This time we discover the five books from the hypothetical shelf of prize-winning author, Emily Midorikawa. Emily’s debut novel, A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing, is published by Manilla Pr...

I’m delighted to have been asked to judge the 2026 Book Edit Writers’ Prize, which is open for entries from British/UK-based writers until 16 October. The prize is aimed at unpublished novelists fr…

Authors, literary agents, editors and more give first hand details and publishing tips on how the industry works.

“Things that go bump in the night…?” Try sleep-deprived mothers, for starters. British author Celia Fremlin recognized the terrors of trying to hold it together while caring for young children, earnin...

This year we’re delighted to welcome award-winning author Emily Midorikawa as judge of The Book Edit Writers' Prize . Emily’s debut novel, the captivating A Tiny Speck of Black and Then Nothing ...

I’m delighted to introduce today’s guest essay by Emily Midorikawa, whose debut novel, A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing, has just been published. Congratulations, Emily! Today is the pub date…

A young woman on a journey of self-discovery in Japan is plunged into danger when her friend disappears, in this novel from an award-winning author. Anna Layne was only nine years old when her mother ...

Summer reading (new books and old), suffragettes and sisters

The improbable link between novel writing, Japanese cocktails and a beluga whale

Book signing at London’s Goldsboro Books It still feels surreal to me that the novel I began close to a quarter of a century ago is finally being published by Manilla Press today! It amazes m…

We're planning an exciting autumn filled with lost ladies.

Once upon a Y2K, technology still felt like it could fulfill some human need: our drive for connection, perhaps, or just external recognition of our internal monologue. In the early aughts, digital…

A peek at the books I'll be diving into this summer. PLUS: 6 delicious novels I LOVED and think you will love too. 🏖️📚🍹

The night writing stopped being a private act

For me at least, it’s hard to believe that A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing – the novel I began while I was living in Japan in the early 2000s – will be released by Manilla Press in a month’s…

It is called the drifting post, he explained, because the letters drift between heaven and earth. Set within a stretch of coastal woodland, in rural Japan, this post box receives letters written to…

NetGalley helps publishers and authors promote digital review copies to book advocates and industry professionals. Publishers make digital review copies and audiobooks available for the NetGalley comm...

Imagine a night of speed dating except the people selling themselves are the newest authors on the scene. JOIN US for the latest edition of a monthly night celebrating debut authors. Meet the faces be...

Last month, I mentioned that I’ll be marking UK publication day for my debut novel A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing with an event at Blackwell’s, Manchester on Thursday 23 July. I’m now delig…

Books, bouquets of flowers and underground poetry

In which an Englishman meddles with a classic Welsh recipe and then tries to explain how – and indeed if – publishing works

We are incredibly excited to be welcoming debut novelist Emily Midorikawa to Collected this July! Emily is author of Out of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice, and ...

On sound baths, foam-rubber warthogs and Prince Pondicherry

Join us to launch Emily Midorikawa's debut novel, in conversation with Susan Barker!

There are just under three months to go until A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing, the novel I began over twenty years ago, will be published in the UK. I’ll be back in Britain for much of the s…

Next Tuesday, April 28th, I’ll be speaking at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic about “Imagining the Austens in Halifax.” The talk begins at 6:30 p.m., but please come early for a cup of tea and …

A collection of matchbooks from Southern California maps a vanished mid-century commercial corridor, long displaced by fire and time.

Learn more about the life and crimes of Minnie Pheby, a Victorian lady burglar who broke in to dozens of houses across West London between 1896 and 1900.

Part 1: Virginia Woolf and the Neo-Pagans

At the start of 2003 – the year in which my forthcoming debut, A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing, is set – I was a young English language teacher working in Japanese high schools. I had arrive…

On returning to work you’ve left unfinished

Pernel Strachey (1876-1951) and friends