Literary Merit in the Digital Age: A 2026 Writing Competition Review
The contemporary publishing industry is currently navigating a period of profound structural disruption, characterised by a fundamental shift in how literary talent is identified, validated, and brought to market. Historically, the transition from manuscript to published work was governed by a rigid hierarchy of gatekeepers, including literary agents, acquisitions editors, and marketing executives. However, the…
The BookTok Revolution
For any writer working in the United Kingdom today, the landscape of the publishing industry can feel as though it has shifted beneath our feet. We have moved from a world where a book’s success was determined by a handful of literary critics and a six-week window on a front-of-store table to a vibrant, chaotic,…
A Christmas Carol: How Charles Dickens Changed the World with Fiction
As writers, we see A Christmas Carol as the definition of the festive season. Everyone has adapted this cosy fireside myth from The Muppets to the Royal Shakespeare Company. However, to view Charles Dickens’s novella merely as a holiday ghost story is to ignore the feverish, desperate, and highly technical process of its creation. For…
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message, and the Physical Courage of Writing
For any collective of writers, whether aspiring novelists, seasoned journalists, or poets navigating the quiet solitude of the draft, the figure of Ta-Nehisi Coates stands as a singular, provocative study in the power of the written word. He is not merely a commentator on the American condition; he is a craftsman who has systematically dismantled…
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