New Magazine Listing: Spellbinder
firstwriter.com – Friday February 20, 2026
Quarterly print magazine featuring new writing and visual art. Publishes poetry, short stories, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, flash nonfiction, stage plays, screenplays, monologues, play extracts, and visual art including paintings, drawings, digital art, collage, and photography, with a focus on imaginative, original, and boundary‑testing work from emerging and established creators. Welcomes submissions from all backgrounds and seeks writing up to 3,000 words in fiction and nonfiction, flash pieces between 100 and 1,000 words, poems up to 40 lines, drama up to five A4 pages, and up to three artworks in accepted formats. Emphasises curiosity, inclusivity, and innovation across literary and artistic forms.
New Literary Agency Listing: Starling Literary + Media
firstwriter.com – Thursday February 19, 2026
Boutique agency supporting authors and illustrators at every stage of their careers, emphasizing strategic guidance, creative development, and long‑term career growth. Handles work by bestselling and award‑winning creators as well as debuts, with a focus on developing projects from ideation through editorial revision, submission, contract negotiation, publication, promotion, and opportunities in film, television, and merchandising.
New Literary Agent Listing: Liv Bignold
firstwriter.com – Thursday February 19, 2026
Handles literary and book club fiction with a focus on stylish prose, social commentary, queer stories, and writing from the margins. Seeks fiction that straddles the line between literary and genre, including upmarket thrillers, crime, espionage, folk horror, and crossover work exploring complex relationships or fresh approaches to familiar tropes. Interested in fiction that illuminates subcultures or engages with philosophical questions. Actively seeks nonfiction rooted in the human experience, including narrative nonfiction, memoir, essay collections, philosophy, psychology, social and cultural history, and projects that interrogate or reframe understanding of the world. Also welcomes folk‑related material in both fiction and nonfiction.
New Publisher Listing: Vallentine Mitchell & Co. Limited
firstwriter.com – Wednesday February 18, 2026
Publishes scholarly and general interest books in Jewish, Middle Eastern and Holocaust studies, including works on Jewish history, culture, heritage and thought, as well as Middle Eastern history, politics and culture. Issues Holocaust testimonies and memoirs and continues to consider proposals for new academic and general readership titles in these subject areas.
Writing festival celebrates Arts Council cash
bbc.co.uk – Tuesday February 17, 2026
An annual literary festival attracting entries from authors around the world is celebrating a grant worth almost £59,000.
The 10th Hammond House International Literary Festival, also known as LitFest, is hosting a series of events in Grimsby until 25 February.
The money from Arts Council England will be used to fund the festival over the next two years.
Jessica Johnson, the Litfest project manager, said the grant would allow them to "have the resources to work with a lot more creatives locally, pay them what they deserve and allow us to broaden our projects".
Events include workshops with the writer Paul Basset Davies, who has worked with some of the biggest names in British comedy, and award-winning illustrator Debasmita Dasgupta.
The finale, on 25 February, will include an awards ceremony at University Centre, in Grimsby, where entries shortlisted as part of a competition will be published in an anthology.
New Independent Publisher Pellerin Books Launches with Digital‑First Vision
firstwriter.com – Monday February 16, 2026
A new player has entered the UK publishing landscape as Pellerin Books, an independent publisher focused on commercial fiction, officially launches. The company is the creation of Laura Palmer, co‑founder of Head of Zeus, and Jessie Sullivan, formerly head of marketing, who bring extensive experience from both traditional and digital‑first publishing models.
According to the founders, Pellerin Books is built around a simple but ambitious premise: designing a publishing house that reflects how readers discover, buy, and engage with books today. The company will publish a curated list of immersive fiction across genres including crime, romance, historical, fantasy, and science fiction.
New Literary Agent Listing: Madelyn Chimento
firstwriter.com – Monday February 16, 2026
Handles literary and upmarket fiction with a particular interest in coming‑of‑age narratives, complex female relationships, and psychologically driven stories. Seeks projects with sharp prose and distinctive voices, informed by an editorial approach shaped through extensive writing and editing training.
The Romance Writing Festival to return to Dorset
dorsetecho.co.uk – Sunday February 15, 2026
The second Romance Writing Festival will return to Bournemouth on Saturday, October 3, promising a full day of expert talks, workshops, and networking opportunities for writers at every stage of their journey.
Taking place at the Marsham Court Hotel, the festival will feature Sunday Times bestselling authors, industry professionals, and aspiring writers under one roof.
The event is part of the growing literary programme from the Bournemouth Writing Festival, and it caters to romance writers ranging from beginners to those seeking publication.
Katie Fforde, a stalwart of the romance genre, will appear in conversation with BBC South’s Edward Sault.
Sue Moorcroft, president of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, will also feature in the line-up.
After 40 Years, Romance Publisher Harlequin to End Historical Romance Line
people.com – Saturday February 14, 2026
One of the most successful romance novel publishers in the world is shutting down its historical romance line.
Harlequin Enterprises is planning to shut down its historical line in September 2027, a representative from parent company Harper Collins confirmed to PEOPLE in a statement. Retail efforts and digital publishing in the U.S. and U.K. will cease as a part of the shutdown.
"As Harlequin continues to evolve its series romance publishing program, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue publishing the Historical Romance series after September 2027 due to changing global market conditions," the statement said. "We are deeply grateful to the talented authors who have helped shape the series and shared unforgettable stories with generations of readers."
Harlequin — known for novels and series including Lynne Graham's Bond of Hatred, Maya Banks' The Tycoon's Pregnant Mistress series and other romances — will not acquire any new works for the line moving forward, the outlet reported, citing an email sent to Harlequin authors.
Publishing houses have hundreds of imprints. What are they exactly?
marketplace.org – Saturday February 14, 2026
The book publishing market share is heavily concentrated in five or so publishing houses: Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Hachette. But these publishers all have a vast collection of imprints, and often it seems a book is more closely associated with its imprint than its parent publisher. My question is: What exactly are imprints and what are they for? The easy answer would be branding but it seems each imprint operates more or less individually on its books, implying it’s not just for appearances sake and might have a deeper purpose.
The big five publishers collectively have hundreds of imprints, spanning categories like classic literature, romance, science fiction, fantasy and business.
There are imprints like Golden Books, a brand from Random House whose children’s books have a recognizable gold-foil spine. Scribner, an imprint from Simon & Schuster whose published authors include Stephen King and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan. And Harlequin Books, an imprint from HarperCollins that publishes the famed Harlequin romance novels.
Not all imprints have strong brand recognition among the public, but imprints have a purpose within the publishing world, helping agents know which brand they should pitch to, according to publishing experts that Marketplace spoke to. The people who work at imprints have also developed expertise on books within their brand and know how to market them.
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