THE HEAT IS ON - WE ARE OPEN FOR YOUR SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR 31st EVENT UNTIL 27 SEPTEMBER
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OUR NEW ANTHOLOGY SSS VOLUME FOUR 2022-2025 - LAUNCH 8 OCTOBER
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
