Stairwell Books
@stairwellbooks.bsky.social
640 followers 550 following 82 posts
Stairwell Books: Based in York, tales from all over. A book for everyone! YA/Children’s books, novels, genre fic, nonfiction, history, poetry & story collections: a book for everyone. Delighted STRIKE shortlisted for Forward Prize 2024.
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stairwellbooks.bsky.social
@wearejames.bsky.social
Hello, who do we contact to ensure we don't fall afoul of copyright laws, and remain ethical, with a character in an upcoming book thinking of the lyrics to "Sit Down"?
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
In or near Manchester UK? Love to read? TOMORROW, Free, Northern Publishers' Fair, at the glorious Central Library, with at least 14 presses & a massive range of genres. FUN! Plus, meet agents! Bring Qs! #books #manchester #library #YA #ChildrensBooks #SciFi #Poetry #PoliticalWriting
Poster with orange background and logos of 14 publishers and two literary agencies. Northern Publishers' Fair, Saturday 27 September, Manchester Central Library, 11am to 3.30pm. 
Text: New for this Autumn networking edition! 
The chatty table: Agents Emma Layfield (Children's Book North Agency) and Clare Coombes (Liverpool Literary Agency) will be on hand to chat to any aspiring/established authors with publication journey questions! Emma also happy to chat to any children's book illustrators. 
Grab a Fly on the Wall Press goodie bag; a limited edition tote: 'Reading is Resistance', with two free mystery books and bookish goodies! 
Publishers attending currently include: 
Fly on the Wall Press 
Manchester University Press 
Spilt Ink Magazine 
Confingo Publishing 
Peepal Tree Press 
Vertebrate (Adventure) Publishing 
Carcanet 
Stairwell Books 
Saraband 
Northodox 
Flapjack Press
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
In or near Mancs? THIS SATURDAY: the return of Northern Publishers Book fair! Free! Mancs central library, 27 Sept 11-3.30pm. This time: chat with agents! Founded & organised by amazing Bella of @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social!
Poster with orange background and logos of 13 publishers and two literary agencies. Northern Publishers' Fair, Saturday 27 September, Manchester Central Library, 11am to 3.30pm. Text:


New for this Autumn networking edition! The chatty table:
Agents Emma Layfield (Children's Book North Agency) and Clare Coombes (Liverpool Literary Agency) will be on hand to chat to any aspiring/established authors with publication journey questions! Emma also happy to chat to any children's book illustrators.
Grab a Fly on the Wall Press goodie bag; a limited edition tote: 'Reading is Resistance', with two free mystery books and bookish goodies!
Publishers attending currently include: 
Fly on the Wall Press
Manchester University Press
Spilt Ink Magazine 
Confingo Publishing
Peepal Tree Press
Vertebrate (Adventure) Publishing
Carcanet 
Stairwell Books
Saraband 
Northodox
Flapjack Press
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
A poem i wrote ages ago. Poem in ALT. Image shows the twin blue beams that shine up from where the Twin Towers once stood.
Poem rendered as Jpg to squeeze all those extra words onto a Blue Sky post. 

poem:

Blue Search Lights

As ever
twin beams of electric blue shine to a heaven 
that may not notice.
Here in England it is 1 pm, there, still 8 am,
thus nearly an hour before the first plane.

In the time-loop playing in our heads,
the doomed are still stopping for coffee, 
kissing spouses and children off to their day,
or, if early to work, checking post and emails,
dropping pastry crumbs onto paperwork;
running over to-do lists.  
They do not know.

Once 9, and then 10 am have come, and gone, again,
we resume the cycle of year onto year; 
the grainy footage ends,
the dead are reburied, revaporized, remembered.

And tonight, the blue beams will ply the sky,
a child’s flashlight trying to reach the moon,
signal a god,
to motivate a giant hand to offer comfort, vow to care. 
In the darkness, what else is there
but a flashlight’s tepid warmth?
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
*add text that will be readable. Images are not, oh dear. Typos aplenty lately!

Ahem: dear Bluesky, i am actually a very good editor....
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
Yeh ALT text is mad huge character budget. As i said (within BS limits haha) I can add way more detail or editorial in ALT; or use as intended to describe an image & add text that wont be "readable" by Text To Voice.
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
You can't add it retrospectively, but what i do is create a script of (for ex.) the event, the participating presses, location & time; anything on the poster. Then it's ready to go & when i post my gorgeous poster, i click ALT & add text. ALT is 3000 characters & sometimes i use it to add to post!
Reposted by Stairwell Books
peepaltreepress.bsky.social
We have just signed two amazing new poetry books for 2026! These are returning members of the Peepal Tree family, so we know you'll all be pleased to see their latest work:

* Riddled by Tanya Shirley
* Before the Rain by Christine Craig
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
Please create an ALT text for this? Low-vision folks read too.
Reposted by Stairwell Books
bocaslitfest.bsky.social
Thanks to all who joined us at The Writers Centre for a lovely evening with @amandasmythstories.bsky.social, author of Look at You, who discussed her new novel-in-stories with Shivanee Ramlochan.
More at: facebook.com/share/p/15wa...

#bocas2025 @novelniche.bsky.social @peepaltreepress.bsky.social
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
This sounds brilliant AND important. You want to help? Admit we are awash in (unasked for, yet very real) privilege. Europeans & upstart Americans benefited from the horrors of enslavement. Admit it!

Hey we just gotta Change The World, eh.
peepaltreepress.bsky.social
Coming 25 September 2025: The House in Bacolet by David Lambert

Hugh and Julia want to ‘get involved’ in the life of their new island home in Tobago — little suspecting how much the past horrors of slavery, and their best intentions, will impact their lives.

www.peepaltreepress.com/books/house-...
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
Excellent! And we love that shop!
dtreacher.bsky.social
A wonderful afternoon discussing my writing journey at an afternoon tea and chat event organised by Pickering book shop and celebrating my new novel, The Ninth Life of Norris.

@stairwellbooks.bsky.social
@tinytreebooks.bsky.social

#writing
#authorevent
#kidslit
#crimefiction
Reposted by Stairwell Books
ruthaylett.bsky.social
Love and drugs and quantum physics in the Scottish Highlands and Islands - Solstice, from @stairwellbooks.bsky.social Stairwell Books! #WritingCommunity www.stairwellbooks.co.uk/product/sols...
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
Okay he miiiiight be dodgy but he's a heckuva writer. If you start Down to Earth, you won't be able to put it down til it's done.
andrewcrowther.bsky.social
Here’s some guy telling you to buy my novel “Down to Earth” (published by @stairwellbooks.bsky.social). I don’t know though, he looks dodgy to me.
stairwellbooks.bsky.social
Mission: Find Mum by Jo Somerset, and lauded by many (including *THE* Jackie Kay!), has been shortlisted for The Rubery YA Book Award! CONGRATS, Jo! Art by @dtreacher.bsky.social!
Colourful book cover for Middle Grade fiction, Mission: Find Mum, written by Jo Somerset and illustrated by Dawn Treacher. Cover shows two children, a taller girl and a shorter child, walking along a rocky beach. Seagulls fly overhead, and a large ferry or other boat is off in the distance.
Reposted by Stairwell Books