The London Salon’s taking place upstairs at the Betsey Trotwood pub, Clerkenwell, with Lee Rourke, Abi Curtis, Cherry Smyth, Gary Cansell, John Clegg, Isobel Dixon, Judy Brown and Cassandra Moss.

The Dublin Salon’s at The Sycamore Club, 9 Sycamore Street, Temple Bar, with Maurice Scully, Grace Wells, Laurence Fenton, Orfhlaith Foyle and Miriam Gamble.

Both events start at 8. Readings from at 8.30. Free entry – see you there!

The Banal is a collection of work that takes the everyday, the ordinary, the unlauded, the daily grind or even the outright boring and, in the modernist tradition, turns it into the subject of compelling literature and art.

Click here to pick up your copy now.

Full details here.

The theme and submission deadline for the Spring/Summer 2010 issue will be announced on this website on Friday 25 September.

Here are the details:

London:
Thursday 30th July, upstairs at the Betsey Trotwood pub, 56 Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell, 8pm – 11pm
With readings from Simon Barraclough, Joe Dunthorne, Kate Campbell, Ben Brooks and Robert Selby

Manchester:
Friday 31st July, upstairs at the Briton’s Protection pub, Great Bridewater Street 8pm-11pm
With readings from Annie Clarkson, Melissa Lee-Houghton and Jonathan Hamnett

Both events free entry.

For this issue, we’re interested in work that takes the everyday or the commonplace as its subject, considers the nature of boredom, or indeed that questions what we think of as banal. You may also like to consider The Banal as a counterpart to Fantasies (the S/S 2009 issue), in that the fantastical tends to emerge from, or be contained within, the banal.

For full submission guidelines, click here.

There are two main areas we’re interested in exploring with this theme. The first is the importance of the fantasy or the reverie to the creative process, and the ways in which such fantasies can be expressed in literature and art. The second is the distinction between what is called ‘fantasy’ and what is called ‘literary’ writing, and how this distinction can be played with or proved illusory (as in, for example, the work of Borges, Casares, Ballard, Poe and many others). Long time Succour-watchers will recognise that this is a long-running interest of the journal, having been raised in issue 3, Radio Eye, and issue 6, The Future.

But, as ever, the theme is open to limitless interpretation and we’re looking forward to seeing how you might respond.

We’ll announce the theme for Succour 9 on this website on 1 October…

There’s a great line-up including Joe Dunthorne, Isobel Dixon and Lee Rourke.

Hope to see you there!