Suffolk Libraries launches new eBook anthology featuring the work of local people

Suffolk Libraries has launched a new annual eBook anthology including nearly 100 submissions from local people.

The new Suffolk Writes 2022 anthology is now available to download and read for free via Suffolk Libraries OverDrive service. The collection includes a wide variety of submitted short stories and poems and is an evolution of the Suffolk Writes project which has given aspiring local writers the chance to share their work with a wider audience.

The Suffolk Writes Anthology will be officially launched this Saturday (15 January) at a writer's workshop with bestselling author Lauren North at Ipswich Library. This event is already fully booked showing how many aspiring authors there are in Suffolk! 

Over 60 people submitted entries for the new anthology, including many members of Suffolk Libraries Discovereads online Facebook reading group.

Lisa Brennan, Suffolk Libraries, Content and Reader Development Librarian, said:

“We originally launched our Suffolk Writes project in 2016 which has given aspiring writers the opportunity to share their work with others via our popular eLibrary service. We decided collecting these short stories and poems into an annual anthology would be the best way of making them available to a wider audience and we’re very excited to launch the first one.

We’ve been stunned and delighted at the incredible response we have received from writers across Suffolk who have submitted brilliant content to be included.”

The anthology can be found on our Overdrive service with full instructions on how to use the service on our website.

A particularly relevant example of the entries is ‘Bibliophile – an abecedarian’ by Ellen Clayton; a poem focusing on a love of books and reading:

Above all else, reading 

Books is the most 

Consistent way I have filled my 

Days since childhood:

Early memories of devouring 

Folks of the faraway tree and

Gaining knowledge from the 

Hardback encyclopaedias tucked tight 

Into bookshelves. Reading has given me endless 

Joy in my lifetime, 

Keeping me awake at night as I cram in just one

Last chapter before I fall asleep.

Maybe you are a fellow bookworm and understand the 

Need to read every day even if it’s just 

One precious 

Page.

Quite often on childhood holidays we would all sit,

Reading books quietly in comfortable, happy

Silence. Sometimes I feel 

Terrified at the prospect that I will run out of time,

Unable to read everything I want to, that there will be

Various incredible books that I’ll never get around to,

Whole genres I won’t read. In tales of pirates,  

X marks the spot and books are my greatest treasures. 

You could say I have a passion, a

Zest for reading. It is vital to me. Like breathing.