Doug Johnstone’s second novel for Faber, Hit and Run, is just as explosive, twisted and blackly comic as his impressive Smokeheads. In typical Doug Johnstone style, he’s also made a short trailer for the book, designed to freak you out just a little bit.

Faber has teamed up with Stylist magazine to find and publish a debut crime author. We’re on the hunt for a riveting crime mystery or thriller featuring a female protagonist – could you be the next-big-thing in Crime Fiction? Deadline for entries is 12th July, so get cracking. Time is running out!

Like any artform music has the power to transcend – class, setting, circumstances. And when it’s performed, to whatever standard, it’s able to bring diverse groups of people together. Which is what happened recently when our Music Books Editor sat in on a concert given by prison inmates taking part in a ‘Music in Prisons’ course.

In his own inimitable style, Smokeheads author Doug Johnstone, whose new novel Hit & Run clocks in at just under 60,000 words, issues a rallying call to novelists: Keep it Short! Stop showing off! And to highlight his point, he gives us ten shorter works of genius, all of them classics.

A one-off departure from our usual Faber Podcasts, here’s Stewart Lee exclusively for us in conversation with Resonance FM’s Ben Thompson, as they discuss the stand-up’s craft and the mechanics of comedy. ‘I’m interested in the nuts and bolts of the creative process …’ Essential listening for Stewart Lee fans!

After three acclaimed thrillers (Quiver, Trust Me and All He Saw Was the Girl), Peter Leonard returns with a real humdinger, a cat-and-mouse thriller which moves from 1970s Detroit to Munich. But what does his father think of it all? He’s a natural, reckons Elmore.

This December our Archivist, Robert Brown, put together a small display of Faber Christmas cards, dating back to a post-war period featuring cards and designs from the likes of Barnett Freedman, Edward Bawden, David Jones and Edward Ardizzone. What better time of year to show off some of these festive delights?

Max Liu signs off for the year with an account of December’s Faber Social with the rallying cry to ‘get stuck in’. The theme was decadence, and a line-up including DBC Pierre and Richard Milward didn’t disappoint. The Social returns in February – see you there.

Christopher Logue, who has died, began writing in 1950s Paris. The following decade in London, he wrote for the Royal Court, started the vogue for live poetry readings, invented the poster poem, and starred in Ken Russell’s The Devils. But he’s perhaps best-known for bringing Homer’s work to life for modern readers – an epic undertaking.

Alan Glynn’s had a busy and successful 2011 – a new novel in the UK (Bloodland), at long last the movie version of Limitless starring Robert DeNiro and Bradley Cooper, and the Irish Crime Novel of the Year win. He’s gearing up for the US publication of Bloodland, as his profile continues to rise on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1941, Berthold Wolpe joined Faber and Faber as resident art director and cover designer extraordinaire. Over the next 30 years, Wolpe created a distinctive look for the list – a dynamic fusion of bold colours, graphics and typography. Five of his iconic book covers are now available as beautiful prints.

Today sees the publication of The Beautiful Indifference, a new book of short stories from Man Booker-shortlisted author Sarah Hall. It’s a gem of a collection – only seven stories including ‘Butcher’s Perfume’ (shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Prize in 2010). For your reading pleasure, here’s another: the autumnal ‘The Nightlong River’.

The winner of this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize is Lucy Caldwell with The Meeting Point, her second novel. The award is doubly impressive when you remember that earlier in the year Lucy also won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. You can watch Lucy here read an extract from the book.

Crunch 2011, the Art and Music Festival at Hay-on-Wye, returns with an inspiring line-up of talks, with the theme of ‘Awake in the Universe’. On the 19th November you can catch legendary film-maker Nicolas Roeg, and Faber author Joanna Kavenna – don’t miss!

This weekend, 22nd and 23rd October, Faber Academy has commissioned an interactive poetry installation called Poetry Under The Arbour as part of the Bloomsbury Festival. It will allow people to take the words of poets from three different eras – Keats, Eliot and Daljit Nagra …

Our call-out to young artists to reimagine the cover for William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, for inclusion on a brand new edition of the book, is picking up steam. On the accompanying website Judy Golding, the author’s daughter, talks in depth about the book, her father and book cover design.