Winner 2020 Saboteur Award Most Innovative Publisher (shortlisted 2019)
Retreat West Books initially started in 2017 to publish the anthologies of winning stories in the competitions we run, between 2018 and 2020 we also commissioned novels, short story collections and memoirs; and published three anthologies to raise funds for environmental and social charities.
The impact of Brexit, the pandemic and rising costs of producing and distributing the books, mean we are now permanently closed to submissions and after the 2023 release of the anthology of winning stories from the 2022 RW Prize, will stop our paperback and ebook publishing. We are moving everything online and will be publishing short stories, flash and micro fictions in our new journal, WestWord, which launched as a special edition featuring stories from our flash fiction festivals in Autumn 2022.
NOVELS
AS IF I WERE A RIVER, AMANDA SAINT
A compelling, intricate, psychological exploration of the lies we tell ourselves and the truths we run from. Beautiful.
ANGELA CLARKE, AUTHOR OF FOLLOW ME
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Unprotected, Sophie Jonas-Hill
A raw, viscerally-beautiful gut-punch of a novel about love and loss and heartbreak and hope.
TAMMY COHEN, AUTHOR OF STOP AT NOTHING
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REMEMBER TOMORROW, AMANDA SAINT
A dystopian future where civilisation’s thin veneer has been ripped away, and it is women who suffer most as a result. Excellent.
PAUL HARDISTY, AUTHOR OF ABSOLUTION
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ONE SCHEME OF HAPPINESS, ALI THURM
Compulsive and beguiling. A deliciously dark look at kindness, envy and desire. I couldn’t stop reading.
HANNAH PERSAUD, AUTHOR OF THE CODES OF LOVE
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City of O, C.M. Taylor
Wonderful stuff, deadly serious and yet amusing and playful at the same time. A powerful and original satire.
BSFA REVIEW, BY JOHN NEWSINGER
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Light, C.M. Taylor
“Compelling… delightfully unusual.”
Time Out
SHORT FICTION COLLECTIONS
SEPARATED FROM THE SEA, AMANDA HUGGINS
Never a word out of place, poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes startling, these stories fit worlds into small spaces.
ANGELA READMAN, AUTHOR OF DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME
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SOUL ETCHINGS, SANDRA ARNOLD
Beguiling, strange, tender and chilling, these potent gems continue percolating in your mind long after the reading is done.
MEG POKRASS, AUTHOR OF ALLIGATORS AT NIGHT
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Scratched Enamel Heart, Amanda Huggins
Amanda writes with empathy, an eye for vivid detail, and these stories display darkness and light, vulnerability and strength.
ALISON MOORE, AUTHOR OF MISSING
MEMOIRS
The Naming of Bones, Jan Kaneen
Beautifully written and emotionally compelling, The Naming of Bones is as much the story of a writer coming into her own as it is a memoir of loss and grief.
KATHY FISH, AUTHOR OF WILD LIFE: COLLECTED WORKS FROM 2003-2018
CHARITY ANTHOLOGIES
COMPETITION ANTHOLOGIES
The Novelette-in-Flash Prize
Homemade Weather
An anthology of three prize-winning novelettes-in-flash
These stories demonstrate the thin line we tread in life: between love and hate, friendship and enmity, escape and return.
DAMHNAIT MONAGHAN, PRIZE JUDGE AND AUTHOR OF AWARD-WINNING NOVELLA-IN-FLASH, THE NEVERLANDS
Monsieur
An anthology of three prize-winning novelettes-in-flash
“Seductive, rich, satisfying, layered and full of texture.”
MARY-JANE HOLMES, PRIZE JUDGE AND AUTHOR OF AWARD-WINNING NOVELLA-IN-FLASH, DON’T TELL THE BEES
The Retreat West Prize
The Weight of Feathers
An anthology of the 20 winning stories in the 2020 Retreat West Prize.
Featuring winning stories from Jason Jackson, Jennifer Faulkner, Holly Barratt, John Holland, E.E. Rhodes and Rebecca Netley, and a Highly Commended story from Morgan Quinn.
