Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Stroud Short Stories is back!



Away since February 2013, Stroud Short Stories will return refreshed and rejuvenated for another exciting night of short stories on 25 May 2014 at Stroud Valleys Artspace as part of the Site Festival.
The stories will be selected by John Holland, who has previously read at Stroud Short Stories, and who will be taking over the running of the event from now on.  John has had stories published in anthologies, magazines and online, including one in The Best Stories in a Decade, published by Momaya Press and formerly wrote for Punch and BBC Radio.  I’m very glad to be able to hand the event over to him, as I think he is just the person for the job!
We are now open for submissions.  In line with our new, organised, rejuvenated self we have produced a set of rules (below), which will hopefully answer most questions about submissions.  The one change is that we are now limiting submissions to writers who have a connection to the Stroud area, as detailed below.
Due to the length of our absence, we’ve relaxed our rule about writers not appearing in consecutive events.  Therefore writers who read at our last event (February 2013)  are welcome to send in submissions for our forthcoming event in May.
We look forward to reading your stories!

Rules
1.    Submissions will be considered from writers with a Stroud area connection (ie writers who were born, live, work or study in the geographic area equivalent to the Stroud District Council area)
2.    Authors should be aged 16 or over
3.    Maximum of three stories per person
4.    Submissions are free
5.    Stories should be between 100 and 1,500 words (excluding the title)
6.    Submissions should be received by Sunday 4 May 2014
7.    Stories can only be submitted by email
8.    Stories can be on any theme but must be fiction
9.    Poetry and children’s fiction will not be accepted
10. Stories may be unpublished or previously published
11. Stories previously read at SSS will not be considered
12. Writers must be available to read at the SSS event on the evening of Sunday 25 May 2014
13. Include your name, email, phone number, word count and your connection with the Stroud area to your submission
14. The decision of the judge(s) is final and no correspondence will be entered into

How to enter

1.    Please email your stories to stroudshortstories@yahoo.co.uk  as an attachment in Word or pdf format
2.    Remember to include your word count, name, email, phone number and your connection with the Stroud area on your submission
3.    The closing date for submissions is Sunday 4 May 2014
4.    Your submission will be acknowledged within two days
5.    You will be informed of the winning submissions to be read at the SS event by no later than Monday 12 May.