Read Regional
Each spring, the annual Read Regional campaign celebrates selected new books from the North of England. At libraries and literary festivals across the North, authors take part in events where you can hear about their writing and talk to them about their work.
At a glance
Books from the North
The Read Regional campaign aims to connect local authors from the north of England to local readers via promotions in libraries, bookshops and with festivals and venues. Each year we choose a selection of the best books to promote via an open submission process.
Background
The project began in 2008 when it was supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. In 2012 the project became part of New Writing North’s core programme of work supported by Arts Council England and expanded into Yorkshire and Humberside, and subsequently the North West.
Partners
Read Regional is produced by New Writing North in partnership with 23 local authorities in the North East, North West and Yorkshire. Each authority stocks Read Regional titles in its libraries and hosts a range of author events at central and branch libraries.
Read Regional through the years
2020/21
Baldwin’s Catholic Geese, Keith Hutson
The Blame Game, C. J. Cooke
The Celox and the Clot, Hafsah Aneela Bashir
Icebreaker, Horatio Clare
The Last Thing She Told Me, Linda Green
The Moss House, Clara Barley
Remembered, Yvonne Battle-Felton
A Shadow Intelligence, Oliver Harris
Supper Club, Lara Williams
A Witch Come True, James Nicol
2019
Devil’s Day by Andrew Michael Hurley
Flood by Clare Shaw
His Dark Sun by Jude Brown
Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Nutcase by Tony Williams
Slip of a Fish by Amy Arnold
The Black Cab by John Challis
The Blackbird Diaries by Karen Lloyd
The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven
The Impossible: On the Run by Mark Illis
What Falls Between the Cracks by Robert Scragg
You Me Everything by Catherine Isaac
2018
Girl Zero by AA Dhand
Take This One to Bed by Antony Dunn
How Saints Die by Carmen Marcus
Fish Boy by Chloe Daykin
The Zealot’s Bones by D M Mark
An Honest Deceit by Guy Mankowski
News From Nowhere by Jane Austin
Fell by Jenn Ashworth
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World by Kate Pankhurst
Basic Nest Architecture by Polly Atkin
A Sweet, Wild Note by Richard Smyth
The Companion by Sarah Dunnakey
2017
Streets of Darkness by AA Dhand
You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] by Andrew Hankinson
Walking the Lights by Deborah Andrews
The Lightless Sky by Gulwali Passarlay
Greetings from Grandpa by Jack Mapanje
The Death’s Head Chess Club by John Donoghue
Hard Wired by Kath McKay
Katy Parker and the House that Cried by Margaret Mulligan
The Lost Art of Sinking by Naomi Booth
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick
Every Little Sound by Ruby Robinson
The Confession of Stella Moon by Shelley Day
2016
Bones in the Nest by Helen Cadbury
Song for My Father by Ian Clayton
The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies
The Weather in Kansas by Crista Ermiya
Homecoming by Andrew Forster
In Real Life by Chris Killen
Me and Mr J by Rachel McIntyre
The Art of Falling by Kim Moore
The Mysterious Miss Mayhew by Hazel Osmond
The Torn Up Marriage by Caroline Roberts
2015
Letters to my Husband by Stephanie Butland
Hate by Alan Gibbons
The Last King of Lydia by Tim Leach
The Quick by Lauren Owen
Portrait of the Quince as an Older Woman by Ellen Phethean
Sally Heathcote: Suffragette by Mary and Brian Talbot
Herring Girl by Debbie Taylor
Missel-Child by Helen Tookey
Into the Trees by Robert Williams
Ghost Pot by John Wedgwood Clarke
2014
This is Yarrow by Tara Bergin
Destroyed Dresses by Cara Brennan
The Hit by Melvin Burgess
Sorrowline by Niel Bushnell
Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce
The Things We Never Said by Susan Elliot-Wright
The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
Stolen by Rebecca Muddiman
How I Learnt to Sing by Mark Robinson
The Night Flower by Sarah Stovell
Magnificent Joe by James Wheatley
2012/13
Armour by Christy Ducker
The Sun Hasn’t Falled From The Sky by Alison Gangel
The Murder Wall by Mari Hannah
Scream if You Want to Go Faster by Russ Litten
Arguing with Malarchy by Carola Luther
Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May
New World Fairy Tales by Cassandra Parkin
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher
From Here to Timbuktu by Pauline Plummer
The Unmothering Class by Anne Ryland
The Heart of It by Seni Seneviratne
A Stone’s Throw by Fiona Shaw
King Crow by Michael Stewart
2011
The Guardian Angel’s Journal by Carolyn Jess-Cooke
Dark Horizons by Dan Smith
Broken Silence by Danielle Ramsay
Chameleon by Beda Higgins
Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves
Birdhouse by Anna Woodford
Family Album by Sheree Mack
Raiment by Marilyn Longstaff
2010
Inroads by Carolyn Jess-Cooke
Background Music by Cynthia Fuller
The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi Ozumba
The Duke’s Agent by Rebecca Jenkins
The Myth of Justice by Graham Pears
The Seer Sung Husband by Bob Beagrie
Angel of Brooklyn by Janette Jenkins
You Are Her by Linda France
2009
9987 by Nik Jones
The Rotting Spot by Valerie Laws
Welcome to Life by Alice de Smith
Ten Storey Love Song by Richard Milward
