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Writers Talk Books - Literature Matters - Literature - British Council - Arts

For those unable to sign up for their nearest creative writing course, we have put together a selection of some inspiring titles that may help aspiring writers to solve some of their creative difficulties. Writer's block, inspirational ideas and the publishing industry are all covered in our list.

So far it’s been a good year for fiction, with new novels by starry types such as Jeanette Winterson and Louis de Bernières, new collections of short-stories by the likes of Julian Barnes and Rachel Seiffert and a whole raft of other exciting new titles. Here Valentine Cunningham rounds up some of his recent favourites.

A complete list of books referred to in this edition

There is so much good stuff around at the moment that books are piled even higher than usual around my bed. First I am going to pick the brilliant Grenadian short-story writer Jacob Ross, whose displays his effortless range of voices, from witty patois – 'Granny didn have no problem when the white man tell she she stupid… She didn even cuss im afterwards behind he back an call im no sand fly….no big guts, half bake so-and-so from Englan' – to classic lyrical prose, assonant and sensuous: 'Hands that seemed to have an intelligence of their own, to possess a knowledge of these roots, these leaves, these slivers of red and brown and silver bark that were separate from the rest'. Many of his skills have been transferred to writers Ross has taught in-, a sparky anthology of short fiction edited by Ross and Andrea Enisuoh this year. There is wit (Sharon Harris and Dawna Lee), a lyrical, sometimes elegiac look at both love and violence (Suzanne Stewart), and a Kafkaesque, cool metaphysical thriller (Carol M Sidney), and lots else besides. Lastly Diane Middlebrook's elegantly shaped and unremittingly intelligent portrait of Ted Hughes's continuing poetic dialogue with Sylvia Plath, which continued after Plath's death and fired the self-portrait he chose to leave posterity in his last works, and .

A Way To Catch The Dust by Jacob Ross   Her Husband by Diane Middlebrook

Maggie Gee was chosen as one of Granta's 'Best of Young British Novelists' in 1993. She has published many novels to great acclaim, including , , and . Her bestselling novel, , was shortlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction and nominated for the International Impac Literary Award 2004. She is Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, and lives in London.

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