Stroud Short Stories

We are now open for your submissions for our next event 'Love is Strange' which will take place on Sunday 5 November 2023 at the Cotswold Playhouse

Love Stories or Stories about Obsessions are the joint themes

Submissions close on Sunday 1 October at 23.59

We select ten stories to be read by their authors. Any (every?) Gloucestershire writer may submit. As ever, it will be free to submit two short stories up to 1,500 words each. We accept both published and unpublished work. 

Submissions are judged 'blind' to ensure that the judges don't know the identity of the authors during the selection process. 

We are looking for all kinds of stories about love - romantic, silly, dark, ironic, quirky etc. Not just the love of people (although we do want these) but love of anything! So we welcome stories about obsessions too.

The title of the event is our little homage to the fabulous song 'Love is Strange' by the r&b duo Mickey and Sylvia.

This will be our first evening of love stories since 2017! Read to a packed house at Stroud's 150-seat Cotswold Playhouse. The event is also part of the 2023 Stroud Book Festival.

My co-judge this time will be the icon that is Debbie Young.

The Rules & How to Submit are here. (We also have a new rule this time - no AI-generated stories please).

Also, it's really important to check out my tips for writing for SSS here.

Subscribe now so you are kept up to date with all the latest info about submissions and about ticket sales. Subscribe here.

The event takes place at the Cotswold Playhouse in Stroud at 7.30 (doors 7.00) on Sunday 5 November. Tickets, priced at £10, go on sale on Friday 13 October from the Playhouse website.

Stroud Short Stories Volume Three 2018-2022 Short Listed for the prestigious Best Anthology Award in the 2023 Saboteur Awards

Our latest anthology was one of just five anthologies Short Listed for the prestigious 2023 Saboteur Award for Best Anthology in the UK published in 2002-23.

SSS Vol 3 was the only anthology of SHORT STORIES in the country to be short listed. The four other nominees were poetry and flash fiction anthologies.

John