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Welcome to our new-format literature magazine, Literature Matters. We've gone digital! We hope that you will enjoy the articles and features, and will come away feeling wiser about the current state of new writing in the UK – because that is what this issue is all about. We celebrate New Writing 12, the British Council's critically acclaimed new anthology, edited by Diran Adebayo, Blake Morrison and Jane Rogers. Also in this issue we salute new writing in the UK in general, with an emphasis on new fiction: no disrespect to poetry, biography, history and other genres that we're concerned with. But it’s been an exciting time for UK fiction and we wanted Literature Matters to reflect that.

From an insider's view on editing New Writing, to a personal account of judging the Man Booker Prize, to a roundup of the latest writing coming from Wales, it’s all here. Jumping on the shortlists' bandwagon, we have created an alternative 'Best of British Novelists' list, just to remind readers of a few other literary worthies out there, plus a list of new fiction that we hope will tempt you. If that doesn't, then take a look at the revelations on reading by a selection of writers from the UK.

		January 2004 Editor: Catriona Ferguson


		New Writing Anthology

Editors of New Writing 12, Diran Adebayo, Blake Morrison and Jane Rogers, have a retrospective muse on the selection process, the notion of post-post-colonial writing, the politics and trade-offs involved in editing, and literary envy. Meanwhile Toby Litt, one of the editors of New Writing 13, considers the complexities of the editorial process.


		Overseas new writing events

In this section, we introduce you to some recent overseas' projects. The enterprising Anna Obaidat talks about how she encouraged the young people of Jordan to pick up the work of writers that they very probably would never have come across otherwise. And the poet W. N. Herbert revels in his time in Bulgaria, hanging out in bookshops, galleries, prisons and mosques.


		Teaching Creatively

Can creative writing really be taught? Are the courses just churning out graduates that would be better off doing accountancy degrees? Maureen Freely talks about her own experiences of teaching creative writing in the UK.


		Writers talk Books

Bernardine Evaristo, Lavinia Greenlaw, Niall Griffiths, Val McDermid and Alan Warner discuss which international writers are pressing their literary buttons right now.


		Scenes From a Provincial Life

As a judge for the Man Booker Prize, D. J. Taylor had to read enough novels to sink a literary battleship. He talks about his surprise discoveries as he read his way round the UK, from urban strongholds to rural retreats, and questions whether a London postcode is still a necessity for any great British novel.


		Welsh words

Welsh literature has a reputation for being lyrical and passionate, inspired by alcohol, sheep and the stunning landscape. Gwyneth Lewis deftly examines the current state of writing from Wales and finds that those enthusiasms may still exist but are being explored in bolder and more inventive ways than ever before.


		Mind-Blowing Colombia

Poet Francesca Beard doesn’t speak Spanish, had heard some pretty scary stories about Colombia and stayed in the noisiest hotel in Medellín. But in spite of her fears, she discovered a new world of potatoes, figured out the complexities of translating poetry and had a life-changing experience at the International Poetry Festival.


		Cambridge Chronicles

Alongside Damian Grant and Andrew O’Hagan, biographer Rachel Holmes was one of the chairs for this year's British Council Cambridge Seminar. Here Rachel talks about the significance of the seminar both in terms of her own, the delegates' and the participating writers' responses to the event, and also its importance in cultural and critical terms.

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