The Reader Berlin

26 April 2012

Showcase: Short Story ‘Last Days’ by Joan Ray

When they took away Peter’s father he was raving. The end of the world was coming, it was coming soon, and we were all going to die. They knew, but they didn’t want the truth to get out. That’s why he was being silenced, and so on. In response to Mrs Hunter’s emergency call the operator had sent two burly paramedics, but they had not been enough and it had taken an additional four policemen to restrain him.

My mother delivered the news erratically, waving one arm as though she too was caught up in apocalyptic fervour. Then, on her way to the couch, she sank down to the hall rug and lay there, her face all concertinaed on one side, as though it had been the weight of Peter’s father’s revelation, and not a quart of vodka, that had been too much for her. June 23^rd, she said and passed out.

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6 December 2011

The Incident – by Kenneth Macleod

The Reader is delighted to be able to showcase this extract from Kenneth Macleod’s The Incident , which is being published by Wiedenfeld and Nicolson and will be on the shelves from April 5th 2012. Written in Berlin by one of our own, the talent is obvious; what you can’t see is the grit it took to get it done. The Reader witnessed it and this book is a testament to not only to talent but to bloody hard work, and should be read as an encouragement to every author struggling to get the work down and get it out there. Many thanks to Wiedenfeld and Nicolson for giving The Reader permission to publish this excerpt.

The reason my grandfather, Gordon McInnes, felt that everyone should learn to swim was because at the start of the war he was unable to. At that time he was a qualified merchant seaman, and for a poorly-schooled young man from a working-class Glasgowfamily he considered himself, prior to 1939, fortunate in his job. It was secure and well-paid and it showed him people and places he would never otherwise have seen. He already had a wife and two young children, with a third baby (my father) on the way, and marriage being what it was in those days perhaps he also felt relief at being absent from his family responsibilities for the duration of the voyages – for he was still only in his mid-twenties. So it was for a mixture of reasons that he thought of himself as very lucky. But it wasn’t until some months after war broke out that he began to realise he would need to be very lucky – very lucky indeed – if he wanted to come out of that same job at the end of the war alive and more or less in one piece.

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2 November 2011

Showcase: Prologue to The Disruptions – by Brigid Delaney

PROLOGUE. Olympic City.

The party was in a disused aircraft hangar in a part of town that half way through that violent decade would suddenly become cool, and thus gentrified and expensive. But at the time, on the closing night of the 2000 Olympic Games, it was a choice regarded by many as risky – controversial even.

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06.05.2012. Berlin.

Spring-Summer Newsletter

by The Reader on 6 May 2012 at 19:27

Thanks to everyone who has entered The Reader’s short story competition. A reminder that the updated deadline is May 31^st – so there are still a few weeks to get your entry to us.

Since EXBERLINER is going to publish the winning story in their summer issue, we have to meet their print deadline of June 18^th. This means that the judges – Jen Hewson of Rogers, Coleridge & White, Sharmaine Lovegrove of Berlin’s own Dialogue Books, The Reader’s Victoria Gosling and author Kenneth Macleod – are going to have a very busy couple of weeks sifting through the entries to find a shortlist and overall winner.

Pencil in Friday 29^th of June for the winner’s party, only in pencil mind! We’re hell bent on finding the perfect location and believe we’re getting closer. Look out for an email confirming the date, time and venue in the next couple of weeks.

Along with editing a poetry collection, a novel exploring the so-called Argentine “dirty war” of the 1970s and a tantalisingly opaque collection of short stories, The Reader is preparing to begin 2 new writing classes on the 15^th and 16^th May.

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02.05.2012. Berlin.

Kenneth Macleod to join the judging panel

by The Reader on 2 May 2012 at 09:42

The Reader is very happy to announce that Kenneth Macleod has agreed to become the fourth and final judge on the panel of The Reader’s 2012 short story competition. He will be joining Jen Hewson of Rogers, Coleridge & White, Sharmaine Lovegrove, founder of Dialogue Books and The Reader’s Victoria Gosling.
Kenneth, who gave a decade of his life to Berlin, is author of THE INCIDENT (published Wiedenfeld & Nicolson).

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20.04.2012. Berlin.

New Creative Writing Classes Beginning Mid-May

by The Reader on 20 April 2012 at 08:59

So, The Reader is getting ready to begin 2 new creative writing groups.

The first will start on Wednesday the 16th of May and run for 8 weeks. Class starts at 6:30pm and finishes around 8:30pm. The total cost of the course is 80 Euros and a deposit of 30 Euros will need to be paid in advance once the final list has been confirmed.

Along with regularly submitting work to be critqued by the group, participants will have the opportunity to take a close look at narrative technique, characterisation, dialogue, voice, etc.

Since many of the members of the previous course have chosen to continue, there are only a couple of places left on this one, which means…

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10.04.2012. Berlin.

Drop in evening Wednesday 23rd May

by The Reader on 10 April 2012 at 17:57

So next Wednesday the 23rd May, The Reader and Another Country Bookshop will be holding a drop in for writers from 8:30pm. Come along, share your work or talk about it, chat to Victoria and Sophie about whatever’s on your mind, sign up for a creative writing class…or just drink lots of wine and harass the books.

Bis dann!

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23.03.2012. Berlin.

The Reader’s 2012 Short Story Competition & EXBERLINER

by The Reader on 23 March 2012 at 19:12

The Reader is really thrilled to announce that along with all the other goodies, the winner of this year’s short story competition will have their winning entry published in the EXBERLINER.

That means your work could be read by over 20 000 people.

Deadline 31st May – A recap of the important info below…

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07.12.2011. Berlin.

2012 Berlin English Language Short Story Competition

by The Reader on 7 December 2011 at 17:48

In association with Another Country (world’s 6^th best bookshop according to Lonely Planet), The Reader Berlin is holding a short-story competition.

The competition aims to recognize and support original work by unpublished writers. Entry is free. The winning authors will have their stories published as part of an anthology and their work read by a literary agent. The authors of the best five submissions will also receive an editorial session from The Reader. To the overall winner will go all of the above and an exquisite bottle of champagne.

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20.11.2011. Berlin.

The Reader and Berlin Stories for NPR Worldwide

by The Reader on 20 November 2011 at 21:39

The Reader Berlin, aka Victoria Gosling, is very happy to announce that over the next few months she’s going to be editing a new series of Berlin Stories.

Created in 2008 by Anna Winger, Berlin based author of ‘This Must Be The Place’, Berlin Stories is a multimedia journal about the city that’s broadcast on NPR Worldwide (104.1FM Berlin) and online all the time.

Over the course of a year 26 authors record stories – literary, musical, historical, personal – which are aired at 13 week intervals. From noisy neighbours to bizarre bookshops, each story offers an individual take on the city, leading you by the hand down its crumbling alleyways and into cobwebby corners.

We can’t wait to hear what this season will bring…

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15.10.2011. Berlin.

Welcome to The Reader Berlin

by The Reader on 15 October 2011 at 11:15

The Reader has what all writers seek: a careful and judicious eye, along with a passion for literature and a belief in the transforming power of creativity.

With a background in education and the arts and a working relationship with London’s literary establishment, The Reader offers a range of author and publishing services – in person, online, from Berlin to wherever you may be.

Our manuscript assessment and mentoring services have been used by aspiring and debut novelists, poets and short-story writers, while we have edited and proofread texts for academic, literary and commercial publication.

Advice, straight talking and encouragement are all part of the service.

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