London Writing Workshops

Archive for the ‘Vicky’s News’ Category

I’m pleased to say that a short story of mine called ‘Waiting’ has appeared in issue 2 of a new South Asian literary journal called The Milestone. Click on this link to read the story.

On Saturday 22 May, I celebrated the 2nd anniversary of London Writing Workshops with the participants of The Writers’ Workout. We shared a carrot cake (decorated with two candles) and everyone sang! They were very good about my poor camera handling skills. Victoria took this picture of me blowing out the candles. A lovely group – as always!

I’m looking forward to teaching a one-day workshop on characterisation and setting in Norwich next Saturday, May 8th.

The website says it’s full but I have an idea there may be one place left. Contact the Norwich Writers’ Centre if you’re interested.

A  nice surprise this week when a little box turned up in the post from the University of Maine at Machias, USA. It was the latest edition of work from the Ultra-Short Short Story competition run by the university’s literary magazine, The Binnacle. Each 150-word story is printed on a matchbox-sized card with the author’s bio on the back. The whole collection of cards is encased in a nice blue box – a lovely little object.

At the other end of the scale, the Story website has news of  a new e-publishing venture called Ether Books which aims bring short fiction to people’s mobile phones. Two very different forms of publishing, although both ‘products’ can be held in the palm of the hand.

Thanks to the British Council one of my stories has just been published in a dual language English/Chinese anthology called A Little Nest of Pedagogues. My story is a short piece called ‘Stranger’, which originally appeared in New Writing 13 (Picador, 2005); it was subsequently reprinted in a German magazine and now it’s travelling even further afield.

I’m one of ten writers, including Emily Perkins, Kamila Shamsie, Romesh Gunesekera and Fay Weldon, whose work has been translated here. The back cover describes the collection as ‘new writing from established writers and names to watch’. I’m amazed and delighted.

The Asham Award anthology Waving at the Gardener (ed. Kate Pullinger) is now available to buy online from Bloomsbury. It’s a  wonderfully varied collection – and I’m not just saying that because I have a story in there! (‘Visitors’, on p119).

For me some of the stand-out pieces are Esther Freud’s account of the First Palestine Literary Festival; Alison Dunn’s ‘Omi’s Ghosts’; overall winner Jo Lloyd’s ‘Because It Is Running By’; Erica Rocca’s ‘Something Small and Understood’ and Margaret Atwood’s ‘Rape Fantasies’. Well worth £6.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/Books/details.aspx?isbn=9780747598763

I was very pleased  to hear that my story ‘Rich’ was selected as one of the finalists in Narrative Magazine’s 2009 Spring Contest. It’s a website well worth visiting.

http://www.narrativemagazine.com/

Congratulations to The Short Review editor, Tania Hershman, winner of the Grand Prize in the University of Maine’s  Ultra-Short Competition (50 word stories). I’m also on the shortlist, which I was pleased about, given that they had over 900 entries from all over the world.

http://www.umm.maine.edu/sixth-annual-ultra-short-competition.html

(See more recent post for details about The Short Review.)