MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT AND EDITORIAL ADVICE SINCE 1996
Suhel Ahmed
Suhel Ahmed
"It was a bit strange returning to my novel Broken Paths, which I’d written some time back, to select an extract for this showcase. It was rather like being reunited with a family member after a long separation. As I skimmed through the chapters memories fizzed to the surface: the yelp of joy after writing the perfect sentence, the excitement at seeing a character come to life, the agony over trying to resolve a kink in the plot, the hours of being hunched over my desk at the cost of ignoring life outside the world of the novel."
“‘That’s when I made the mistake,’ Amina exclaimed. ‘I should have taken the money and moved to a Bengali community, somewhere in Tower Hamlets, Coventry, Luton or Leicester. It’s so much friendlier in those neighbourhoods. You would have then had a better schooling in your own culture.’ ‘Why didn’t you do it then!’ Samir snapped. ‘I didn’t want to unsettle you.’ Amina turned away and pressed her foot down on the treadle once again. The truth was that she was tempted to make the move, but also considered it a minefield for a young, single mother. For a mother who had no desire to be pressured into a second marriage and be exposed once more to the banji stigma. At the time she feared any proximity to the mealy-mouthed matriarchs in these Bengali communities. She knew how those know-it-all village wives would have eyed her as a golden ticket for some poor nephew back home – hmmm, a husbandless young woman with a British Passport, the bridge between the continents! They would have then begun circling her like sharks, courting her with kindly words: Poor beti, you can’t be expected to bring up a child on your own. I have a nephew back home. In fact, Amina counted herself fortunate to have avoided such predicaments by living in a white town. Up until the last few weeks she had been quite happy to tend to her small life as if it were a window box, watering her dreams – her son a lone plant growing all the while to provide the shade during the winter of her life.”
Previous Showcase Authors
-
Christine Laurenson
“The bird swooped down over them, landing a short distance away, near the dragon.…
READ MORE -
-
Leonardo Boix
“A leap away from becoming ghost. She stood erect, her bathing floral suit, sugared…
READ MORE -
Jill MacLean
“Priest and wise-woman have left him alone with a man whose brothers are afeard…
READ MORE -
-
Kamala Jackson
“As arranged, I met with Satyan in a solitary shack found where the margins…
READ MORE -
Vanessa Onwuemezi
“Routine was the word. I liked routine, a route to somewhere in time. A…
READ MORE -
-
TLC Pen Factor Special – winner Adam Sharp
"The carpet on the stairs is thin and tattered. A thousand shuffling footfalls have…
READ MORE -
-
Sagheer Afzal
Sidra stepped forward and looked out again. She looked around apprehensively. She knew she…
READ MORE -
-
-
Harun Rashid
“Wadud’s story was entangled in the story of his nation, bookended by the two…
READ MORE -
Romalyn Ante
“This is the most important secret my father told me: Whenever you are lost,…
READ MORE -
Maán Jalal
“Noor’s mother wore black and the air was scented with gardenias when they stepped…
READ MORE -
-
-
Alice Burnett
“Over the previous few days, Leonie had asked Venus questions in bursts. Where was…
READ MORE -
Alick Glass
“He had always felt more Scottish than Jewish. For his Barmitvah he had learned…
READ MORE -
-
TLC Pen Factor winner special – Neema Shah
"Asha walked out towards the vast water, stretching so far that it looked more…
READ MORE -
-
Akeem Balogun
“She watched with her hands holding onto her knees and her legs tightly closed.…
READ MORE -
-
Maeve Clarke
“All their mother’s warnings about what a dangerous place it was and how they…
READ MORE -
Bernard Hall
"Lorraine unlocked the car doors and they climbed in. A nervous passenger at best,…
READ MORE -
-
Sheila Chapman
“Taksheel looked resigned. It was the conclusion he had reached himself but to have…
READ MORE -
-
-
TLC Pen Factor Special
“He’d check for signs of life in a moment. For now though, he just…
READ MORE -
Anna Mazzola
“Miss Sowerton stopped before a black door and produced a large key. A rumbling…
READ MORE -
-
-
-
-
Richard Buxton
“In the centre of the square, under the American flag, a loose halyard slapped…
READ MORE -
Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
“Truman wills himself awake, peacock-plume eyed, empty champagne bottle in his lap. He squints…
READ MORE -
Michael Forester
“11.00pm glides on oil into midnight and 12.30 am, until Tolly finally finds the…
READ MORE -
Jane Aitken
“The Prime Minister’s posture looks relaxed, but if you look closely he still has…
READ MORE -
-
-
TLC Pen Factor Special
““I’ll get straight to the point”, said Dr. Mangan who proceeded to do no…
READ MORE -
-
-
Dilys Daws and Alexandra De Rementeria
"Studies show that fathers experience the same physiological response to a baby’s crying as…
READ MORE -
-
James Cook
“Ever since writing my first callow lyrics aged 14, I’d been striving to develop…
READ MORE -
-
Michelle Wareham
“Eli wrote every week from the Western Front, until his letters stopped arriving two…
READ MORE -
David Turner
“I marvelled at the vastness and flatness and emptiness of the parched red desert…
READ MORE -
Pen Factor Special
"I turned about the room, toe to toe, making the smallest circle. What I…
READ MORE -
Bernice Landry
“What I find interesting, he says, is that your clothing is all white, like…
READ MORE -
Jennifer Makumbi
“Now the crowd was in control. Everyone clamoured to hit somewhere, anywhere but the…
READ MORE -
Rebecca Swirsky
“Celia, on the other side of town, is kissing the tiny, sweet brown moles…
READ MORE -
Daniel Pembrey
“The glade was peculiarly dense around Vogel’s ungated entranceway. Pine, maple, and scrub oak…
READ MORE -
-
Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch
“Tristan did not consider himself brave. But then he did not consider himself a…
READ MORE -
-
David Spon-Smith
"A cold breeze blows over my face. Then something warm an’ wet, stinking of…
READ MORE -
-
Rosanne Daryl Thomas
"The annual Christmas present debate was abruptly suspended. Their adored maestro, Walter Albero, PhD,…
READ MORE -
Balvinder Banga
“Looking at the calendar of Ravidas, and the photograph beside it of the grandchildren…
READ MORE -
Piers Bearne
"I should have been in London, not this Essex midden swirling with pigeon-chest men…
READ MORE -
Tina Seskis
“In the end they settled on Caroline Rebecca, although Frances didn’t particularly like either…
READ MORE -
Neamat Imam
Mass graves were discovered in different parts of the country. The buried were exhumed…
READ MORE -
-
-
-
-
Philip Makatrewicz
"Ibimina’s husband has come once again to call. He must want something - a…
READ MORE -
Ruby Cowling
“Behind these fences are big houses; the houses of plump-skinned people who soften their…
READ MORE -
Adam Courtenay
“In 1542, Spanish conquistadors travelled east from the Peruvian colony of Quito, over the…
READ MORE -
-
Nicholas Lim
Dudec nodded. He fluttered a hand. “This could be something new!” “Rafal, when you…
READ MORE -
