Indie championing short stories to launch in London

Independent press Scratch Books, "dedicated to the art of the short story", is to launch in London in March, kicking off with an event featuring authors including Irenosen Okojie and Sarah Hall.

Its first title, Reverse Engineering, features seven short stories by Jon McGregor, Hall, Chris Power, Okojie, Jessie Greengrass, Joseph O’Neill and Mahreen Sohail. The book will also include author comments on how they wrote their stories.

To celebrate the launch, Chris Power will host an in-conversation event with McGregor, Hall, Okojie and Greengrass on 17th March. It will be open to the public and broadcast online. 

Scratch Books will also publish the weekly online Scratch Classics series where contemporary authors, including Ben Pester, Ailsa Cox, Jo Lloyd and Adrian Duncan will introduce a selection of stories.

The two-person outfit has plans to publish two titles this year and it will increase the number in forthcoming years.

"I called our books ’hybrids’ because of the innovative ways we are publishing short fiction," said founder and director Tom Conaghan. "For example, our Reverse Engineering series brings together famous short stories and interviews with their authors on how they wrote the story. Our next book is a collage of short stories, autobiography and essayistic ideas on writing from the godmother of the short story in the UK. 

"In future years, we are preparing a number of very exciting re-imaginings of the conventional ’book of short stories’ – working with an array of organisations in the UK, US and further afield."

Conaghan previously worked as an editor at Lolli Editions and as an editorial manager at The Word Factory. He heads the team from Highbury, London. Scratch Books titles will be distributed by Inpress and Clays will print the first books.