The pop-up library in Selfridges

The seriously stylish department store, Selfridges, has opened their very own pop-up library until the 1^st March. The 15,000-book library set up in the UltraLounge space in the basement area of Selfridges Oxford Street store was curated by publishers Faber, Penguin, Tashen and Thames & Hudson. It aims to promote the beauty and power of the written word, and to reinforce the importance of libraries at a time when many libraries are being threatened by cuts and closures. Shopholics can enjoy handwriting analysis sessions, storytelling workshops, Penguin Classics book clubs, audio books, reading material on iPads and a game of Scrabble on the interactive screens. And plenty of celebrities are joining in the celebration, such as Sophie Dahl and Thandie Newton sharing their most treasured reads with the public.

Kimberley ChenSimilar Posts:

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"The Psychoanalytic Puppeteer Losing His Mind" by George Condo

There is no shortage of advice for writers about how to get inspired or generate ideas. This advice can range from reading other writers to taking long baths, listening to music tor reading morning pages. One of the most useful ones, in my experience, is art and photography; either visiting a gallery or actually going out with a camera or sketchbook and creating your own art. Visual stimulation is a great way to get your imagination going. As regular readers will know, we frequently provide Photo Inspirations to hopefully inspire you all.

Now The Hayward Gallery is the one providing the inspiration. To coincide with Mental States, an exhibition by George Condo  being held at Gallery, organisers are inviting the public to write 300 word short stories inspired by Condo’s portraits. The submissions will be judged by both George Condo and Hayward Gallery Director Ralph Rugoff, with the best stories being published on the Hayward Gallery blog. The overall winner will also receive limited edition George Condo playing cards, a signed catalogue and other prizes.

Spanning three decades of Condo’s work, this exhibition looks like a great way to get inspire so try writing something a bit different and maybe win some prizes. Mental States is running until January 8th. The competition closes on December 18th, so there is plenty of time to take a walk around the exhibit with a notebook in hand.

For more information on the competition see The Hayward Gallery’s Facebook page.

Alex Thornber

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A welcome speech by Patrick Dunne (of Warwick University Council and Alumnus) opened the ceremony as he encouraged the short-listed winners (and all young writers) to pursue their talent. Speeches were also given by professor Margot Finn of Warwick University and Eric Akoto, editor-in-chief of Litro Magazine. The winner – Layla Hendow – was awarded a cheque of £2500 (due to the exceptional standards of the entries, it has been revealed that this year all shortlisted winners will receive £250, thanks to senior IGGY and Warwick staff), and an extract from her story ‘La Maison de Dieu’ was read by Peter Blegvad. The winning story is due to be published in The Sunday Times Magazine.

Watch this video for exclusive interviews with Patrick Dunne, Eric Akoto and winner Layla Hendow:

Litro and IGGY International Short Story Awards 2011

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God Bless America is the theme of this issue, and after the Fourth of July fireworks have died down, with the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 approaching, now is an interesting time to look across the Atlantic to count the blessings (and curses) of the United States.

We’ve got stories by authors from the East and West coasts and points in between: from Canada, Connecticut and (in a very 21^st-century twist) by Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke, who lives in both London and New York. The narrator of Kele’s story His first dead body, aptly enough, is a semi-stranger to the Big Apple, getting a baptism of fire after a wild night out – and the alienation he feels is echoed in Louise Phillips’s Keeping Up, a tale of immigration and integration told over 100 years through key moments in American history, from Ellis Island to OJ.

Ghosts – of history, of memory, of dreams and desires – also populate this issue, from the slaves freed by the Underground Railroad in Mark Saba’s View, to the best friend who haunts hardbitten Hollywood agent Peg in Janice Shapiro’s Night and Day. Even the real estate copywriter in Paul Beckman’s bittersweet Whatchamacallit is haunted, in this case by the words that are starting to escape him.

We’ve got poetry too, from Ryan Buynak, who sings us the unheard Song of the Busboy “playing five nights a week/ sometimes six, depending/ if someone needs a shift covered” and flash fiction from former pro hardball player S. E. Cohn, who fits more story between parentheses than many more prolix writers do in a thousand words.

In Litro this month, with the support of the American Embassy, we’ve sought out and brought you brand new work by the best emerging American writers – some of these names may be new to you now, but that’s because they represent the future of Stateside literature, not its past. We believe our authors in this issue put the stars in the Stars and Stripes – and we’re sure, when you read their stories, you’ll agree.

Have a nice day!

Katy Darby
Editor

July 2011

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My Inheritance Classic – The Book Thief

“If I could pass a book onto the next generation, it would be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, a wonderfully poignant story exploring life in Nazi Germany during the 1940s. Death and loss as topics features very prominently in the story, which is actually narrated from the point of a view of a figure regarded as ‘Death’ himself, giving the book a vibrant and unusual twist.

The author has offered a different slant on the stereotypical ‘Grim Reaper’ image, instead giving the character a dark sense of humour and making him into a sarcastic, almost likeable character with a natural sinister edge to his personality. This is the defining feature of the book which makes it so enjoyable and so memorable.

A chilling, enthralling read, I think it would be greatly valuable to the next generation because it is such a marvellous book, and is certainly radically different to most other books in that it’s dark
subject and backdrop is written about through the eyes of the most unlikely character… It should really make people think deeply and more than ever it should provide them with a thoroughly enjoyable read!”

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Orange and Vintage Books launch the Orange Inheritance Collection: six novels for the next generation …
http://newsroom.orange.co.uk/2011/03/30/orange-and-vintage-classics-launch-the-orange-inheritance-collection-2/

Created to celebrate the 16th anniversary of the Orange Prize for Fiction, six Orange Prize winners have selected the books they would pass onto the next generation. The six titles are now available in paperback, priced between £5.99 and £9.99 each and as eBooks from the Orange Book Club at www.orange.co.uk/bookclub

Lionel Shriver, Kate Mosse and Mark Haddon will be speaking about their ‘Inheritance Classics’ at the Vintage Classics Day at Foyle’s, Charing Cross Road, London on Saturday 7th May. The fantastic line-up of speakers includes Jake Arnott, Sadie Jones, Sebastian Peake (Mervyn Peake’s son), Rose Tremain and Sebastian Faulks.

This event has sold out but if you want to win the set of six Orange Inheritance Classics, including novels by Hardy, Woolf and Balzac, just send an email to editor@litro.co.uk telling us which book you’d pass on to the next generation, and why, in 200 words or fewer (and including your postal address in case you win). Competition closes next Friday 13 May.

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Louise: “How did you get here?”

Johnny: “Well, basically, there was this little dot, right? And the
dot went bang and the bang expanded. Energy formed into matter,
matter cooled, matter lived, the amoeba to fish, to fish to fowl, to
fowl to frog, to frog to mammal, the mammal to monkey, to monkey to
man, amo amas amat, quid pro quo, memento mori, ad infinitum, sprinkle
on a little bit of grated cheese and leave under the grill till Doomsday.”

From the Mike Leigh film, ‘Naked’.

'Naked' by Mike Leigh

From the Editor

In issue 105 of Litro and online this month we offer a selection of science fact and fiction: we’ve got time travel from Robert Caporale, a memoir of the most terrifying science class ever from Talia Carner, teleportation gone eerily wrong in Niall Boyce’s Transmission, a Q&A with bestselling author Iain M. Banks and more besides.

Katy Darby

Editor

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Sammy won first place in the 2011 Unbound Press Short Story Award, judged by Zoë Strachan. His story, Simple Present, will appear in Unbound Press’s annual print anthology in November. You can read about the competition on the website - unboundpress.com

We would like to say congratulations to Sammy and hope that his success continues.

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We are delighted to announce the winner of the Litro and ArtBelow story contest. With the theme of ‘experiences on the Underground or Metro’, we received many excellent entries and it was a difficult decision.

However, there can be only one winner, so we would like to give our congratulations to Diana Brown, who won with the amusing and sly short piece ‘This is My Chosen Story’. Congratulations are also due to our runners up: Hazel Compton, Sarah Dobbs, Vanessa Woolf and Samuel Draper.

We would like to thank ArtBelow for making this competition possible and for providing a great prize for the winning entry.

Read on for Diana Brown’s story and look out for it for it at a London Tube station near you soon!

This is My Chosen Story

Diana Brown

John James had been in love most of his life. With people he had never met. An expert on the human condition, he felt, there was one woman, an actress, he would literally die for. Rose Harbison.

It was astonishing therefore, when one morning in late Spring, he found himself on a tube opposite her. Gazing at her for a long time, he was knocked out by her beauty. It was extraordinary that someone like her would ever choose to travel by tube. She looked at him and smiled straight at him. John James blushed to the very core of his roots and nearly died on the spot. It was her! From then on he played a game and decided to stare at her for as long as possible until she did it again. After she had vanished back into the crowds he vowed to himself he would look after Rose. He would be her protector – they had a link.

John James remained a devoted life time supporter of Rose Harbison until the year 2011 when she produced her first autobiography. He read with rapture the first 81 pages when he came across a small paragraph.

“my boyfriend paid me a lot of money to travel five stops on a tube once, because he knew I had a fear of such things. I was enjoying it until some annoying geek caught my eye and insisted on staring at me in a rather disturbing way. Needless to say I have never travelled on public transport again”.

 Needless to say, John James never went to see a Rose Harbison film again.

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