We are now open for your submissions for our Special 30th Event at a new venue 

We are now open for submissions for our Special 30th event on Sunday 9 November 2025. We close for submissions on Sunday 21 September.

The theme is BEAUTY/BEAUTIFUL. 

It can be the beauty of anything - nature, landscape, people, children, love, writing, an object, a work of art or craft, architecture, the beauty of the accidental, a score or move in sports and games, day, a deity, the sky, a city or village, music, clothes, cosmetics, cosmetic surgery, beauty treatments/grooming, beautician, vanity, tattoos, health & beauty, animals, pets, inner beauty, hidden beauty, a beautiful friendship...you name it, you can use it in your story. 

NB Please remember that we are looking for STORIES, something with a 'narrative arc' to read to a live audience.

The working title of the event is All This Useless Beauty based on the 1996 Elvis Costello song and the 1926 Maupassant short story.

As always it's free to submit.

OUR NEW VENUE is the Lansdown Hall in Stroud and the event will be part of the 2025 Stroud Book Festival. The Cotswold Playhouse was unable to offer us any dates that would allow us to be part of the Book Festival. Like the Playhouse, the Lansdown Hall has a seating capacity of 150.

KEY DATES - Submissions are now open but close on Sunday 21 September. The results will be announced on Wednesday 1 October and tickets will go on sale on Friday 3 October from the Lansdown Hall website. If you're interested, please make a note of these dates.

We choose ten stories to be read/performed by their authors. We take both new and previously published stories of 500 to 1500 words. Under our legendary Rule 11 (now 12!), the authors who read on keep on Movin' event on Sunday 11 May are unable to submit to this event.

I will be co-judging this time with short story author and novelist Ali Bacon who has read a number of times at SSS and won awards for her short fiction. Ali's novel The Absent Heart was published in March this year.

Link to info about the JUDGES is here.

Link to the Rules and How to Submit is here.

Link to Tips on Writing for SSS is here. This is essential reading!

John 

 

Pix of the Authors who read at KEEP ON MOVIN' on Sunday 11 May 2025

Thank you to everyone who bought tickets and came along to our event, Keep on Movin' on Sunday 11 May at the Cotswold Playhouse. Here are the authors who performed their brilliant stories at our 29th event. They are in the order in which they read.

Photography by Angela Fitch. Thank you, Angela!

Robin Booth - Paulie

Joel Levy - Remora

Stella Waller - Three Sisters

Steph Smith - Sea Shanty

David Goodland - Elvis and Billy and that Old Crab

Val Ockwell - Taking a Leap

Sophie Holland - Next of Kin

Sean W. Quigley - Making the Most of it

Jacob Parker - Neon Pizza

Jess Blatchley - The Year of Mud and Liquids

TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE to see/hear these Authors and their Winning Stories at our 11 May SSS event KEEP ON MOVIN' on the theme of Journeys

Tickets, priced at £12, are now on sale on the Cotswold Playhouse website -

https://www.cotswoldplayhouse.co.uk/whats-on

The event is on Sunday 11 May at the Cotswold Playhouse and starts at 7.30 (doors 7.00). There will be a bar and an interval. The seating is raked so you can see from wherever you sit, and we use a microphone. When you book your tickets you can choose your exact seat.

We often sell out so best not to leave it too late.

The event will NOT be recorded. 

It's going to be a great night. I hope to see you there.

HUGE THANKS to the 78 writers who submitted 112 stories on the theme of Journeys for our 11 May event Keep on Movin'.

My co-judge this time, Chloe Turner, and I have now announced the ten authors and their stories for our 11 May event.

Huge congratulations to these authors and thanks to them for submitting their brilliant stories to SSS. The stories range from the dystopian to the tender, from the hallucinatory to the witty and humourous. It's going to be a great evening.

Jess Blatchley (Bishops Cleeve) – The Year of Mud and Liquids

Robin Booth (Brimscombe, Stroud) – Paulie

David Goodland (Nailsworth) – Elvis and Billy and that Old Crab

Sophie Holland (no relation) (Stoke Gifford, S.Gloucs) – Next of Kin

Joel Levy (Stroud) – Remora

Val Ockwell (Somerford Keynes) – Taking a Leap

Jacob Parker (Wotton-under-Edge) – Neon Pizza

Sean W. Quigley (Gloucester) – Making the Most of it

Stephanie Smith (Newnham-on-Severn) – Sea Shanty

Stella Waller (Longwell Green, S.Gloucs) – Three Sisters

Sophie and Stella are new to SSS and will be the 135th and 136th writers to read at one of our events. Everyone else has read/performed at SSS before - with Robin Booth reading for the 7th time. Steph Smith returns to us after an eleven year hiatus.

John 

We are closed for submissions for our 11 May event Keep on Movin' (on the theme of journeys). Here are the Important Selection Dates + Ticket Info

HUGE THANKS to everyone who has submitted stories for our Journeys event. We are now closed for submissions.

Here are the Important Selection Dates -

*Long List announced - Thursday 3 April

*Short List announced - Sunday 6 April

Final Ten announced - Wednesday 9 April

*Please note that only those writers who have submitted stories for this event will receive the Long and Short Lists

TICKETS go on sale from the Cotswold Playhouse website from Friday 11 April. Keep on Movin' takes place on Sunday 11 May at the Cotswold Playhouse 7.30 (doors 7.00)

This event will not be recorded.

My Tips for writing for SSS are here

The Rules and How to Submit are here

Please see my earlier post (below) for more information about the theme and the judges

John 

Submissions are open for our 11 May 2025 event Keep on Movin' on the theme of Journeys 

Submissions close on Sunday 30 March.

Our 29th event Keep on Movin' will be on Sunday 11 May 2025 at the Cotswold Playhouse in Parliament Street, Stroud. 

The theme is JOURNEYS - that's journeys of all kinds. Obviously we want stories about physical journeys  (trains, boats, planes, cars, cycling, walking, running, etc) which can include outings, travel or holidays. 

But we also want you to write about metaphorical, or emotional, or spiritual, or experiential journeys ie a journey through life or part of life that represents some sort of change or progress. 

A journey short or long. You name it - if it's a journey of any kind you can write about it. 

It must, of course, be a short story. We are not looking for travelogues or memoirs.

Key dates -

Submissions close Sunday 30 March

Results announced Wednesday 9 April

Tickets on sale from the Cotswold Playhouse website from Friday 11 April.

The event is called Keep on Movin', the title taken from the ground-breaking 1989 song by Soul II Soul. 

I will be co-judging this time with short story author and novelist Chloe Turner. Chloe has read a number of times at SSS and won awards for her short fiction. Her novel Blue Hawk was published earlier this year.

Submissions are free as ever and we accept both new and previously published pieces. You may submit one or two pieces from 500 to 1500 words.

The Rules and Information on How to Submit are here.

My tips for writing for SSS are here.

Info on the judges is here.

Your story, if successful, will be included in our new anthology Stroud Short Stories Volume Four 2022-2025 due for publication in 2026.

Exciting! Chloe and I are looking forward to reading your brilliant stories! 

John

Pix of the authors reading at FAMILY AFFAIR on Sunday 3 November 2024

Thank you to everyone who bought tickets and came along to our sell-out event, 'Family Affair' on Sunday 3 November at the Cotswold Playhouse. Here are the authors who read/performed their brilliant stories at our 28th event. They are in the order in which they read.

Photography by Angela Fitch. Thank you, Angela!

Rebecca Klassen reads 'Big Cat'

Ruth Pilston about to read 'Fossil Hunting'

Steve Wheeler (Steven John) reads 'Blueberry Muffins'

Helen Cornish Smith reads 'Grandma & a Law Concerning Bees'

Mark Rutterford performs 'Mick Jagger's Lips'

Gillian Metheringham reads 'Deep'

Nastasya Parker reads 'Calloused'

Archie Woolls reads 'Our Mother who art in Orbit'

Georgia Boon reads 'Erica'

Geoff Mead reads 'The Day Job'

Our event FAMILY AFFAIR at the Cotswold Playhouse on 3rd November has now SOLD OUT with over a week yet to go!

Thank you to everyone who has bought tickets. Every autumn SSS event in the last ten years has sold out in advance.

See you on the 3rd. It's going to be a cracker.

John