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Now Available: Banipal 38 - Arab American Authors

Hot off the Inpress this week is the latest issue of Banipal magazine.

Banipal 38 - Arab American Authors features over 150 pages of works of poetry, fiction and memoir by 29 writers from the USA and Canada, all of whom are of Arab origin. The new issue also includes four of the most important modernist voices in poetry from the United Arab Emirates, including Khalid Albudoor, Khulood al-Mu’alla and Nujoom al-Ghanem, who recently wowed the crowds at this year's Ledbury Poetry and London Literature Festivals.

Plus there's new work from talented young writers Youssef Rakha and Hassan Abdulrazzak, 27 pages of book reviews, and a six-page photo-report of the recent Arab American Writers conference at Ann Arbor.

Buy Banipal 38 - Arab American Authors. One or two-year subscriptions are also available.

An Inpressive Showing in the Forward Prize Shortlists

The shortlists for the 'bardic Booker' that is the Forward Prize have just been announced, with no less than three Inpress collections in contention for the Best First Collection award for 2010:

Berg by Hilary Menos (Seren) - a collection which "crackles with formal skill, with extraordinary, vibrant language… and with great style" (Carol Ann Duffy); from the intimacy of home life in rural Devon to the far-flung exoticism of Paris, Havana and New York.

How to Pour Madness into a Teacup by Abegail Morley (Cinnamon) - a compelling debut from a poet whose exploration of mental illness is acutely observed, wry, poignant, dark and humane, "daredevil ambassadors to a savage place" (Hugo Williams).

Learning Gravity by Helen Oswald (tall-lighthouse) - poems of love, elegy and memory which are "intricate, fine and beautifully crafted, underpinned by melancholy and a sense of what is missing or unsaid" (Jackie Wills).

The winners won't be announced until October, so if you're keen to keep your finger on the pulse of contemporary poetry, then here's the place to start.

People's Book Prize 2010: Winners revealed tonight!

The People's Book Prize - a unique competition that asks the public to decide who wins - will be announcing its winners this very night in London, and Inpress has two novels in contention!

The 2010 nominees include Soothing Music for Stray Cats by Jayne Joso, published by Alcemi. Flooded with warmth, humanity and a cracking soundtrack, this is a novel about battling alienation in London, “an unexpected and moving story about the redemption of misfits and the consolation of strangers” (Natalie Haynes).

Also in the running is Crazy Horse by Susan Everett, published by Route: a wacky tale of romance, coming-of-age and equicide, described by the Prize's patron Dame Beryl Bainbridge as "an excellent novel, witty, complex and full of insight. A joy to read."

The Awards Ceremony is due to take place at the fantastically named Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, near St. Paul's Cathedral. For more details, click here. And good luck to both tonight!

An all-new look at literature and reading: Felicity and Barbara Pym

Now available from our friends at Cinnamon Press, Felicity and Barbara Pym is an altogether different work of fiction. Its Pushcart Prize-winning author, Harrison Solow, seamlessly interweaves the strands of fiction and memoir into an epistolary novel that is also a tribute to and a working study of some of the great names in literary history.

The novel tells the story of teacher Mallory Cooper and her student Felicity as the latter discovers the work of the oft-forgotten Barbara Pym. In their correspondence, narrator and student discuss and debate British literary fiction and discover together, and through Felicity’s eyes we are treated to a fresh view of our favourite novelists: George Eliot, Jane Austen, D. H. Lawrence and, of course, Barbara Pym herself.

For more on what Thomas Vinciguerra of The Week calls "a dazzling performance", click here. Or to read or listen to an interview with Harrison Solow by fellow American author Phil Bolsta, click here.

No Redemption: Remembering the Strike, 25 Years On

To this day, the Miners' Strike of 1984-85 remains one of the pivotal moments in the make-up of modern British society. Now the strike and its effects on the County Durham pit village of Easington Colliery have been immortalised in No Redemption, a joint project by photographer Keith Pattison and author David Peace, published by Flambard Press.

As well as the power of the original photographs, the book also features recollections from the people of Easington themselves, interviewed by David Peace twenty-five years on, on Election Day 2010; Peace himself won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his own take on the Strike in his 2005 novel, GB84. Together the memories, still freshly felt, make explicit the anger, pain, resilience and warmth captured in the photographs. A stark reminder, and a message from history.

Buy No Redemption.

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