Thank you to everyone who has sent in submissions for our upcoming book, Port. We’re in the thick of reading through them all and can honestly say that the response has been fantastic. We will be able to let you know whether we’ve accepted your writing very soon.

The selection process for a book like Port can be a tricky, but always fascinating, process. It’s here that the book becomes the book – it’s where it takes shape, where its inner logic and poetry are revealed.

We know from our first book Est: Collected Reports from East Anglia, that creating such an anthology isn’t only about choosing the best writing, or about choosing a selection of writing where each piece complements and adds to the others. It’s both of those things, of course, but it’s also about achieving geographical range.

Here we are in the silver mud of estuarine East Anglia, but how many pieces did we receive from Scotland or Wales? Are the southwest and northeast represented? Did anyone write about London and the Thames? Who brought us postcards from further afield?

The process of turning a book into a ‘Dunlin Press book’ also means we work hard to fill any potential gaps, wearing our editorial and journalistic hats and hauling in any other work we think might add to the whole.

And then we turn to the design. We never hand over our manuscripts in Word to a typesetter who prepares it for print. Each Dunlin Press book is carefully crafted in our own little studio, with typeface, artwork and illustration, layout and format created uniquely for each title.

Hopefully all this is evident in the finished publication.

Which is a way of saying that making a Dunlin Press book takes time, so thanks for bearing with us. Though we say it ourselves, Port is going to be brilliant.

Ella and Martin