Meeting Amy Burns of Unbound Press

Unbound Press has changed hands! Former owner Nicola Taylor has stepped down so that she can devote more time to her own creative projects and mentoring services. I’ve worked behind the scenes with Nicola and Unbound Press since the company’s inception and, although I’m sad that our business paths are diverging, I wish Nicola much success.

Who am I? My name is Amy Burns, Editorial and Managing Director of Arts Unbound Limited (website coming soon), parent company of Unbound Press and Spilling Ink Review. I have set myself ambitious tasks: to promote literacy and freedom of speech by donating to International PEN, to support individual writers by hosting a series of literary competitions with prestigious guest judges and generous cash prizes and to publish excellent fiction – the literature of tomorrow! I hope you come along for the journey. It has the potential to be very, very interesting. -- Amy Burns

2011 Unbound Press Literary Competitions
Unbound Press Short Story Award (1,500 word max)
Closing Date: 1 March 2011
Winning/Short-listed entrants notified no later than 31 March
Guest Judge: Zoë Strachan
1st Place £250, 2nd Place £125, 3rd Place £50
Winning and Short-listed entries published and receive 1 free copy

Unbound Press Short Fiction Award (3,000 word max)
Closing Date: 1 May 2011
Winning/Short-listed entrants notified no later than 31 May
Guest Judge: Elizabeth Reeder
1st Place £250, 2nd Place £125, 3rd Place £50
Winning and Short-listed entries published and receive 1 free copy

Unbound Press Flash Fiction Award (500 word max)
Closing Date: 1 August 2011
Winning/Short-listed entrants notified no later than 31 August
Guest Judge: Laura Marney
1st Place £250, 2nd Place £125, 3rd Place £50
Winning and Short-listed entries published and receive 1 free copy

Unbound Press Best Novel Award (10,000 word max)
Closing Date: 1 September 2011
Short-listed entrants notified no later than 1 November
Winning & Honorable Mentions notified no later than 31 December
1st Place £500 & publication, 2nd Place £250 & publication
Honorable Mentions receive free, detailed critique

Featured Publications

Year of the Ginkgo by Sharon Dilworth
How well do you know your neighbours? How well do you know yourself? Caroline, a middle-aged Pittsburgh woman married to a doctor, finding herself thrown back on her own resources when she loses her job, focuses her attention on the street where she lives and becomes involved in the goings-on of the neighbourhood. Before long she falls in love with her neighbour’s Scottish husband and builds a fantasy life around him, believing her feelings are returned.
Sharon Dilworth is the author of two collections of short stories, The Long White and Women Drinking Benedictine. She is the winner of the Iowa Award in Short Fiction and has won a Pushcart Prize in fiction. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she teaches at Carnegie Mellon University and is the fiction editor of Autumn House Press.

That's What Ya Get! Kowalski's AssertionsBy Brindley Hallam Dennis
In these 40 tales, all told by Kowalski himself in his inimitable fashion, plus an exclusive peek into his correspondence, this curmudgeonly old New Yorker living in England with his long-suffering wife Mildred, ‘that’s my old lady,’ takes us on a hilarious outsider’s tour of contemporary life, from the frustrations of petty regulations, to the maddening irrelevancies of public information; from the complexities of race relations and green politics, to the incomprehensibilities of personal relationships, geo-physical temporalities, and fishing! Most of all he struggles, without the trace of an accent, to negotiate the minefields of ambiguity and the whirlpools of double-meanings, that constitute the English language.

Brindley Hallam Dennis has won awards and prizes for his writing. His stories have been published, broadcast and performed – Kowalski began as a series of monologues for performance. He lives in Cumbria within sight of Criffel, Skiddaw, and Cross Fell and a sliver of Solway Firth.

Circe's Island by Isabel Gillard
In 1950, when she was a student at Edinburgh University, the author was found to be suffering from TB and hospitalised in the sanatorium known as the Royal Victoria Hospital for Tuberculosis. She was in serious danger as at that time TB was incurable and relatively few people survived the disease, despite undergoing radical, often brutal, treatments.Isabel Gillard’s memories of a prolonged period out of student life were sometimes painful to recall, as was the bizarre quality of sanatorium life. But she found she was part of an enormous success story. This lethal disease, that had held sway over humankind since prehistory, was on the verge of being conquered, thanks in part to the work of two eminent Edinburgh medical men, Sir Robert Philip and Sir John Crofton. This memoir relives the privations and heartaches, as well as the laughs along the way, as she and her fellow patients underwent treatment. It includes an Introduction and Personal History by Professor Sir John Crofton himself.

• • • • • Coming Soon!Spilling Ink: A Collection of Fiction, Nonfiction and Prose Poetry
The very best of the best from Spilling Ink: competition winners and short-listed entrants as well as our favourites from the quarterly ejournal. Available for pre-order soon!

• • • • • For more information about the current Unbound Press catalogue of publications visit: Catalogue

• • • • • We'd love to be friends onFacebook & Twitter. Just for fun: follow us on Facebook & Twitter between now and February 15th and your name will be put in the hat for a free copy of By Invitation Only, a wonderful collection of short stories.
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For more information about our sister company's literary competitions:2011 Spilling Ink ReviewLiterary Competitions• • • • •

If you're interesting in finding out how Nicola Taylor can help you with her personally tailored mentoring programmes and writer's services contact her at this address:NICOLA TAYLOR

• • • • • Special offer for Newsletter Subscribers:

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• • • • • We're proud to support our friends. Whether you're looking for reliable information, writing advice or just interested in reading brilliant prose & poetry, check out our friends:
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PN Review, check out their AMAZING new website with impressive archive dating back to 1973.

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