AI to help writers tackle writer's block, says Bloomsbury boss Nigel Newton
thebookseller.com – Wednesday October 29, 2025
AI will "help creativity" by enabling writers and creatives to get "back in the zone", according to Nigel Newton, the founder and CEO of Bloomsbury.
However, the technology will not replace writers, as readers are turning "increasingly to sources of authority for reassurance", Newton told the PA news agency.
"I think AI will probably help creativity, because it will enable the eight billion people on the planet to get started on some creative area where they might have hesitated to take the first step," Newton said.
"AI gets them going and writes the first paragraph, or first chapter, and gets them back in the zone," he added. "And it can do similar things with painting and music composition and with almost all of the creative arts."
Writing Fellowship Expands to a Full Academic Year
news.colby.edu – Wednesday October 29, 2025
During his time as the Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence, Zach Peckham will help students revive a Colby literary magazine
For the first time since its inception in 2021, the Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence in Creative Writing fellowship is expanding to a full academic year from a single semester.
This year’s fellow is editor and writer Zach Peckham, who will teach one course each semester. In a fall survey course, students are exploring the structures and practices of contemporary book and journal publishing. In the spring practicum, they will reimagine Colby’s longstanding literary magazine, which was established in 1968 as The Pequod and most recently published during the 2023-24 academic year. It will be renamed The Colby Review.
“I’m excited to be here and grateful for the opportunity to work with Colby students and the Waterville community,” said Peckham, managing editor of Cleveland State University Poetry Center and the editor-at-large of the Cleveland Review of Books.
Peckham, who grew up in Massachusetts, has taught creative writing, composition, and literary editing and publishing at Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Institute of Art. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in national journals, including jubilat, Annulet, Territory, Poetry Northwest, American Book Review, and many others. He is the author of the chapbook cycle hum, and Mundo Press will publish his first full-length poetry collection, As If And, in 2026. Peckham also runs a small press called Community Mausoleum and a journal called Coma.
The new $50M Literary Arts Fund will support independent publishers and nonprofits
apnews.com – Wednesday October 29, 2025
Citing a chronic shortage of financial backing for independent publishers and nonprofits dedicated to writing and reading, a coalition of seven charitable foundations has established a Literary Arts Fund that will distribute a minimum of $50 million over the next five years.
The idea for the fund was initiated by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the country’s largest philanthropic supporter of the arts. Mellon President Elizabeth Alexander cited literature as a vital source of expression.
“Novelists, poets, and all manner of creative writers have shaped and driven our collective discourse and capacity for invention since the nation’s founding,” Alexander, an acclaimed poet who joined Mellon in 2018, said in a statement. “American philanthropy can and must play a bigger role in strengthening the financial infrastructure of the literary organizations and nonprofits that serve these literary artists.”
Lucy Irvine joins Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency after eight years at PFD
thebookseller.com – Tuesday October 28, 2025
Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency has recruited Lucy Irvine as an agent, moving from PFD and bringing with her an award-winning list of authors including bestsellers Bill Wood and Judith Eagle.
Irvine will focus on growing the fiction list, middle-grade through to New Adult and Crossover, working closely with North American rights agent Becca Langton and head of international rights Kristina Egan on the agency’s global rights strategy.
Alongside Lorna Hemingway’s recent move to join the team as an agent, Darley Anderson has also announced that Langton has been promoted to a senior literary agent, while agency assistant Kat Lenahan will be building a list as junior agent alongside continuing to assist managing director Clare Wallace.
Every Story Matters: Stony Brook’s MFA in Creative Writing Program
news.stonybrook.edu – Tuesday October 28, 2025
In a recent interview on WLIW-FM’s Heart of the East End with host Gianna Volpe, Robert Reeves, associate professor of creative writing and founder of Stony Brook University’s Lichtenstein Center, and Christian McLean, lecturer and MFA associate director of creative writing, sat down to discuss the unique strengths of the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literature.
At the heart of their conversation was a simple but powerful idea: everyone has a story to tell.
Reeves and McLean emphasized that the program is designed to attract adults from a wide range of professional backgrounds who are ready to transform lived experience into art. “One [of our students] is a doctor who’s mid-career… and she has so many stories she wants to tell. We have someone who’s a senior real estate agent… [who] wants to write other things, personal essays, fiction, creative nonfiction,” Reeves said. “They want to come to a community that will give them the best opportunity to accomplish what they want to.”
Affordability and flexibility are the key to that mission. As a state university, Stony Brook offers competitive tuition rates and the option for part-time or non-matriculated study, making the MFA accessible to working professionals and life-long learners alike. “We are many, many, many thousand [dollars] less than equivalent MFA programs of the same quality,” Reeves noted. “They can take one class and see if it makes sense for them and go from there,” McLean added.
Record number of applications for 2025 round of Screen Ireland’s new writing scheme, Spotlight
screenireland.ie – Tuesday October 28, 2025
Screen Ireland is pleased to announce that its flagship new writing development scheme Spotlight, has received a record-breaking number of applications. This year’s initiative is themed around Irish Myths & Legends, and the 2025 round invited screenwriters to submit TV series concepts inspired by Ireland’s rich mythology and cultural heritage. With over 350 submissions, this marks the highest number of applications ever received for a single round of Spotlight.
Up to ten projects will be selected for the scheme – with writers receiving further development for their project and skills development support in the form of workshops, masterclasses, and industry networking opportunities. As a result, the scheme continues to be highly competitive, and Screen Ireland would like to confirm that the assessment process is currently underway. Results will be announced within the next 12 weeks.
Any further updates on Spotlight will be published on the Screen Ireland website.
DKW rebrands as Bryony Woods Literary Agency
thebookseller.com – Friday October 24, 2025
Diamond Kahn & Woods has rebranded to Bryony Woods Literary Agency (BWLA) following Bryony Woods taking over as sole owner and director of the company.
The agency will continue to work from its central London office at Salisbury House in Moorgate.
Bryony Woods represents authors including Catriona Silvey, Sarah Maria Griffin, Sylvia Bishop, Daisy May Johnson, Katharine Orton, Ellen Osborne, Rosie Fletcher, Jen Cownie and Caroline O’Donoghue.
After starting her career in libraries and bookshops, Woods began her career as an agent at the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency in 2010, before co-founding DKW in 2012. She was named a Bookseller Rising Star, together with Ella Kahn, in 2013, and in 2016 was a winner of the London Book Fair Trailblazer Awards and the Young Stationers Prize.
Camille Burns launches Solas Literary Agency
thebookseller.com – Friday October 24, 2025
Camille Burns, most recently an agent at Diamond Kahn & Woods Literary Agency – which recently rebranded as the Bryony Woods Literary Agency – has launched Solas Literary Agency, a new independent agency representing fiction and non-fiction for adults, young adults and children.
Solas will focus on a selective list of authors across genres, with an emphasis on "strong storytelling, distinctive voice and long-term career development".
The name Solas, meaning “light” or “comfort” in Gaelic, aims to reflect the agency’s ethos of clarity, care and creative partnership.
Solas will operate in association with Apple Tree Literary, which will provide back-office and administrative support. Foreign rights for adult titles will be handled by Emily Randle at Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy. The agency will also run a monthly editorial consultation programme designed to offer transparent, accessible feedback to emerging writers. Burns’ clients include Rebecca Orwin, Sarah Beth Durst and CBBC presenter Joe Tasker.
Hitchin teacher launches publishing company for children's fiction: Toller Press Ltd
hitchin.nub.news – Monday October 20, 2025
Alissa McDonald, who grew up in Hitchin, and moved back here with her family 12 years ago, has launched an independent publishing company of children's fiction: Toller Press Ltd.
Alissa's 20-year career as a literacy specialist – as a teacher, researcher and consultant – means she knows books and a good story when she finds one! Passionate about sparking a love of reading in all children, Toller Press was founded. (Follow Toller Press on Facebook and Instagram @tollerpress.)
What's special about Toller Press?
There are many incredible stories for children that have been published: Vashti Hardy, Piers Torday, and Darren Simpson to name but a few of the amazing authors writing today. But there are also many incredible stories waiting to be published and ignite that desire to read. We all love different books of course and that's part of the magic – finding the book that's right for you.
I want to create a platform for those undiscovered stories and authors who will get children excited about reading. Books which have stories at their heart, books which have diverse characters, and books which are reviewed by children.
Underlings: The Spark Engine by Murray Fisher is the first book to be published by Toller Press.
Certified organic and AI-free: New stamp for human-written books launches
theguardian.com – Thursday October 16, 2025
As machine-made books flood online marketplaces, a new UK initiative is introducing an Organic Literature stamp to help readers identify books created by real authors
A new UK start-up is taking aim at the growing wave of AI-generated books, launching an initiative to verify and label human-written works.
Books By People has launched an “Organic Literature” certification, partnering with an initial group of independent publishing houses.
The scheme will involve Organic Literature stamps being placed on books written by humans, with only limited AI use permitted for tasks such as formatting or idea generation.
The start-up, founded by rare books specialist Esme Dennys along with Conrad Young and Gavin Johnston, said it plans to expand globally in 2026.
The first certified title will be Telenovela by Gonzalo C Garcia, publishing this November by Galley Beggar Press, one of the founding publishing partners. Other partners include Bluemoose Books, Snowbooks, Scorpius Books and Bedford Square Publishers.
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