David Frankel

If you’re into poetry, @cathygalvin.bsky.social 's new collection, Ethnology, is one of the best I’ve read in a long time.
An amazing evocation of physical place and place as it exists in memory & associations. It builds into something that is more than the sum of its (brilliant) parts.

My story, 'The Crossing' which will be published as a 'Little Uncertainty' by @uncertainstories.com later this month was partly inspired by events that happened on this border a few years ago...

Spent all week scouring August Strindberg’s memoirs for a project I’m working on. This is his most golden moment so far:
“I have been plagued for a couple of months by a smell of celery. Everything tastes and smells of celery. When I take off my shirt at night it smells of celery.”

Great stuff! Congratulations!

If you’d like a copy all is not lost – I still have a very small number of copies which you can buy via my website – www.davidfrankel.co.uk.

A happy/sad post - the amazing @salopress.bsky.social have sold the last copy of ‘The Hours of Our Lady’.
Grateful that ‘Our Lady’ did well because it sat on the ‘difficult to categorise’ shelf, so huge thanks to Salo for getting ‘Our Lady’ out into the world, and to everyone who bought a copy.

We are now taking Poetry submissions for Southword. 3 weeks to get your entry in. Click on the website link to submit your entry. Good luck! www.munsterlit.ie
#poetry #southword #poetrywriting

Last copies!

After a flurry of unexpected but joyous sales over the past few days, we're thrilled that these six chapbooks are close to selling out 😍 We have one copy of each.

Thank you, as ever, for supporting us and our writers.

(Also, did you know, our writers are paid a huge 50% royalty? ✊️)

Illustrating 'The Builder'. A look at how we created the artwork for David Frankel's story 'The Builder'.

This is a cool little article about Lucy Scott’s process of illustrating my story, ‘The Builder’. Lucy’s work is fantastic. She’s been illustrating the new anthologies and chapbooks from @uncertainstories.com . It's great to see her process .
www.uncertainstories.com/inside-stori...

Q & A with David Frankel. David Frankel answers some questions for us about writing, reading, and his short story 'The Builder'.

Looking for an interview where I babble on about reading, writing and short stories? Look no further…
Thanks to all at @uncertainstories.com !
www.uncertainstories.com/inside-stori...

Encounters: The Island Road | Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature ‘The Flats’ are an interzone of reclaimed land where the sea once separated the Isle of Thanet from the ‘mainland’. It is an expansive landscape, open to the sky. Exposed and exposing, it is a place t...

panoramajournal.org/issues/issue...

Swans and several thousand fish die amid Kent pollution incident The affected area is Sarre Penn and the adjacent River Wantsum, near Canterbury, say officials.

My essay in the new @panoramajournal.bsky.social is about the landscape of East Kent (link below). In it, I briefly discuss the pollution of the waterways. With uncanny timing there has been a serious pollution event in the very waterway I was discussing…
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Save vital Kent services Kent County Council is considering closing local libraries and rubbish tips to cut costs. Kids need libraries to learn, and tip closures risk fly-tipping on our streets. I’ve signed to stop this. Will...

Kent County Council is considering closing libraries and rubbish tips to cut costs. Denizens of Kent - please sign. I'm not saying this coz I'm an author - libraries are a vital part of any civilised society... Kids need libraries ... I did when i was a kid.
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ci...

If you're in Sheffield, we can deliver by hand, on foot, to any address in the city encircled by the blue line (and we're happy to gift-wrap books, if you like, at no extra cost). This might be useful for any last-minute Christmas orders (last day to order via this method is Tuesday 23 Dec).

Uncertain Stories Christmas Gift Guide 2025 A guide to which book to buy for your nearest and dearest, from Uncertain Stories.

You might think it’s a bit limited, given that we’ve only published one book, but this is really all the Christmas shopping you’ll need to do:

Issue 16: Encounters | Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature Welcome to Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature’s 16th edition: Encounters. In this edition, you will find over 110 works by more than 100 authors, 78 of whom are new to Panorama. 30 new...

The brilliant new 'Encounters' edition of @panoramajournal.bsky.social is available to read now.
Over 110 works by more than 100 authors. It includes essays, fiction, reviews, poetry, nature writing, and photos. As always, it’s completely free to read.

panoramajournal.org

A Personal Anthology, by Ailsa Cox Each time I’ve prepared a new edition of Writing Short Stories, I’ve referred to some different texts from writers I haven’t mentioned before.

A Personal Anthology, by Ailsa Cox
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...

More than half of UK novelists believe AI will replace their work A new study by the University of Cambridge found many authors’ work has already been used – without their permission – to train large language models

This is depressing. Can we get AI to do the boring stuff please and leave authors to write the novels? #BookSky #AI

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Secrets of a Booker Prize judge | The Observer

‘Let’s reserve the definition of “hard work” for shifts in a care home, laying undersea cable, working as an air-traffic controller without being paid’

📚 Erica Wagner on the secrets of a Booker prize judge

https://bit.ly/3XjVfEr

This was brilliant, as always. Already looking forward to next year's #TheHauntedLandscape ...

Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …

CD Rose Q&A: “Novels are like massive clouds which lower overhead” The 2025 Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author on the art world, how we measure value and the role of criticism today

'A book with an innovative approach will ... deliver no message.... But, lord, you will have experienced something.'

@cdrose.bsky.social talks to the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social's Emily Lawford about the wonderful #GP2025 shortlisted novel, We Live Here Now

www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

Front cover of Broken Ground, an anthology of stories published by Uncertain Stories. Image is a composite of things including a tree, a cube, stone etc.

Really enjoyed this collection of stories - the first anthology from @uncertainstories.com. Strange and spooky and unsettling

I read this over the weekend and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's an impeccable collection of beautifully tense short fiction with an uncanny edge. Loved it. Go to @uncertainstories.com and get your copy now.

Short Story Submission Opportunities at The Fiction Desk Information on submitting short stories to the Fiction Desk.

We’ve updated our submissions pages with news of our winter call, and info on the new ghost story call:

On a recent visit to Salisbury, I spotted the ghost of ‘Er Madge trapped in an old shop. Other highlights of the trip were the Haunch of Venison and a chat about Sebald and some new recommendations with the chaps in Waterstones – both of which I failed to document.