Tania Hershman’s White Road and Other Stories, together with Words from a Glass Bubble by Vanessa Gebbie, sit [...]]]> We are thrilled and delighted that , the highly-respected charity dedicated to encouraging people of all ages and cultures to enjoy books, has selected two Salt books in its Ten Short Story Collections from British Writers.

Tania Hershman’s White Road and Other Stories, together with Words from a Glass Bubble by Vanessa Gebbie, sit alongside the great and the good of British short story writing, including titles by AL Kennedy, Adam Marek, Helen Simpson and Clare Wigfall. Many congratulations to all who are featured and a particularly hearty slap on the back to Vanessa and Tania!

Why not celebrate with us and at the same time take part in World Book Day by treating yourself to a copy of these books — from your local bookshop, or through our website at 20% discount.

And don’t forget, Vanessa has a new collection just recently published, Storm Warning, which explores the echoes of human conflict in a series of powerful stories inspired by life with her father. She has been interviewed about this, and much more, on This is Not the Six Word Novel blog, as part of Jen Campbell’s fantastic Salt Publishing Month. Do read it and keep an eye out for more from Salt authors over the next few weeks!

Happy reading!

I grew up with two tiny sepia photographs of my great-grandparents Jozef and Marja Magenheim. He is upright in his Polish army uniform, she has dark eyes and looks like Snow White: had Snow White been in her fifties. My great-grandparents were Jewish and died in the holocaust. [...]]]> Unknown Soldiers

by Anna Woodford

I grew up with two tiny sepia photographs of my great-grandparents Jozef and Marja Magenheim. He is upright in his Polish army uniform, she has dark eyes and looks like Snow White: had Snow White been in her fifties. My great-grandparents were Jewish and died in the holocaust. The images are their only gravestones. Their son Ludwick managed to leave Poland in the late 1930s: hence not only the photographs’ presence, but my father’s presence and my own.

As I child, I did not know the names of Jozef and Marja. My grandfather consciously forgot his past in order to go on living. Having discovered what happened to his parents, he had a breakdown. When he recovered — as much as he could — he focused on the life he had with his new wife. He changed his name to Richard Woodford — Woodford because Gran had seen it on a map and liked its sound, and Richard because it was an archetypal British name. He became a naturalized British citizen. He did not mention his ‘former life’ again until he was dying of cancer. Then, under the influence of pain-controlling drugs, he hallucinated that the Nazis were coming for him too.

I belong to a generation that tends to remember: an age of autobiography. I started to write poems about my grandparents and great-grandparents. Poetry is concerned with loss. It attempts to make something out of something else. It carries forward what cannot be left. It is a living, breathing resting-place.

I am currently working as poet in residence at Durham University’s Law School, looking — with Professor Tom Allen — at how both law and poetry attempt to compensate people for loss. One of Tom’s research areas is the ‘unknown soldier’: the deeply moving concept of an anonymous body being commemorated in honour of all the victims of a particular war. Due to advances in DNA testing, more formerly unknown soldiers are being identified from their remains. In 1998, the Vietnam ‘unknown’ was revealed as Michael Joseph Blassie. His name and the picture of his youthful, open face do not detract — quite the opposite — from his position as a representative of countless comrades.

Writing about my family history is also naming unknown soldiers. Although I did not know my great-grandparents, I can remember them in poetry. I cannot know their suffering. It has been said that the holocaust happened in 1963 when people started to write and remember it, following the Eichmann trial. For me it began in 1973 when I was born into a house with two gilt photographs on its mantelpiece. Of course those photographs are guilt-edged too. My great-grandparents’ story is not mine to tell. However, their history evolves. My poetry is concerned with the past of my great-grandparents as it reveals itself in my own life. That is my story. Who knows what my great-granddaughter will write?

Anna Woodford’s debut collection Birdhouse won the Crashaw Prize and has just been published by Salt. It is available now from all good bookstores.

Check your local Waterstone’s for availability by clicking here:

It’s Chriiiiisssstmas from Tony Williams on Vimeo.

Tony’s book is just out in paperback with a whopping discount in our online store and free postage to boot. We’ll pop it in a sack, drop it on a Salty sleigh and whiz it over to you…

Head over to Tony’s grotto now: http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844719266.htm [...]]]>

It’s Chriiiiisssstmas from Tony Williams on Vimeo.

Tony’s book is just out in paperback with a whopping discount in our online store and free postage to boot. We’ll pop it in a sack, drop it on a Salty sleigh and whiz it over to you…

Head over to Tony’s grotto now:
http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844719266.htm

“What really worries me, most of all, is, it’s not writers, it’s readers, because this whole crap about ‘It’s Gutenberg.’ You know, the thing is, that Gutenberg put books on the shelves, the digital revolution is gonna take books off the shelves. So how’re you gonna find them, if you don’t know what [...]]]>

“What really worries me, most of all, is, it’s not writers, it’s readers, because this whole crap about ‘It’s Gutenberg.’ You know, the thing is, that Gutenberg put books on the shelves, the digital revolution is gonna take books off the shelves. So how’re you gonna find them, if you don’t know what you’re looking for?” —Jeanette Winterson on The Review Show at the Edinburgh Festival: Part 2

How do we make our choices when reading? Perhaps we’re increasingly moving to read online, part of the vast network of human experience taking place through social media, that vast, interconnected semi-fictional experience that millions are participating in. Creating our characters, portrayals, narratives, depictions, making our networked lives matter. Surely this is becoming a primary form of experience for many?

But if we read books, how do we find them, how do we choose them? Do we imagine we make our choices as an act of self-determination, creating our reading experience, or are we more passive, and are directed to choices? As an experiment, we’d like you to list that last five books you bought (or can remember buying) and tell us how you heard about them and what made you choose them?

Maria Takolander has been shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award in the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Awards.

Every now and again, a book comes along for a publisher which captures the popular imagination and becomes a bestseller. Today we sent Tania Hershman’s The White Road and Other Stories off to press for its fifteenth reprinting in two years. The book remains one of Salt’s bestselling titles and, by any measure, [...]]]>

Every now and again, a book comes along for a publisher which captures the popular imagination and becomes a bestseller. Today we sent Tania Hershman’s The White Road and Other Stories off to press for its fifteenth reprinting in two years. The book remains one of Salt’s bestselling titles and, by any measure, this is one of the most successful volumes of short stories published in the UK in recent times.

The book is also available on Kindle, you can download and be reading this book in under one minute. Try it now.

You can hear Jen’s AudioBoo of the Salt FlashMob. Not a huge turnout, but we weren’t expecting a massive show. Saturday’s are for family and relaxing after all. We had a quality turnout and met up with Tim Wells after the event for a drink in the bar of the Festival Hall. Lots [...]]]>

You can hear Jen’s AudioBoo of the Salt FlashMob. Not a huge turnout, but we weren’t expecting a massive show. Saturday’s are for family and relaxing after all. We had a quality turnout and met up with Tim Wells after the event for a drink in the bar of the Festival Hall. Lots of competition from other SBC events, including semi-naked Brazilian dancers and bands.

As we completed our event and were stepping away from the spot on the patio, poet Giles Goodland stared at our feet and pointed out that there was a tiny blue sachet of Salt. To which we all bellow, “A Sign! A Sign!” It was of course a sign to go and grab a drink and have a chat. A great day and lots of fun. London was packed and after it was all over we wandered up to Piccadilly Circus and found a little Italian and had a meal before heading back to Cambridge. Thanks to everyone for coming and to everyone who also did a virtual FlashMob on their blogs! We’ll pick up on those as we discover them; here’s a few:

Elizabeth Baines
Sarah-Clare Conlon
Katy Evans-Bush
Sue Guiney
Aditi Machado
Andrew Philip
Andrea Porter
Barbara Smith