Where would we be without amoebas?

Derbyshire Readers Day - mentioned earlier as drawing its speakers only from small independent presses - was a great success, at least as far as this indie is concerned. Six of the speakers, Berlie Doherty, Stephen Booth, Dan Tunstall, Maxine Linnell, Danuta Reah and Charlie Williams are all associated with Five Leaves, though we are not their sole publisher in four cases but on this day they were all in our orbit. I was also pleased to chair a publishers' panel with the editors of Smith/Doorstep, Templar, Shoestring and Route, and to attend a lecture by one of the editors of Peepal Tree on the Caribbean history that forms the backdrop to Caribbean writing. I hope Jeremy Poynting repeats this talk elsewhere. It will certainly soon appear on Peepal Tree's website. Quote of the day was from Danuta Reah who mentioned that she had some dealings once with a computer shop where the owner, "would have been a serial killer had he not gone into computing". Malcolm Burgess also raised a laugh when he reported that I'd [accidentally] described Five Leaves as a "micro press" which made him think that his Oxygen Press must be an "amoeba press".

Thanks and congratulations to Derbyshire Libraries for taking the risk of devoting their whole annual event to the groundlings.

Derbyshire Readers Day goes indie: 11/12 March, Matlock

Derbyshire's annual Readers Day this year concentrates on authors published by independent publishers ranging from the Caribbean specialist Peepal Tree through to the famously fleet of foot Route. What is exciting is that every author reading is from the small independent world, or, in the case of Stephen Booth and Berlie Doherty, sometimes write for small presses (us, actually) but are usually within the mainstream. Our other writers include Dan Tunstall and Maxine Linnell talking about "young people - can't live with them, can't live without them" and a first outing for some of our new Crime Express series with Dabuta Reah and Charlie Williams keeping it short, but not sweet. I'll also be on a publisher panel with Peter Sansom from The Poetry Business and Ian Daley from Route, carefully chosen so we can discuss poetry, fiction and non-fiction. The day is actually 24 hours with Stephen Booth and Danuta Reah reading on the Friday evening as well, and afternoon tea with Candlestick Press.
The whole day costs £15 with a supplement for Friday of £3 or a Friday only ticket for £7. Full details on www.derbyshire.gov.uk/publishersday. Early booking encouraged.

World Book Day - Berlie Doherty

Congratulations to Berlie Doherty on being appointed as the first Derbyshire Reading Champion, tomorrow on World Book Day. The appointment is for two years and during this time Berlie will act as an advocate and champion reading within Derbyshire and beyond, raising the profile of reading and libraries. She will participate in a number of high profile events with children and families as well as training events for staff and partnership activities.

Berlie is a Five Leaves' "irregular" - most of her books are with other publishers but we were pleased to publish her crime novel for young adults, A Beautiful Place for a Murder. The beautiful place in question is Derbyshire of course. Indeed the book is set in her home of Edale, and some real local residents happily have walk on parts in the book. The book started as a short story in our regional young adult fiction anthology In the Frame, before it grew into a full size book. It was shortlisted for the Bolton Book Award and is in its second printing already.

We will be publishing a Five Leaves' edition of Berlie's picture book Blue John, also set in Derbyshire. By tomorrow would be good, but it might be a little longer.

States of Independence

A regional event
INDEPENDENT PRESS DAY
Clephan Building, De Montfort University, Oxford Road, Leicester
10.30am – 4.30pm, Saturday 20th March.
Independent presses from across the region (and some from around the country) will be on site, together with many regional writers whose work is published by large and small independent publishers. Join us for an hour or two or the whole day.
Open to all and free of charge.

Forty writers, mostly from the East Midlands, will be reading from their work at an events programme to accompany an equal number of independent publishers and writers' organisations staffing bookstalls and displaying their work.
Authors include nationally known figures including children's writers Berlie Doherty (twice winner of the Carnegie Award) and Chris D'Lacey, novelists Anthony Cartwright (Heartland, recently read on Book at Bedtime) and Rod Madocks (shortlisted for the ITV Crime and Thriller Awards) and poets Gregory Woods and Deborah Tyler-Bennett. We'll also be providing a Leicester launch for Maria Allen's first novel, launching the international poetry magazine Cleave and featuring talks on independent football magazines, the 1984 Miners' Strike and well known phrases and sayings.
Independent press editors taking part include Iron Press's Peter Mortimer on his “40 years before the mast” as a publisher, and Lynne Patrick from Crème de la Crime, probably the only female crime fiction publisher in the UK. Publishers, groups and magazines from the East and West Midlands and the North East in particular will be represented.
Organised by Five Leaves Publications in Nottingham and the Creative Writing Team at De Montfort Univeristy.
Printed programmes available from info@fiveleaves.co.uk, 0115 9895465. Web programmes: http://www.statesofindependence.co.uk/