Announcing... Spineless #4!

We are very excited to announce that Yara Rodrigues Fowler will be our special guest author at the next event in October.

YARA RODRIGUES FOWLER grew up in South London. Her writing and essays have appeared in Vogue, Skin Deep, Litro, and other publications.

Her first novel Stubborn Archivist was published in the UK in February 2019 (Fleet, Little Brown) and will be published in the US in July by HMH.

It’s been called ‘stunning’ by Olivia Laing, ‘visceral and elegant’ by Claire-Louise Bennett and ‘breathtakingly written’ by Nikesh Shukla.  Yara was named one of The Observer’s ‘hottest-tipped’ debut novelists of 2019 and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2019.

Yara is also a trustee of Latin American Women’s Aid, an organisation that runs the only two refuges in Europe for and by Latin American women.

We look forward to seeing you on the 9th October for an 8.30 start. And for those of you keen to know more about our authors from the previous Spineless event, fear not. It's riding high on that to do list. It shall be done.

Spineless 3 Announcement!

We are excited to announce that our 3rd Spineless Authors' event will take place on the 11th September and will feature a science fiction double bill of authors Stephen Oram and Temi Oh. Our regular artist @Toadlunch has accordingly created this stunning Penguin Science Fiction homage. Seethe and reel at the beauty of the thing!

The night itself will, as usual, be open mic and therefore not 'themed', but if you were thinking of performing and happen to write in the speculative vein, this may be a good time to step forth. Either way, we look forward to seeing you there.

Stephen Oram is one of the writers for SciFutures and co-created the Virtual Futures Near-Future Fiction series for which he is now lead curator. He is a member of the Clockhouse London Writers and a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Stephen is the author of the novels Fluence and Quantum Confessions, as well as two short story collections.

Temi Oh graduated from King’s College London with a BSci in Neuroscience and in 2016 received an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh. Her debut novel, DO YOU DREAM OF TERRA-TWO?, was published by Simon & Schuster on March 7^th 2019

Spineless 2!

Spineless Authors' Night No 2 has happened! Sadly, Sophie Mackintosh was unable to attend due to ill health but we managed to make the night a huge success nonetheless. We'd like to say a huge thank you to those who attended for being such a supportive audience and of course to this month's readers. They were...

Miranda Roszkowski

Miranda is crowdfunding the book '100 voices'.
100 years after getting the Vote, 100 female writers share their story. You can find out more about it here.



Stefan Nicolaou

Stefan runs a writing group at Pages of Hackney, who are soon to release an anthology of their work through their own Clapton Dragon Press. For updates visit @claptondragonpress

Harriet Smith Hughes

Harriet is a product designer and ux writer at @meet_cleo and one of three editors at literary magazine The Eyot. Her recent essay 'Regarding Susan Sontag' was recently published in Another Gaze and can be read here.

Kate Smalley Ellis

Kate is a short story writer represented by Matthew Marland at RCW. Her work will appear in the forthcoming '100 Voices'.

Rachel Renee

Rachel is a North American photographer, calligrapher and author recently transplanted to the UK. Her work can be seen here.

Amy Foster

Amy will also appear in '100 Voices'. This was her first public reading.

Tracey J Boothe

Tracey writes poems, songs and educational children's stories. Her book The Angel's Smile can be bought here.

Joel Kosminsky

Joel writes fiction and memoir, which he describes as 'tales and experiences of a world long gone'. A talk he delivered to Nunhead Labour Party can be read here.

Greetings all. We'd like to start by saying a slightly tardy but no less enthusiastic thank you to everybody that attended our inaugural Spineless Authors' Night on the 10th July. Performing that evening were Susan Wilson, Ros Weaver, Amy Tighe, Suzy Roston, Russell Walker, Christian Butler-Zanetti, Kay Gabriel and, of course, the amazing Julia Armfield.

We are pleased to announce that our second Spineless Authors' Night will take place on the 21st August, again at The Clapton Hart, from 8.30pm-10pm. Even more exciting is that Sophie Mackintosh, Booker-nominated author of The Water Cure,  has agreed to join us!

Below is the poster for Spineless No 2, with artwork by the brilliant @shitlunch

As always, if you'd like to read your work, email spinelessauthors@gmail.com .

We look forward to seeing you there. 

Welcome to Spineless Authors' Night, a new monthly event in which authors, poets and anyone experimenting with language will have the opportunity to perform their work in front of an intimate crowd.

At core, Spineless is a literary 'open mic' night. Each month, established guest authors will share a platform with new, emerging and practicing writers from the audience. If you would like to read your work, please contact us at spinelessauthors@gmail.com If you're tempted to dip your toe but don't want to commit, simply turn up on the night with your work in hand and step up if the mood takes you.

The idea behind Spineless came out of a frustration with the solitude of the writer's craft. For those struggling to gain a foothold in the publishing world, it can be difficult to reach an end point, to 'road test' or gain feedback on one's work. With Spineless we aim to create an open, nurturing environment for authors to present their writing.
It also strikes us as a shame how rarely adults experience being read to. It is, it seems, one of the joys of childhood that we tend to leave behind. With Spineless Authors' Night, we hope to rectify this. Will our adult audience be as attentive as a school class at story time? We shall see...

The first Spineless Authors' Night will take place on the 10th July at The Clapton Hart pub, 231 Lower Clapton Road, London E5 8EG, from 8.30PM until 10PM.

This month we are thrilled to welcome the wonderful Julia Armfield. Providing support will be Russell Walker and Christian Butler-Zanetti.

'Armfield is an enormous, gut-wrenching talent'
Daisy Johnson, author of 'Everything Under'

'Salt Slow is exemplary. A distinct new gothic, melancholy, powerful and poised.'
China Mieville, author of 'The City & The City'

Julia Armfield is a fiction writer and playwright with a Masters in Victorian Art and Literature from Royal Holloway University. Her work has been published in Lighthouse, Analog Magazine, Neon Magazine and The Stockholm Review. She was commended in the Moth Short Story Prize 2017, longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Prize 2018 and is winner of The White Review Short Story Prize 2018. Her short story collection, 'Salt Slow', was published by Pan MacMillan this year.

https://www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/julia-armfield/



Russell Walker is lead singer of The Pheromoans and The Bomber Jackets. As well as a myriad of musical, spoken word and noise projects, Russell has been writing bleak, absurd and hilarious short stories for many years.

'When Small Towns Act Tough' is a particular delight, and is available through Walker's own Larching Press.

http://larchingbooks.blogspot.com/



Christian Butler-Zanetti is an author, visual artist and musician. For many years he published short stories through his own Broken Umbrella Press. More recently his stories have found their way into The London Magazine, Popshot Quarterly and Scribble. His story 'Bruises and Pixie-Boots' was published by Savoury Days and can be found here.

Christian is the instigator of Spineless Authors' Night.

https://christianbutlerzanetti.wordpress.com/