Linen Press

27/01/2024

Dejected by rejections?

We have the inside story about pitching your writing to publishers, agents and competitions.

Lynn Michell has taken only 12 unsolicited submissions through to publication with Linen Press in 18 years. Why do so many writers fail to impress her? What are they doing wrong?

Avril Joy has been listed for a wide swathe of awards and can tell you what she has learned about a successful pitch to a publisher or competition.

Join these two for a morning workshop of helpful advice and encouragement. February 11th at 11 am.

All writers welcome.

There is no fee, but to book your place, we ask you to buy a copy of The Silent Women and the water all around us which will be used in the workshop. Purchase here and write FINEPRINT in the message box. We will then email you details.

06/12/2023

BOOK CAMP

How about starting January 2024 with a friendly, informative writing event in Tooting organised by Linen Press?

Students, novice writers and emergent writers are particularly welcome. Move between tables to work and talk with our experienced, helpful authors. Find out about submitting your writing to a small indie women's press.

The event is in the lovely Library which has a bar.

All writers very welcome.

08/11/2023

CALLING WOMEN POETS EVERYWHERE

Following the outstanding success of our first poetry collection
Tabula Rasa, we are planning a second book to be published in the spring of next year.

We welcome emergent and established writers.

24/10/2023

Thank you, Anna Caig, for this beautifully perceptive review in the Sheffield telegraph of THE WATER ALL AROUND US.

'this is a book dominated by water - love and awe for the ocean permeate every page.'

One morning, an enormous s***m whale beaches on a remote island in the Hebrides, a place where whales do not belong.

24/10/2023

Join us in Durham to meet Avril Joy in conversation with Maureen Freely and Lynn Michell. There will be signed copies available for purchase, and tickets are on the Collected Books website!

Buy tickets here 🎟️: https://collectedbooks.co.uk/products/sense-of-place-in-fiction-with-linen-press-tuesday-7-november-6-30pm

Event members:




Information and description taken from Collected Books website.

23/10/2023

Linen Press is officially accepting submissions! We are mostly interested in memoirs and longform fiction that is uplifting and inspiring. Are you ready to share your work?

19/10/2023

18/10/2023

Join Lynn Michell in Durham for the book launch of ‘the water all around us’ on November 7th. You will have the opportunity to hear directly from the author as she answers questions and reads excerpts, as well as the chance to purchase signed copies!

15/10/2023

We are so excited to reveal the cover of our next publication… the water all around us by Lynn Michell 🐋

Get ready to meet a crofters’ child, a swimmer, and a young whale on a small Scottish island.

10/10/2023

Linen Press has some very exciting news for you… A new book, coming soon!
We can’t wait to reveal the cover, but can you take a guess at what is on it first? Let us know in the comment section ⬇️

08/10/2023

Hello, October…
Across the world, the beginning fall leaves, warm coffee, cozy sweaters, pumpkin carvings and rainy book days ahead.
From our corner, we have exciting things to share with you this month, as our scrapbooking table promises…

07/10/2023

COLLECTED BOOKS, DURHAM
Unit 44, The Riverwalk, Durham DH1 4SL
November 7th, 18.30pm.

A LINEN PRESS EVENT with AVRIL JOY, MAUREEN FREELY
AND LYNN MICHELL.

CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE IN FICTION, A BOOK LAUNCH, AND YOUR CHANCE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT A SMALL INDIE WOMEN'S PRESS.

THERE'S A LOT GOING ON THAT NIGHT:
The launch of THE WATER ALL AROUND US, Lynn Michell's new novel about belonging and roots, islands and oceans.
A discussion with Maureen Freely, Avril Joy and Lynn Michell about how novelists create and use a strong sense of place.
Your chance to ask Lynn Michell about her small but mighty independent women's press, now in it 18th year. Maybe you have a ms in a drawer?

We hope to see you there. Tickets available now:

An evening with Avril Joy, Maureen Freely and Lynn Michell How do writers create a sense of place that lives and breathes on the page; a landscape, the sea, a building or rooms in a house. At this event, we join three writers for a discussion about how they build worlds in their novels and how place...

04/10/2023

'When your nation is marred by war or legacies of conflict, ties to home become knotted and complex.'

Join Maureen Freely and Lana Bastašic at the Birmingham Literary Festival for a lively, informed discussion about family, history, loss and legacy.

When your nation is marred by war or legacies of conflict, ties to home become knotted and complex. Two novels with this at their heart.

29/09/2023

THEY HAD A BALL...
Maureen Freely and friends and colleagues and book readers.
Stanfords, London.
Last night.

26/09/2023

NEARLY LAUNCH TIME

The launch of MY BLUE PENINSULA by Maureen Freely is at the lovely Stanfords book shop, Covent Garden, London on Thursday October 5th at 19.00.

You are all very welcome. Maureen will be there to talk about her fourth novel set in the Istanbul of her childhood, and to sign copies.

We are delighted to welcome Maureen Freely with her latest novel My Blue Peninsula. A powerful and vivid tale of love, family, violence and betrayal, which shines a light on one of the twentieth century’s most shameful and little-known atrocities. Beautifully written, both intimate and epic, and w...

15/09/2023

With Maureen Freely’s upcoming publication of ‘My Blue Peninsula’, here are some events to keep an eye on for the chance to get an insight into her latest work!

07/09/2023

THREE WEEKS TO PUBLICATION DAY.

And Maureen Freely is a very busy author!

Do go along to one of these literary festivals as Maureen tours the country and talks about her new novel MY BLUE PENINSULA.

"My Blue Peninsula is profoundly intelligent,
moving and brave.”
- Nicci Gerrard

06/09/2023

TIDELINES BOOK FESTIVAL

Our very own MARGOT MCCUAIG is in conversation with the wonderful JUDY MURRAY who has a debut novel out.



Judy Murray is coming to Irvine! We are BEYOND delighted to confirm Judy is coming at 11th Sept to talk about her life, her career and her first novel 'The Wild Card'. Booking link below, tickets flying faster than a Djokovic serve 🎾📚😉

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/harbour-arts-centre/tidelines-book-festival-presents-judy-murray-the-wild-card/e-vmaorp

26/08/2023

INSIDE THE LINEN CUPBOARD
AVRIL JOY in conversation with Lynn Michell

Our monthly events continue this Wednesday with Avril Joy, Costa and People's Book Prizewinner, talking about how she creates a whole world inside a novel. She'll be reading from Sometimes A River Song set in a river boat community in Arkansas, and from The Silent Women in which she uses three female narrators to bring to life a women's asylum in 1875. We readers dive into these vivid fictional worlds and don't emerge until the last lines. How does Avril do it?

The event is free and you can get your ticket here:

One-hour in-conversation event with author Avril Joy about her newly-released novel, The Silent Women. Free to attend but donations welcome.

23/08/2023

TABULA RASA reviewed in London Grip.

ANOTHER lovely review for Tabula Rasa. Thank you Merryn Williams.

"It’s important to remember the women who did not have opportunities and it’s encouraging that so many women have now found their voice."

Only around two generations ago, very few women poets were taken seriously by the English literary establishment. Thankfully, that has changed; hundreds if not thousands of women are now writing and publishing good poetry and all-female antholgies are quite common. I’ve known a few women who refus...

15/08/2023

THE DOLPHIN
Susan Clegg

'Moving, upsetting, and close to reality, The Dolphin elevates mundane lives to disclose how and why we take certain decisions to insure our bliss.'

Another hugely appreciative review from Sheffield Magazine of this subtle but convincing study of damaging social pressures on individuals, especially Larry Lambert who, in the 1930s, suppresses 'his q***r love' and pours his passion into the building of a pub.

'I felt both a degree of melancholy but also great compassion when reading Larry’s fixation with keeping the pub in order, because it revealed how aware he was about the unlikelihood of a q***r future.'

The Dolphin, Susan Clegg’s debut novel, was released 5 July 2023 by Linen Press. Seamlessly interweaving the narratives of three generations of the Lambert family from the late 1930s to the early 1970s, the novel is mainly set in a small town south of Sheffield. Clegg explores the damaging pressur...

09/08/2023

🔔EVENT NEWS🔔

Join us on the 30th of August to hear the amazing talk about her newly-released novel, The Silent Women.

Free entry, so swing by! Get tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creating-the-world-of-the-novel-tickets-694756353957?aff=oddtdtcreator