Leeds Lit Fest is Back for 2023

LEEDS LIT FEST 2023: 25 FEB – 5 MARCH Leeds Lit Fest is back! Returning for its fifth year, the city’s award-winning festival of words and thought will take place across a diverse range of the city’s spaces and aims to bring together, and help develop, the city’s literary scene, with writers, poets and performers from the UK and beyond. This year’s festival will tie in with Leeds 2023, the […]

For 2023! Meet Our 6 New Academy Writers

The Northern Short Story Festival Academy is delighted to announce that a further 6 promising writers are to join its now well-established Academy programme in 2023. Since its inception in 2018 the Academy has been supporting and championing writers in Yorkshire, helping them to hone their craft through monthly workshops where they have the chance to read and critique each other’s short stories. The Academy has already supported 24 Yorkshire […]

Our Academy Submission Window is Now Open!

Applications for the Northern Short Story Festival Academy are now open until Friday 7th October 2022. The Academy is open to all writers based in the North of England. Successful applicants will participate in a monthly workshop critique group via Zoom from Jan-June 2023 where they will read and critique each other’s stories and if possible take part in NSSF events in 2023. Find out more information and the application […]

Meet Our Academicians: Emily Walker

In advance of opening our Academy submission window for 2022/23, we are profiling our 6 Academicians of 2021/2022. Meet Emily Walker. Hello, my name is Emily Walker, I am a writer from York who has been published in Ellipsis Zine, the York Literary Review and Sink Magazine. I have also been long-longlisted for the Brick Lane Short Story Prize 2021. I am currently studying an MA degree in Creative Writing […]

Meet Our Academicians: Kate Vine

In advance of opening our Academy submission window for 2022/23, we are profiling our 6 Academicians of 2021/2022. Meet Kate Vine. I’ve been writing all my life and, in 2018, I graduated with Distinction from the MA Creative Writing course at UEA. It was a wonderful time, reading, writing and collaborating with other writers. Since then, I’ve been honing my first novel and my short fiction has won the Lunate […]

Meet Our Academicians: Lyn Towers

In advance of opening our Academy submission window for 2022/23, we are profiling our 6 Academicians of 2021/2022. Meet Lyn Towers. I have always enjoyed writing. When I was running the fells throughout Yorkshire and the North I contributed articles for The Fellrunner, and fellrunning websites about the races I ran. As a member of Script Yorkshire my short scripts have been performed at local theatres including the Leeds Playhouse, […]

Meet Our Academicians: Vicky Pointing

In advance of opening our Academy submission window for 2022/23, we are profiling our 6 Academicians of 2021/2022. Meet Vicky Pointing. I write short stories, flash fiction, and novels for children and young adults. I was a winner of Tiny Owl Workshop’s Halloween flash fiction competition, curated the UK leg of the Krampus Crackers flash fiction project, and am currently working on a dystopian novel for young adults. My short […]

Meet Our Academicians: Lucy Brighton

In advance of opening our Academy submission window for 2022/23, we are profiling our 6 Academicians of 2021/2022. Meet Lucy Brighton. I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing ever since childhood. However, I didn’t take it seriously until I quit my job as a secondary school English teacher and started an MA in Creative Writing at Leeds Trinity University. This was the first time I’d met like minded people who loved […]

Meet Our Academicians: John Biglands

In advance of opening our Academy submission window for 2022/23, we are profiling our 6 Academicians of 2021/2022. Meet John Biglands. I like to write stories that tweak reality by just the tiniest smidgen. I put characters in these worlds and follow them to see where they go. Sometimes where they go is interesting. Those ones I let out of my writing desk and see if they can stand on […]

Join The Northern Short Story Festival and Comma Press for The Dinesh Allirajah 2022 Prize-giving

Featuring all eight shortlistees of the 2022 prize, crime writer and judge Karline Smith and a special appearance from 2021 winner Isha Karki. On the 25th of May 2022 join Comma Press and The Northern Short Story Festival online for The Dinesh Allirajah 2022 prize-giving. This year the shortlist has been passed on to a panel of esteemed judges including successful crime writer, Karline Smith; editor at Northodox Press, specialising […]