On Saturday 26th October, The Northern Short Story Festival is proud to present not one, but TWO acclaimed horror writers in conversation at FRIGHTFEST. Alison Littlewood, a Shirley Jackson Award winner, will be in conversation with Lucie McKnight Hardy, whose book Water Shall Refuse Them is out now, from Liverpool independent Dead Ink Books. Don’t miss this spectacular and spooktacular event. Tickets are £6, and as well as hearing these […]
Blog
66 posts
Latest news and articles from the Northern Short Story Festival!
This October, we’re proud to be hosting acclaimed horror writer Alison Littlewood, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction. Her latest novel, Mistletoe, a winter ghost story, is published in October this year, and previous books have been selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, and described as ‘perfect reading for a dark winter’s night.’ Her short stories have been picked for several year’s best anthologies, and […]
The Northern Short Story Festival is proud to announce its Autumn programme. With guided walks, workshops, Hallowe’en themed fancy dress, political writing and FRIGHTFEST minifestival to scare you silly, there’s plenty going on this October at the Northern Short Story Festival. Saturday October 19th: Guided walk & Creative Writing workshop, Middleton Park with Richard Smyth (FREE) We are over the moon to be announcing […]
The boys call her Wardy, like she’s one of the lads, a bit of a laugh. Maybe she’s leading a double life; they all fancy her anyway. They just ignore me, most of the time. Same goes for the teachers. Jane Ward’s intelligent and independent. I’m invisible. I do everything with my best mate, Carmen. We walk to school and tennis club and Guides and that keeps us on the […]
Did you ever have a day when you were just sick of your own face? It comes out of the blue: you see some random stranger and the face they wear is so perfect in proportion, complexion, structure, that you realise your face is a clunky mess in comparison: a Picasso to their Rossetti. And for half an hour, half a day, half a moment, you wish you had someone […]
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, (well, Yorkshire) there was a short fiction festival. Legend has it that this festival took place in Leeds once a year on a weekend in early June, in a theatre known as The Carriageworks. It was the Northern Short Story Festival and people came from far and wide to experience its many delights. Upon hearing about this momentous event, one […]
Tickets for this year’s Festival are selling fast, and some workshops have already sold out. Have you got yours yet? Visit our Festival page on the Carriageworks Box Office website to book. Saturday Day Tickets are £30, for which you get 2x workshops, and 2x reading events. To book one of these, go to Carriageworks Box Office, add a morning workshop, We Were Strangers, an afternoon workshop, and Resist! Stories […]
Next weeks’ Northern Short Story Festival will bring a selection of award-winning Northern publishers to our Festival Hub area (open all day on Saturday.) Ahead of our big festival weekend, festival intern Beth Lenderyou looked a little more in detail at some of the presses which will be with us all day. It can be easy to believe that the publishing industry is inaccessible and all but confined to London, […]
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 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 […]