Stroud Short Stories in February: Submissions Call

Stroud Short Stories will be back on Sunday 12th February, with its first themed event. As befits the approach of Valentine’s Day, the theme will be:

“Love and Other Blows of Fate.”

If you have a story (however loosely) connected to this theme that you would like to have considered for the night, please email it to stroudshortstories@yahoo.co.uk

Stories can be between 50 and 1500 words in length, and will be read by the author at the event.

The deadline for submissions is now Sunday 22nd January 2012  (extended by a week to account for that sluggish Christmas period!)

We look forward to hearing your tales of bliss and woe!


 Un-themed Stories

Due to the Site Festival moving forward from June to May next year, our next event after February will also be in May. If you have any stories that are not based on the theme of “Love and Other Blows of Fate” that you would like to have considered for the May event, please feel free to send them in too. (The deadline for these submissions is Sunday April 8th 2012.)

Stroud Short Stories in October

The second Stroud Short Stories took place on Sunday 16th October at Stroud Valleys Artspace.  The night was once again very well attended and, as promised, our ten authors provided a night of dissatisfied children, used-car salesmen, daleks and, of course, the answer to everything (not to mention a bed in the forest and overwhelming lust in a coffee-shop).

The authors:

Helen Street reading "My Mother Never Did".

Brian Seabrook reading "A Drive in the Slow Lane".

Stephanie Smith reading "Romantic Fiction".

Eley Furrell performing "Marah".

Eleanor Holliday reading "Bedtime".

Helena Petre reading "Dapper Daleks" (a very short story indeed).

Anthony Nanson reading "Solitude".

Juliet Chastney reading "Children".

Diana Humphrey reading "Searching".

Roshi Fernando reading "Mrs Chatterjee's Indian Summer".

Many thanks to all who came, and most especial thanks to the ten authors who read for us and made the evening such a delight.
The next Stroud Short Stories will be in February.  I hope to see you there!

All photographs by Saskia Portway.

Stroud Short Stories on Stroud FM

Last Sunday's Stroud Short Stories was recorded by Terry Mechan for Stroud FM, and an hour-long edit of the evening will be broadcast on his show "Voices Across the Valleys" at 4pm on Wednesday 19th October.  The show will be repeated on Friday 21st October at 1pm.

Stroud FM is on 107.9 FM.  You can also listen online here.  The show will also feature on Listen Again, if you miss the broadcast.  Happy listening!

Stroud Short Stories in October

The next Stroud Short Stories will take place on Sunday 16th October at 8pm at SVA. I can promise a fantastic line-up of ten authors and a wealth of stories ranging from used car salesmen, children looking to swap parents, beds in forests and lust in coffee shops, to Chris Moyles, daleks and finding the ANSWER TO EVERYTHING.

Many thanks to all who submitted stories for October’s event, and apologies to those whose stories didn’t make it into the final line-up.

Our headliner will be Roshi Fernando, Impress prize winner and author of Homesick, a book of interconnected short stories.

All this for only £3 on the door!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Stroud Short Stories on the Radio

Stroud Short Stories enjoyed having a chat with David Smith on his show on BBC Radio Gloucestershire yesterday. A link is here. Interview starts at 41.45 minutes.

Stroud Short Stories in October

After our successful June event, the next Stroud Short Stories will take place on Sunday, 16 October 2011, at 8pm. The venue will be Stroud Valleys Artspace.

To submit, please e-mail your short stories in the body of an e-mail to stroudshortstories@yahoo.co.uk.  Stories can be between 50 and 1500 words, and on any subject.  Please send a maximum of three stories per event.   

Deadline for submissions is Sunday 18th September.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Stroud Short Stories in June

Our first event took place on Sunday June 12th as part of the Site Festival 2011, with eleven authors reading to a packed house at SVA.   As promised, nuclear catastrophes, small fires, barn owls, bad girl guides, goods trains, nudity and sherbet lemons were all on offer.

The authors:

Peter Adams reading "The Pressure"

Mary Omnes reading "The Girl Guide"

Laura Kinnear reading "Mather's Chemical Flypaper"

Aidan Rush reading "Fringed With Joy"

Judy Newman reading "A Woman Named Asia"

Jo Bousfield reading "Naked Truth"

Philip Rush reading "Spurs' Progress Delights Redknapp"

Paul Hansford reading "In the Grassfield"

Rick Vick reading "Quick One"

Alex Breeze reading "Flickers"
 

Alice Jolly reading "For You, Hannah"

Many thanks to all our readers, and to all who came to listen.  I hope a magnificent night was had by all!  See you again in October.

All photos by Jodie Marks