Latest news with #Hings
Scotsman
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Award winning Edinburgh book publisher 404 Ink announces it is closing down
An award-winning Edinburgh independent book publisher is closing down after 10 years. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... 404 Ink announced on their website that they will close in summer 2026 as 'over the years the costs and obstacles in independent publishing have increased significantly.' The publisher is run by Laura Jones-Rivera and Heather McDaid who started their venture in 2016 fresh out of university. 404 Ink duo Heather McDaid (left) and Laura Jones (right) | contributed Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 404 Ink is known for publishing alternative literary works. Some notable publications are Hings by Chris McQueer, the Inklings series and Nasty Women, a collection of feminist essays which Margaret Atwood called "Essential". In the statement published to the website the team say 404 Ink was and is 'a labour of love' and both Laura and Heather were not making much profit from the business: 'mostly unpaid to the two of us, who are no longer the scrappy upstart graduates, and have different, bigger responsibilities than our younger selves.' They go on to say that this is becoming a common issue in the publishing industry: 'We have also seen many publishers come and go over this time - some burning out in these conditions until they can no longer continue, others stepping back not-so-ethically and leaving their authors in the lurch. We felt the best service we could do, to ourselves, our authors, and the legacy of 404 Ink, is to go out while on top, following our biggest year ever, and on our own terms.' For fans of the Inklings list independent publisher Saraband will be taking a significant portion forward and will continue to distribute a small selection of 404 Inks main titles. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The duo have said they will continue to be involved in the publishing industry as Laura will be starting a PhD in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling this October and Heather will continue her role as Publishing and Campaigns Manager for the Terry Pratchett Estate.
Irish Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Books in brief: Hermit; Flower; Spring is the only Season
Hermit by Chris McQueer (Wildfire, £18.99) Following up his short story collections HWFG and Hings, Chris McQueer's debut novel Hermit charts teenage Jamie's descent into incel subculture. While McQueer brings a distinct, compassionate style to the narrative, the novel struggles to fully engage with the complexity of online radicalisation. By presenting Jamie as a largely innocent protagonist, pulled into inceldom almost by accident, the story risks flattening the more insidious dynamics of toxic online communities. Despite moments of tender insight, the novel's approach occasionally sidesteps the deeper, more uncomfortable truths about how hatred festers and spreads. McQueer offers a nuanced portrait of isolation, but ultimately pulls his punches when confronting the novel's central darkness: so many of the 'incels' you hear about on the news do not get a happy ending. Liz MacBride Flower by Ed Atkins (Fitzcarraldo, £12.99) The first thing you wonder after finishing Flower by the British artist Ed Atkins is whether it was written by a robot. The sequel to A Primer for Cadavers (2015) and Old Food (2019), this self-described 'anti-memoir' proceeds like ChatGPT malfunctioning. 'In speech my sentences will taper to wordless implore,' reads one word salad. All, however, is not what it seems: published to coincide with his retrospective at Tate Britain, Flower is an extension of Atkins's art, playing with artifice and authenticity. Here, two 'Ed Atkins' emerge: a 'real' one, who's grieving his father; and a 'fake', who claims to be 'cyborg'. Thus, in this satire on literature in the age of AI , the reader is given a glimpse of a future where some authors use software to write, while other writers don't even exist. Huw Nesbitt READ MORE [ Books in brief: William Alister Macdonald; A Visit from the Banshee; Waste Wars; The Carrion Crow; Vietdamned; Assembling Opens in new window ] Spring is the Only Season by Simon Barnes (Bloomsbury, £18.99) Simon Barnes 's career as a sportswriter gives him a unique edge as a wildlife writer – the winner-takes-all, high stakes energy of sport is remarkably similar to that of the natural world. This book illustrates aspects of spring in 23½ chapters, reflecting the degree change that transforms the seasonal countries of the northern hemisphere when winter's chill gives way to spring's glorious riot of birth and growth. It is a wonderfully entertaining discussion of the influence that plants and creatures of all stripes have had on art, literature, mythology and music for centuries. Barnes also considers the frighteningly serious impact of humans on the natural world and the changes he has noticed in his own lifetime. A real treasure of a book. Claire Looby
