After having a book published, most authors dream of seeing their book shortlisted for an award. So thank you to Carol Lovekin for her thoughts on her haunting novelWild Spinning Girls, published by Honno Press, being shortlisted for the prestigious Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award 2021.

One Bird at a Time
(Thoughts on having a book shortlisted)

Carol Lovekin

Several years ago, as a fledgling author with one novel under my belt, I read a book calledBird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. The title is based on an incident when Lamott’s father urged her ten-year-old brother, who was struggling to finish a report on birds, to tackle it, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’ (Already convinced my imaginary Muse was a local crow who left random words on my windowsill, the title of the book alone appealed to me.)

And…