9781529940923

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

First published in the UK by #Merky Books in 2020 Published in Penguin Books 2024 001

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Lines from ‘Night Fragments’ by Nuar Alsadir are reprinted by kind permission of the author.

Lines from ‘Threads’ by Sandeep Parmar are reprinted by kind permission of the author.

Lines from ‘As We Know’ by John Ashbery are reprinted by kind permission of Carcanet Press Ltd.

The author and publishers have made all reasonable efforts to contact copyright holders for permission, and apologise for any omissions or errors in the form of credit given. Corrections may be made in future reprints.

Text design © Andreas Brooks 2020

Typeset in 10/13 pt Source Serif Variable Roman by Jouve (UK ), Milton Keynes Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.

The authorised representative in the EEA is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH 68

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978–1–529–94092–3

www.greenpenguin.co.uk

Penguin Random Hous e is committed to a sustainable future for our business , our readers and our planet. is book is made from Forest Stewardship Council® certiﬁed paper.

CONTENTS Foreword by Candice Carty-Williams ix 1 THE Early years 1 2 Learning from failure 21 3 TECHNIQUE AND CRAFT 31 4 Your voice matters 57 5 You have a manuscript, now what? 79 6 Making a living as a writer 117 7 Conclusion 137 everyday resources 143 Appendix 145 Acknowledgements 150 Notes 154

FOREWORD

ix

x

xi

xii

xiii

THE EARLY YEARS

CHAPTER 1

2

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook