Yearly archives: 2019

27 posts

What makes good Flash Fiction? Our 2019 FFS judges tell us what they think.

So, you’re all set. You’ve got your ticket booked for our Flash Fiction Slam, you’ve got your story written, your nerves are set to ‘steel: strongest possible’, and you’re ready to compete for prizes that include publication, books, and a detailed critique from Strix editor SJ Bradley, not to mention a coveted place in our Flash Fiction Hall of Fame. Our Festival Team spoke to this year’s judges, Benjamin Judge […]

We Were Strangers: a distinctive, haunting collection that lingers long after reading

  We Were Strangers is a collection of ten short stories inspired by Joy Division’s debut album, Unknown Pleasures, which turns forty years old next month. The stories take on the album’s themes in a vast variety of settings and situations. Each piece is named after a track from the album and mirrors the music. It was an interesting experience to read them with the songs playing. Some take their […]

Friday 31st May: Flash Fiction Slam with judges Tania Hershman + Benjamin Judge

This year, we are incredibly proud to be bringing back our Flash Fiction Slam for the third year in a row. Take our challenge, and maybe you could end up in our Flash Fiction Hall of fame! This year, our slam judges are the legendary Tania Hershman, and brilliant Flash Fiction writer & performer Benjamin Judge. The rules are simple. Each contender has 5 minutes to read a complete story. […]

Northern Short Story Festival 2019 Programme Announced

  We are thrilled to announce this year’s Northern Short Story Festival programme. Taking place on Friday 31st May – Sunday 2nd June, the fourth Northern Short Story Festival takes place at Carriageworks Theatre. It has workshops, performances, social events, a Flash Fiction slam and a FREE “Blankety Blank” themed afterparty. There really is something for everyone! Tickets start at £4 / Free, with a Saturday day ticket (which gets […]

Sunday 2nd June, Creatives Mixer + Yorkshire Short Films from LIFF 3.00-4.00 [FREE EVENT]

Are you an artist, film maker, developer, musician, or craft maker? Whether you knit or edit, our Creatives Mixer on June 2nd is for you. Hosted by the Northern Short Story Festival, the only festival in the North dedicated to short stories and short story writers, the Creatives Mixer aims to bring artists, makers and creatives of all types together to meet one another for potential collaborations and working relationships. […]

Flash Fiction Slam 2017 winner Phil Olsen on impressing the judges

At The Northern Short Story Festival Flash Fiction Slam, flash fiction writers compete to win prizes, glory, and the respect of their peers, by reading their shortest stories of 5 minutes or under, out loud to an audience. Winners get a bundle of books, publication on the Northern Short Story Festival website, a detailed story critique by Strix editor SJ Bradley, and a coveted and hotly-contested place in the Flash […]

The Power of the Personal by workshop leader Barney Bardsley

  MEMOIR – or creative non-fiction – is enjoying a gathering popularity among contemporary readers. Why should that be? Because everyone loves a personal story, powerfully told. Despite the old-fashioned tinge of the word itself – ‘memoir’ – this form offers great imaginative possibilities to writers. Less constraining than straightforward autobiography, yet holding within it the power of a real-life experience, memoir can draw us into the world of another, in […]

Workshop leader Sarah Dunnakey on writing Yorkshire-set historical mystery The Companion

  “CHILD COMPANION WANTED age 6-7, for boy 7 Capt. Hall, M.F.H., St Breward, Bodmin” The brief notice in a 1938 edition of The Times newspaper was squeezed between adverts for a Cornish hotel and ‘Miss Oliver’s High Colonic Irrigation’. I don’t know to this day how I spotted it. I wasn’t even supposed to be reading the personal columns. I was doing research for my job as a TV […]

Academician Jean Davison’s Festival preview

  I’ve ringed the dates on my calendar with a fancy purple marker pen (not that I could forget!). The leaves are already bristling with the promise of exciting events at the forthcoming NoShoSto Festival. Here are just three which I’m particularly looking forward to. On Saturday 1st June, 2pm, the award winning short story writer C G Menon will be running a workshop called ‘Credible and Compelling Writing’. Through […]

Workshop leader Courttia Newland chooses his 3 favourite place-centred short stories

A sense of place anchors a short story. Expertly created, a sense of location places our feet in the world of the short story, and makes the reader feel that they have really ‘been there.’ We asked award-winning short story writer Courttia Newland, recent guest editor of The Good Journal, to tell us about his favourite three stories that use a sense of place.  Delhi, Vandana Singh (Read for free […]