Hundreds of events take place around the country each National Short Story Week. Here's a selection of what is happening for 2012. If you would like to list your event here, let know us know.
Projects for National Short Story Week organised by Stories Unlimited C.I.C.
The Short Story Network
The Short Story Network is a collection of local, community and hospital radio stations which have agreed to participate in a UK-wide broadcasting event as part of National Short Story Week 2012. National Short Story Week has teamed up with Writing Magazine, the National Association of Writers' Groups and The Amateur Theatre Network to get writers around the UK involved in this great opportunity. Read more.
National Short Story Week Young Writer competition
This year's competition is once again open to pupils in years 7 and 8. The title of the story must be "The Message" and the story must be between 900 - 1000 words in length.
The winning story will be recorded and broadcast online as a podcast and the winning and runner-up stories will appear in an e-book to be published for National Short Story Week 2013. Both the podcast and e-book will be available free of charge. Read more.
The Write Lines
Acclaimed broadcaster and author Sue Cook presents three special advice programmes for writers, in association with Stories Unlimited. If National Short Story Week has inspired you to get writing, these programmes will help with tips from the experts on building a career as a writer, marketing your book and publishing ebooks. Listen now at www.thewritelines.co.uk
Recommended Reading List for adults
This year's recommended reading list has suggestions by prominent authors, actors and broadcasters. It also contains some notable new publications for 2012. Our contributers, who have each recommended a short story collection or anthology, are: Terence Blacker, Simon Brett, Tracy Chevalier, Sue Cook, Margaret Drabble, Joanne Harris, Paterson Joseph, Lynne Reid Banks, Adrian Scarborough and DW Wilson. Read more.
Stories online
The Guardian online is celebrating National Short Story Week by publishing a number of short stories from our recommended reading list, during National Short Story Week. See the books pages online for more details.
The Berko Speakeasy: Overheard (The Kings Arms, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire)
A cabaret of short stories on Wednesday 14th November to celebrate National Short Story Week and the publication of Salt's anthology Overheard. Actors bring to life stories by Hanif Kureishi, Adele Parks, Robert Shearman and other contributors to Overheard. Visit the website.
Women Aloud
We are continuing to sell copies of our women's fiction CD, Women Aloud, in aid of the Helena Kennedy Foundation. We have donated £500 to the Foundation to date. Women Aloud makes a great Christmas present, or treat for yourself, and you can buy it now to help a good cause!
Projects around the UK being organised for National Short Story Week
Short story workshops
Monday 12th November
Beeston Library, Nottingham, from 10.00am to 12.30pm
Join authors Frances Thimann and Heather Shaw for a short story workshop, followed by readings and discussion in the afternoon. Copies of stories to be discussed are available in advance from the library. Cost £5. For further details contact Beeston Library: Tel 0115 9255168; email beeston.library@nottscc.gov.uk; or visit nottinghamshire.gov.uk (Frances Thimann is the author of Cello and Other Stories and November Wedding. Heather Shaw is author of Brushstrokes.)
Arnold Library, Nottinghamshire, from 4.30pm to 5.30pm
Short story writing workshop. This is a free and informal hour-long
session, all genres and experience levels welcome. Participants will be invited to join in with a series of writing exercises, share their ideas and get inspired to write their own short fiction. For more information, please call Arnold Library on 0115 9202247.
Tuesday 13th November
Richmond upon Thames Literature Festival, St Mary's University College, 7pm
Creative writing: short story workshop with writer and former BBC producer David Savill. Visit the website.
Glasgow Women's Library, 4pm - 6pm
"Come along to our National Short Story Week event, listen to people’s favourite short stories and write one of your own at our fun and fear-free creative writing workshop, then submit your story for our Dragon’s Pen event." Visit the website
Friday 16th November
Jacobs Cafe, Bath, 10.00 am – midday
FREE POP UP event 'Fast and Furious'. Come and get prompts to write the first draft of a short story in two hours.
The aim – write your story in the company of other writers, perfect it and send off to a new international story competition, the 'Bath Short Story Award'. www.bathshortstoryaward.co.uk sponsored by Writing Events Bath www.writingeventsbath.co.uk. and Pulteney Street Writers.
Email writingeventsbath@gmail.com to see if there are spaces.
Saturday 17th November
Central Library, Stockport, 11am to 1pm
Want to write a short story? Stockport Central Writers are holding a free workshop in the Lower Hall at the
Central Library as part of National Short Story Week. Over eighteens only. Bring a pencil and paper and we will help you do the rest. Booking essential. Email: stockportdirect@stockport.gov.uk
Short story exhibitions
Ongoing
M Shed, Bristol, ongoing exhibition
'Imagined Lives' features short stories, based on anonymous 16th & 17th Century paintings from the National Portrait Gallery, by Terry Pratchett, Sarah Singleton, Tracy Chevalier, and Alexander McCall Smith.
'Real Lives' showcases 200 word stories from local authors about celebrities with a Bristol connection. In the 'Creative Area' of the exhibition, visitors are encouraged to write their own 200 word stories about 2 anonymous portraits from Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives' collection (with the option to write it on a typewriter). These are displayed and a winner will be picked at the end of the exhibition.
http://mshed.org/whats-on/exhibitions/real-imagined-lives/
Short story "meet the author" events
Wednesday 14th November
Sheffield Central Lending Library, Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 1XZ at 6.30pm
Meet the Author - John Foster
John will be talking about his book Nine Times in Ten, a selection of 21 stories. It follows a number of well-created characters and scenarios and features children, young, middle-aged, old, women, men, straight, gay, good, bad and ugly which all spring from the pages of this kaleidoscope of stories laced with humour, pathos, love, murder, drama and suspense; stories all with a common theme: the human condition. This event is free. Telephone 0114 2734727 or email centrallending.library@sheffield.gov.uk. Booking advisable but not essential.
Short Story broadcasts
Siren 107.3FM
Siren 107.3FM have produced 7 special 15 minute programmes featuring the work of 7 local writers. Each programme includes a short story, followed by a specially chosen piece of music designed to complement the mood of the story. The shows will be broadcast every day across National Short Story Week at 10am and 11pm on Siren 107.3FM in Lincoln and around the world at www.sirenonline.co.uk. For more information, go to www.readingroom.podbean.com
Sine FM
Doncaster's local radio station, will be taking part in National Short Story Week. A local actor will be reading out one story per day, to be broadcast at noon each day on Monday 12 November through Friday 16 November. All five stories are written by local writers. An omnibus edition of the stories will be broadcast on Saturday, 17 November, at 10 am. Sine FM broadcasts at 102.6 FM in central Doncaster, and online at sinefm.com
Short Story Radio
Short Story Radio will be broadcasting new stories on demand to tie-in with National Short Story Week, starting on November 12th. These include a special series of stories from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the winner of last year's Young Writer competition. www.shortstoryradio.com
Short story readings
Monday 12th November
St. Mary’s Community Centre, Eltham, SE London at 10am - midday
Telling Tales & Taking Tea: you are invited to come along and listen to a selection of stories while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee. The entrance to the event is free.
Wednesday 14th November
St Mary’s Community Centre, Eltham, SE London at 2pm to 4pm
Telling Tales & Taking Tea: you are invited to come along and listen to a selection of stories while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee. The entrance to the event is free.
Arnold Library, Nottinghamshire, from 10am - midday
Our regularly held Reading Cafe will be holding a short story themed
session. All are welcome to come along and discuss their favourite short
stories, and if they wish, to read a one minute extract from either a
short story they love or one they have written themselves. Refreshments are available, at a small cost. For more information, please call Arnold Library on 0115 9202247.
Friday 16th November
Eltham Library SE London at 6pm to 8pm
Telling Tales & Taking Tea: you are invited to come along and listen to a selection of stories while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee. The entrance to the event is free.
Short story anthologies
Overheard: an anthology of short stories to be read aloud (Salt Publishing)
Independent publisher Salt is publishing a new short story anthology on November 12th, to coincide with this year's National Short Story Week. The anthology is a collection of short stories to be read out loud, with contributions from authors such as Louis De Bernières, Blake Morrison, Kate Pullinger, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Adele Parks and Hanif Kureishi. Visit the website.
Louis de Bernieres is reading his Overheard story at a literary dinner at the Grove in Cromer on 12th November — tickets are on sale from the Grove http://www.thegrovecromer.co.uk
Life is Not a Bed of Roses
Following their first success, two Devon authors are set to release a second collection of short stories — just in time for National Short Story Week. Good reviews for their first book, Life is Not a Trifling Affair, prompted writers Kate McCormick and Sharon Cook to pen a few more tales. Life is Not a Bed of Roses is due to hit the shelves next month. Visit the website.
Foreign Encounters: A New Anthology from Writers Abroad
Online writing group Writers Abroad are proud to announce the publication on Wednesday 24th October of their new anthology, entitled Foreign Encounters, in time for National Short Story Week.
Foreign Encounters is the third anthology published by Writers Abroad, an online group of ex-pat writers. All the contributors are, or have been, ex-pats living in places around the globe. Author Julia Gregson, a former ex-pat whose bestselling novel East of the Sun won the Prince Maurice Prize for romantic fiction, has written the foreword.
The anthology includes 16 poems, 38 short stories and 41 non-fiction articles. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Books Abroad, a charity which coordinates the donation of free books for schools throughout the world, believing that education is a crucial aspect of human progress. Foreign Encounters is available from Lulu
from Wednesday 24th October, price €9.99 (approximately £8.00).
Writers Abroad website.
Short story competitions
Short Sentence (Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, Bloomsbury Publishing, The Crime Writers’ Association)
"Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, in association with Bloomsbury Publishing and The Crime Writers’ Association, have launched the Short Sentence crime writing competition. A new theme will be set every two months and we will select a winner for each theme. Entries will be collected throughout the year and we will also announce one overall winner during National Short Story Week." Visit the website.
Win a children’s author’s visit for your school courtesy of LFC
"In celebration of National Short Story Week, LFC have teamed up with Walker Books to invite your primary school to take part in our brilliant short story competition with a chance to win a visit from children’s author Vivian French to your school! Register your school by end of October to take part and submit your pupils’ best short stories to us by the end of November for your school’s chance to have the famous visit early next year." Visit website.
Abergavenny Focus Magazine
"We have got together with our good friends at Bookish bookshop in Crickhowell to launch our very own short story competition. The winning entry will appear in November’s issue of the Abergavenny Focus." Visit the website.
Candy Jar Books and Screaming Dreams Publishing
To celebrate National Short Story Week Candy Jar Books and Screaming Dreams Publishing are launching a competition offering aspiring writers the chance to have their work published for the very first time. Candy Jar and Screaming Dreams – based in Cardiff Bay – will publish the winning entries as an ebook anthology. Visit the website.
Choc Lit short story competition
The independent romantic fiction publisher is holding a short story competition with results announced in November 2012 for National Short Story Week (entry now closed).
The Plymouth Proprietary Library
A short story competition with results announced in November 2012 for National Short Story Week. Visit the website.
Hartlepool Borough Libraries
"To celebrate the 21st Birthday of our Central Library we are running a short story competition. Open to anyone 16yrs and older, all you have to do is write a story in no more than 2121 words, based on the number 21! 1st Prize £30, 2nd prize £20, 3rd prize £15. Closing date is the 30th November. The winning entry will be chosen by Beda Higgins and will be announced on 21st December. Typed entries (with name and contact details on a separate sheet) should be posted to Central Library, York Road, Hartlepool TS26 9DE, or emailed to Denise.sparrowhawk@hartlepool.gov.uk."
Herefordshire & Wye Valley Life magazine
The magazine is running a short story competition in their November issue to coincide with NSSW. The story must, in some way, be connected to Herefordshire, so anyone who has been here on holiday or knows the area - have a go. Full details will be in the magazine, which is on sale from 19th October 2012. Visit the website.
|
