London Writing Workshops

Plymouth University’s journal Short FICTION accepts entries to its competition between January 1st and March 31st each year. There is no restriction on theme and stories should not exceed 5000 words. Entry is £10, which allows you to submit 2 stories, as well as entitling you to a free copy of the next issue of Short FICTION. More information from their website:
 

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London-based writers’ development agency Spread the Word is inviting applications from poets and/or prose writers between the ages of 18 and 24 for a mentoring scheme funded by 
The Garrick Charitable Trust, Coutts  and Arts Council England.

They say:  ’You don’t need to be published or have had your work performed. All you need is commitment to writing, the time to attend seven sessions, and the hunger to explore new possibilities. Flight is FREE and places are limited. You need to apply for a place before Monday 30 January 2012.

For more information email susannah@spreadtheword.org.uk or visit www.spreadtheword.org.uk.

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The Bookseller reports that Good Housekeeping has launched a £25,000 competition for budding novelists in association with Orion and agent Luigi Bonomi.  The competition is announced in the magazine’s January issue, which goes on sale today (1st December).

Good Housekeeping is looking for previously unpublished writers in any genre apart from children’s, with first prize a £25,000 advance, help from the Orion editorial team and Bonomi, and the chance to have the winning book published with coverage in the magazine. Judges will include Kate Mosse, Bonomi, Orion fiction publishing director Kate Mills and Good Housekeeping editorial director Lindsay Nicholson.

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Mainstream publishing suddenly seems to have fallen in love with the idea of issuing short stories in digital formats. Orbit Short Fiction, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of the Hatchette Book Group which launched in the US in April, has announced that it will be publishing short stories in the UK from the start of 2012. And last week, Dan Franklin announced that Random House is launching a company-wide short story brand called Story Cuts, which will publish stories by the likes of Ruth Rendell and Julian Barnes.

The Bookseller reports Franklin as saying: “This is the iTunes model, really. It hasn’t ever been applied to books yet . . . ‘ Not so!! In the UK, Etherbooks and Shortfire Press are two digital-only publishers that have been specialising in short fiction for quite some time.

Etherbooks have a free app available from the AppStore, and via that you can download short content by various authors –  including Paul MacCartney, Hilary Mantel and me – at various prices (mostly 69p). Shortfire stories can be read in PDF form or on Kindles, e-readers and mobiles and cost 99p.  Both companies have been active  for some time and can be congratulated on being ahead of the pack.

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Throwaway Lines is a lovely idea – short stories inspired by discarded notes and messages. The  project was initiated by Andy Hayes, who attended last year’s short story workshop with me and Alexei Sayle. It’s produced in association with the writers’ collective 26 -  also a site worth investigating if you don’t know about them.

For 26 days this month, they’ll be publishing stories based on scraps of handwritten paper that Andy has been collecting from London’s streets over the past couple of years. There are three stories to read so far, including one by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg – an example of early 20th-century flash fiction: ‘Half a sheet of foolscap’.

It’s live right now at this link: Throwaway Lines. Take a look!

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One of the books on this year’s Guardian First Book Award shortlist is from a brand new not-for-private-profit publisher, And Other Stories, established in 2010 with funding from the Arts Council. Down the Rabbit Hole, by Juan Pablo Villalobos (pictured left), is a darkly comic novel about Latin-American drug-dealers. The other titles vying for the £10,000 prize are Stephen Kelman’s Pigeon English (Bloomsbury), which was also shortlisted for this year’s Booker; Amy Waldman’s The Submission (William Heinemann), a novel about the tensions arising around the building of a 9/11 memorial; Kashmiri author Mirza Waheed’s The Collaborator (Viking); and – the only non-fiction book to make the shortlist this year - American cancer specialist Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies (Fourth Estate), a biography of the disease. You can read extracts of all the books with introductions by the authors on the Guardian website.

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On Dec 1st at the Free the Word Centre, The Literary Consultancy is hosting a fundraising evening on behalf of The Maya Centre, a charity providing free psychodynamic counselling and group psychotherapy for women in Islington

Novelist, journalist and campaigner Melissa Benn will host an illustrious line-up of writers including Jill Dawson, Margaret Drabble, Helen Simpson and Sarah Waters who will read from their work highlighting a variety of experiences from women’s lives. Tickets include a glass of wine and canapes.

Tickets are £25 but you can donate more if you wish. Click here to book. All proceeds go to the Maya Centre.

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Circalit are running a Flash Fiction Competition in partnership with the Hospital Club and their poet in residence, Sabrina Mahfouz. Writers are challenged to create a 500 word flash fiction story, of whatever genre they please, on the subject of ‘A CHANCE ENCOUNTER’.  The competition is free to enter and the prize will be to have your story recorded and broadcast on The Hospital Club website, and in the club’s lifts, as well as displayed in the halls! The closing date is the end of November. More info on the Circalit website.

Flash fiction – also known as micro fiction, short short stories or smoke-long fiction (because a story lasts as for long as it takes to smoke a cigarette) – is a form that’s growing in popularity. It exists somewhere between traditional short prose fiction and poetry, combining narrative with economy and intensity.

Writer, editor and creative writing lecturer Calum Kerr has come up with the idea of creating a day in 2012 to celebrate the form. To join the movement you can sign up to the Facebook Page Or follow on Twitter @nationalflashfd

Or visit Calum Kerr’s website for updates.

and its many great creators.

National Flash Fiction Facebook Page

Having publicized the debut novel competition on this site, it’s nice to announce that  independent publisher Route Online have picked a winner – 27-year-old Sophie Coulombeau (pictured) from York. The competition, supported by Arts Council England, was aimed at novelists under 30 living in Yorkshire.

Coulombeau’s book, provisionally titled Rites,  tells the story of a group of four teenagers who make a pact to lose their virginity away from the watchful eyes of parents and priest. Ten years later, they look back on the events and unravel how it all went horribly wrong. Route editor Ian Daley said of the award, ‘We are thrilled to be publishing this book and to be working with Sophie. She’s a great talent, with an exciting future in front of her. The book manages to have that rare combination of being both richly complex and a riveting read.’ The novel will be published in summer 2012.

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