We are now Closed for Submissions for the 8 Nov 2026 event THE HEAT IS ON 

A HUGE thank you to everyone who submitted stories for our 31st event. We are now closed for submissions. 

The WINNING writers and stories will be announced on this website and on social media on 7 October.

A record number (93) of writers submitted this time, sending us 109 stories.

THE SELECTION TIMETABLE

Thursday 1 Oct - *Long List announced (titles only) by email

Sun 4 Oct - *Short List announced (titles only) by email

Wed 7 Oct - THE WINNING AUTHORS & THEIR STORIES announced to all and added this website

* The L/L and S/L are announced only to those writers who submitted stories for this event, and are by title only to maintain author anonymity

THE HEAT IS ON

This event takes place on Sunday 8 November at the Lansdown Hall in Stroud. The ten winning authors will read their stories. Start time 7.30; doors 7.00. There will be a bar open for drinks, tea and coffee before the event and during the interval. The event is part of the Stroud Book Festival and is dedicated to the late Simon Piney, a SSS regular. 

TICKETS

Tickets, priced at £12 go on sale from Friday 9 October on the Lansdown Hall website 

THE HEAT IS ON - WE ARE OPEN FOR YOUR SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR 31st EVENT UNTIL 27 SEPTEMBER AT 23.59

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OUR NEW ANTHOLOGY SSS VOLUME FOUR 2022-2025 - LAUNCH 8 OCTOBER

The next brilliant SSS event, The Heat Is On, will be on Sunday 8th November 2026 at 7.30 (doors 7.00) at the Lansdown Hall in Stroud and will be part of the Stroud Book Festival. 

Submissions are open for all Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire writers until Sunday 27 September at 23.59. As always, it is free to submit your stories. 

The theme is HEAT/HOT. I thought of the theme on a rather chilly day in June. Now we're all fed up with the heat. But your story doesn't have to be about a sunny day or a heatwave. Think of the theme as widely as possible. For example, you could write stories about fire, temperature, holidays, climate change, anger, an attractive ('hot') person or thing, passion, pressure, high stress ('the heat is on'), heat of the moment, insurrection, inflaming the senses, spicy food, cooking, 'hot gossip', hot-headed person, in hot pursuit, carrying a gun ('packing heat'), an illegal package or contraband, 'hot property', taking the heat out of a situation, etc etc. I'm sure you can think of more.

We are looking for well-crafted and engaging stories which will entertain, excite and inspire an audience. The dark, ironic and funny are very welcome.

Submissions close on Sunday 27 September. We will select 8 to10 stories for their authors to read at the event. The autumn SSS events has sold out in advance for the last 12 years, so you will almost certainly be reading to a capacity audience. 

I am delighted to say that my co-judge this time will be award-winning short story author and novelist Joanna Campbell. 

The stories selected will be in our anthology Stroud Short Stories Volume Five 2026-2029 to be published in 2029-2030.

Under SSS rules, those writers who read at our last event (All This Useless Beauty, Nov 2025) may not submit this time.

The event will not be recorded.

The Rules and How to Submit are here.

SSS Writing Tips are here.

Information about the judges is here.

TICKETS, priced at £12, go on sale from Friday 9 October on the Lansdown Hall website lansdownhall/whatson

THE SELECTION TIMETABLE

Thurs 1 Oct - *LONG LIST announced by email

Sun 4 Oct - *SHORT LIST announced by email

Wed 7 Oct - THE WINNERS (the writers who will read) announced by email and then on this website

*The L/L and S/L are announced only to those writers who submitted stories for this event, and are by title only to maintain author anonymity

The event is dedicated to SSS regular, the brilliant Simon Piney, who so sadly died in August 2026. 

It'll soon be time for us to launch our brand new anthology STROUD SHORT STORIES VOLUME FOUR 2022-2025 featuring 60 stories from our last 6 events by 40 Gloucestershire authors. It will be at the a launch for £12, the same price as previous anthologies. 

The launch will be on Thursday 8 October from 7.30-9.30pm at the Stonehouse Court Hotel. Just call in at any time between those hours.The launch will be free to all. It will be an informal evening. No ticket needed. Everyone welcome. The bar will be open. Please come along, enjoy a chat and perhaps buy a copy. 

The anthology will not be available before the launch.

John

Author pix from the November 2025 event ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY

Here are the authors who read/performed in front of an enthusiastic audience at our recent sell-out event at a new venue, the Lansdown Hall. Thank you to everyone who bought tickets and came along to support local authors. 

We were delighted to be part of the Stroud Book Festival. 

The authors are in the order in which they read/performed. Snaps by Ed Holland. Thank you, Ed.

Mark Rutterford who hosted the event

Steve Wheeler
The Beautiful Couple

Hannah Glickstein
I Make Him Sick

Nikki Vivian
Lamello Zeta P2

Christine Griffin
The Rag-Rug Boy

Simon Gowers
The Camberwell Beauty

Laura Kinnear
Mary

Poppy Lomax
I'll Keep All of My Useless Beauty to Myself

Author Rod Gowers with co-reader Natalie Lee
2050: A Conversation on Beauty

Ruth Pilston
Shrinkflation

Rebecca Klassen
Egg

The 9 November 2025 SSS event All This Useless Beauty has now sold out.

Thank you to everyone who has bought tickets for our sell-out 30th event, All This Useless Beauty, at the Lansdown Hall in Stroud on Sunday 9 November.

Starts 7.30. Doors 7.00.

See you there.

John 

Ticket Information for 9 November 2025 ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY + The Winning Authors and their Stories

TICKETS, priced at £12, for the Special 30th SSS event, All This Useless Beauty, are currently on sale from the Lansdown Hall website -

https://lansdownhall.org/stroud-short-stories-all-this-useless-beauty/

The event, part of the 2025 Stroud Book Festival, is on Sunday 9 November at the Lansdown Hall, Lansdown, Stroud, GL5 1BB. It starts at 7.30 (doors 7.30) and ends 9.45-10.00. There will be an interval and a bar selling alcoholic and non-alcohlic drinks including tea and coffee before the event and during the interval. When you book you can choose exactly where you sit.

Best to park in the Church Street Car Park and walk down the High Street to Lansdown.

This event will not be recorded.

HUGE THANKS to the 78 writers who submitted 112 stories on the theme of Beauty for our 9 November event All This Useless Beauty.

My co-judge this time, Ali Bacon, and I have announced the ten authors and their stories for the event. Here they are -

Hannah Glickstein - I Make Him Sick

Rod Gowers - 2050: A Conversation on Beauty

Simon Gowers - The Camberwell Beauty

Christine Griffin - The Rag-Rug Boy

Laura Kinnear - Mary

Rebecca Klassen - Egg

Poppy Lomax - I'll Keep all of my Useless Beauty to Myself

Ruth Pilston - Shrinkflation

Nikki Vivian - Lamello Zeta P2

Steve Wheeler - The Beautiful Couple

Sincere congratulations to these authors and thanks to them for submitting their brilliant stories to SSS. The stories range from the hilarious to the sad and poignant. There will be a sea voyage, a magnificent DIY tool, angels, a designer baby and, of course, an egg. It's going to be a great evening.

FIVE of the writers are new to SSS so will be the 137th, 138th, 139th, 140th and 141st writers to read at one of our events. Rod and Simon Gowers are brothers!

At the other end of things, Steve is reading for the ninth time and each of Hannah, Laura and Rebecca for the fourth time. It will be Ruth's second reading.

John

We are Closed for Submissions for our 9 November 2025 event ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY. Here are the Important Selection Dates + Ticket Information

HUGE THANKS to everyone who submitted stories for our special 30th Event on the theme of beauty. 98 stories were submitted by 78 writers.

Here are the Important Selection Dates -

*Long List announced - Thursday 25 September

*Short List announced - Sunday 28 September

FINAL TEN announced - Wednesday 1 October

*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 Lansdown Hall website from Friday 3 October. ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY is part of the 2025 Stroud Book Festival and takes place on Sunday 9 November at the Lansdown Hall at 7.30 (doors 7.00).

Seats are reservable so you can choose exactly where you sit. There will be an interval and a bar serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, coffee and tea before the event and during the interval.

Street parking is limited so the best bet is the Church Street car park then walk down the High Street or through Bank Gardens.

See you there!

John

We remain open for your submissions for our Special 30th Event ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY at the Lansdown Hall on Sunday 9 November 2025. We close for submissions on Sunday 21 September at 23.59.

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 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 publicly 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 at the Keep on Movin' event back in May are unable to submit to this event.

I am 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