reading
Guest Author – Peter Papathanasiou – Resilience on the road to publication
Five years ago, a friend asked if I’d be willing to meet up with a Greek-Australian writer who was new to London and the UK publishing scene and share a few tips. That writer is today’s Sofa guest Pete Papathanasiou, who joins me with the final post in my Summer Reads line-up just ahead of … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Alison Layland on Rural Shropshire
This is the penultimate guest post about a title from my Summer Reads selection and I’m delighted to welcome back Alison Layland, who wrote about her work as a literary translator on her first visit to the Sofa some time ago. Her new novel Riverflow could be described as an ‘eco-thriller’ (if that’s not already … Continue reading
My Novel – Now out in paperback
