Academy

One of the aims of the Northern Short Story Festival is to provide meaningful opportunities for development for short story writers in the North. Help and support for short story writers serious about mastering their craft are limited, and it is part of the Festival’s aim to help provide those opportunities for development.

Our Academy scheme is aimed at writers who have already shown some success in the short story realm, and who need support to develop and improve their work further. We started this scheme in 2018 and have so far supported 24 writers. Read more in our blog section here.

For 2023, thanks to our funders, we have appointed a further 6 Northern writers to our Academy scheme: Kate Burke, Sarah Davy, Lydia Gill, Alex Joynes, Catharine Mee, Miranda Roszkowski (see image, L to R). Read more about them here.

We provide workshops and events at our main festival and pop-up events throughout the year. All of these are open to the general public.  To get more information about the Northern Short Story Festival and Leeds Big Bookend events, please sign up to our mailing list, or follow us on Twitter @NoShoSto or Facebook @NoShoStoFest. The Academy is supported by arts@Leeds, part of Leeds City Council, and The Walter Swan Trust.