About

The Northern Short Story Festival (NSSF) is the North’s only festival dedicated to celebrating and championing the short story. We are Saboteur Award winners. Remembering Oluwale won Best Anthology in the Saboteur Awards 2017. In 2021 our This New North anthology was shortlisted for Best Anthology in the Saboteur Awards. Graduates from the Northern Short Story Festival Academy have gone on to have work produced by the BBC, appear in Best of British Fantasy Short Fiction, win the Lucy Cavendish Prize, and many other accolades.

We are part of the Leeds Big Bookend.

“NoShoSto” started in 2016, and was the brainchild of then Festival Director SJ Bradley. We aim to bring the best in short story writing to Leeds, to celebrate the many brilliant writers already in the region, and support the excellent independent presses which do great work nationwide. Our motto is “affordable, accessible, representative, locally run.” Accessibility information for all of our venues is available here.

The Festival is funded by arts@leeds (2018-22) at Leeds City Council.

We provide:

  • Regular pop-up events, networking, and workshops
  • The Academy scheme
  • Hyperlocal “writers in residency” schemes at various locations around Leeds; please contact us if you are interested in helping us host a residency in Burmantofts, Halton Dial, or Beeston
  • Events as part of Leeds Lit Fest

We also enjoy great working partnerships with:

  • Carriageworks Theatre
  • The Leeds Library
  • Leeds Libraries
  • David Oluwale Memorial Association
  • The Walter Swan Trust
  • Leeds International Film Festival

We have close working relationships with other literary organisations and magazines that are found in the city and region:

  • Fictions of Every Kind
  • Leeds Lit Fest
  • Strix magazine
  • Peepal Tree Press
  • Comma Press
  • Valley Press
  • Plus many more!