Higgs Bosons, The Verb, and ShortStoryVille

It's been a very busy week - a wonderful event at the West Meon Festival on Sunday, talking short stories with Zoe Fairbairns, whose excellent new book, Write Short Stories and Get Them Published, is now available. Then Monday, interviewed on the Love & Science show on BCFM (see previous post).

Then a call, on Monday, from Radio 3's The Verb. Would I be able to write a Higgs-boson and quantum-physics inspired flash story by Wednesday morning to read and chat about on this week's show? Would I? Oh yes! I did, (and the very tight deadline definitely brought out something new, something I'd never done before) and then yesterday morning at the BBC here in Bristol I was recorded reading it and chatting to the fantastic host of the show, Ian McMillan, about physics & fiction, flash fiction and the wonderful words of science. It will be broadcast tomorrow night, Friday 13th, at 10pm UK time, and should be available as a podcast for 7 days after that. Find out more here>> 


As well as all that excitement, Tues and Wednesday I was running two school writing workshops at Fairfield High School in honour of ShortStoryVille, which is Bristol's short story festival, taking place here this Saturday, at Arnolfini! The first event, at 12pm, will be me introducing some of the Fairfield pupils reading their stories, I can't wait! Here, to whet our appetite, is the ShortStoryVille trailer, made by my partner, James, and his team:





The events of the day include discussions about Angela Carter's short stories, about digital publishing and readings from several of Bloomsbury's newly-published short story authors - as well, of course, as the awarding, in the evening, of the Bristol Short Story Prize! Find out how to book tickets here.

Hope to see you there. And for me, next week is looking, well, a little quieter... but then again, who knows what might come up?!

Celebrating the short story

Sometimes the world seems to be even more insane than usual. Here in my small corner, the BBC's decision to cut its short story programming to once a week, beginning in November, which is NATIONAL SHORT STORY WEEK, smacks of complete lunacy. If you are a short story lover, please add your name to the petition to show them that there are many, many who care. More resources here on National Short Story Week and read the article in today's Independent, Susie McGuire's blog post, Jonathan Pinnock's post, and Clare Wigfall's post on Booktrust.

BUT - the best thing to do in the face of the decision by one of the world's largest commissioners of short stories is to CELEBRATE the short story even harder. And one of the best ways I can think of is to tell you how amazing ShortStoryVille was this past weekend in Bristol. Organized by the Bristol Short Story Prize, it was a half-day of panel discussions and readings at the Arnolfini arts centre, with so many fabulous writers: Sarah Salway, Alison MacLeod, Janice Galloway, Stuart Evers, Helen Oyeyemi, Gareth Powell, Emma Newman, Patricia Fergusion, Sarah Hilary, and Amy Mason - and other guests -  Bidisha, Scott Pack, David Hebblethwaite and Clare Hey - talking about short stories. Here are some pictures:

Bidisha talking to Sarah Salway, Alison MacLeod and Janice Galloway

Alison reading from one of her short stories from 15 Modern Tales of Attraction

Janice reading her short story, Where you Find It

 Sarah reading from her story The Woman Downstairs

 the panel I chaired on reading short stories, with Scott, David and Clare

Joe Spurgeon chatting to Stuart and Helen

 Sarah, Gareth, Amy and me reading.

Bristol Short Story Prize winner Emily Bullock!

I did promise to write about our Reading Short Stories panel discussion but having been part of it, I am finding it hard to recall exactly what we talked about so I have to rely on others! What I do remember is Scott Pack telling us he began his reading-a-short-story-per-day Me and My Stories project because he was trying to break his fixation on reading a whole book in one go...David Hebblethwaite likes to read anything and everything and gives a story at least a page to grab him before he abandons it, whereas Clare Hey of ShortFire Press gives a story only a few sentences. 

No-one, sadly, admitted to doing a little short story dance after reading an excellent story (no, I didn't really expect them too) and also there was no difference amongst the panel when reading stories online or in print. And in response to another, excellent, question, we all gave recommendations for further reading, including: Miranda July's No-One belongs Here More Than You (Clare), Nina Allen's A Thread of Truth (David), Ryan Boudinot's The Littlest Hitler (Scott) and Anthony Doerr's Memory wall(me).

For more, visit Vanessa Gebbie's blog to read her take on the day...And don't stop celebrating the short story, despite the apparent lunacy around us!

Help Save Short Stories on BBC Radio!

Following swiftly in the footsteps of the first short story festival in Bristol, UK, ShortStoryVille, which was hugely successful - comes the distressing news that BBC Radio 4, which until recently broadcast a short story in the Afternoon Reading programme 5 days a week, which was then reduced to 3 days a week - and now will be only once a week. This is the BBC - who only a few years ago was proud to announce the BBC National Short Story Award, and on their website say:

The BBC National Short Story Award, managed in partnership with Booktrust, continues to serve as a reminder of the power of the short story and to celebrate a literary form that is proving ever more versatile in the twenty first century, enjoyed not just on the page, on air and increasingly on every sort of screen, but also in flash fiction events, short story festivals and slams. The short story has moved beyond the revival of recent years and is now experiencing a golden age.

BBC Radio 4 is the world's leading broadcaster of short stories and a staunch and long-time supporter of the form. Short stories are broadcast every week, attracting over a million listeners.

BBC- you are a "staunch and long-time supporter", don't let us down now!

The Afternoon Reading has for many many years been a showcase not just for well-known writers but for new voices - on a personal note, it was my first "big break", the first time I felt I was taken seriously as a writer, coupled with the joy of hearing my story, The White Road, (later the title story of my first book) brought so wonderfully to life. Not only that, the payment the writer receives is no paltry sum and has formed a significant part of my writerly earnings in the years since.

There are many, many writers, listeners and readers who are very concerned about this development. Writer Susie McGuire and Ian, organiser of the UK's National Short Story Week, have formulated the following:

The new Controller of Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams, will be a guest on FEEDBACK on BBC Radio 4 next week. How very timely.
Would you add your name to a letter/question to ask her?
Would you pass on this email to other writers who care about the health of the short story…?

The more of us, & the better known the writers who sign it, the more likely it is to have some effect.

If so, please find below a short, polite question, proposed by Ian of http://www.nationalshortstoryweek.org.uk

Reminder: info on her decision to cut the short story’s presence on Radio 4 outlined here  http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/07_july/10/radio4.shtml

If you’d like to add your signature, please email YES to
ian AT shortstoryweek DOT org DOT uk

& cc to me: info AT susiemaguire DOT co DOT uk

NB – It would be really helpful if you could reply within 24 hours so that the question can be lodged as soon as possible. This is by no means the *only* action interested parties can take, but it’s a start, and I hope you might add your weight to it with this (and further suggestions are welcomed)
thanks
Susie

*******************
Proposed question:
We were surprised and disappointed to learn of the decision to reduce the short story output on Radio 4 to once a week from next spring. Radio 4 has been a great champion of the short story for many years. It is one of very few places in the UK where both new and established writers can have their short stories broadcast to a large audience, and where radio listeners can enjoy readings of the short story form. This move comes at a time when interest in the short story is growing, but paid opportunities for short story writers are still scarce. Could Gwyneth Williams please explain:
1) what has led her to make this decision?
2) whether the short stories on Radio 4 extra will be new commissions or repeats of existing recordings?
3) how this decision fits with the BBC’s sponsorship of the National Short Story Award (and indeed if this will continue?)

If you are moved to do so, please take action, following the instructions outlined above. Signatories so far include:

Clare Wigfall

Sara Maitland

Philip Pullman

Nicholas Royle

Vivian French

James Robertson

Michael Holroyd

Jane Rusbridge

Dr Charles Smith

Sarah Hall

Sarah Hilary

Vanessa Gebbie

Jill Dawson

Lucinda Byatt

Maggie Gee

Sarah Sheridan (Soc of A, Scotland)

Tania Hershman (Ed, The Short Review)

Helena Nelson (publisher, Happenstance)

Morag Joss

Lola Perrin

Jules Horne

Suzanne Bellenger

Richard Beard (Nat Academy of Writing)

Ali Bacon

Nicky Parker, (Publisher, Amnesty)

Dan Powell 

Ian Cundell

Kathleen Langley

John Courtney-Grimwood

Wendy Ann Greenhalgh

Alison Wells

James Wall

K E Bergdoll

Linda Cracknell

Jonathan Pinnock (also see his FB links)

Sarah Salway

Alison MacLeod

Louis Winters

Emily Dubberly

Karen Whiteson

Griff Griffiths

Sara Schofield

Ian Macpherson

Stella Burchill

(and counting...)

Please join us!

ADDENDUM: There is now an online petition here - please sign!

Short stories help

There are so many things to write about. Thank you, first, for all your lovely comments on my post about Cleo, and for your wonderful emails too. It gets a little easier each day. And short stories help me, as they always do. I just read The River Nemunas from Anthony Doerr's astonishingly wonderful collection, Memory Wall. I didn't know the story would be about death and grief, and it tackles these so lightly yet so powerfully, and it felt absolutely true, absolutely right to me, now, even though it is about a 15-year-old American orphan living in Lithuania with her grandfather. That is the power of fiction, isn't it?

I am busy preparing for ShortStoryVille on Saturday, for the session I am chairing on reading short stories. Is there anything you would like me to ask our three panel members, Scott Pack, David Hebblethwaite and Clare Hey, all of whom are readers but not short story writers? I have quite a list of questions myself, but more are welcome, leave a comment here. A whole day of short stories is definitely keeping me going right now, I love nothing more than talking about them and spending time with other people who love nothing more than talking about them. I'm also reading later, together with some other wonderful local authors, and haven't decided yet what to read. I will leave that til the last minute. Something older, something new, perhaps something with a cat in it, but then there's the risk I will blubber, so perhaps not.

I will write about my time at Hawthornden soon, but here are a few pics as tasters until then:

ShortStoryVille - Bristol's first Short Story festival!

Now, if you are in Bristol, anywhere near, or prepared to travel for the love of the short story on July 16th - then do it! ShortStoryVille is the brainchild of Joe Melia, the organiser of the Bristol Short Story Prize, and will culminate in the awards ceremony for this year's prize, all held at Bristol's Arnolfini arts centre. The entire afternoon leading up to that event is filled with short story goodness, including some of my favourite writers: Janice Galloway, Alison McLeod, Sarah Salway, Sarah Hilary, Stuart Evers...! I am very honoured to be part of it, and can't wait to be in the audience for the events I am not participating in. Just check this out:

12.00 – 1.00 Women and Short Stories - panel discussion chaired by writer, broadcaster and critic Bidisha. Often ignored in ‘greatest’ and ‘best of’ lists in other areas of literature, it is widely acknowledged and chronicled that women have led the way in the development of the short story. Is there something specific to the form, missing in other genres, that enables women writers to be taken as seriously as their male counterparts? Are short stories the most emancipated form of literature? Bidisha explores the bond between women and short fiction with 3 of the UK's most celebrated short story writers: Janice Galloway, Alison MacLeod and Sarah Salway. Tickets £3

1.30 – 2.30 Reading Short Stories - panel discussion chaired by acclaimed short story writer Tania Hershman. Is there an art to reading a short story? Is it very different from other forms of fiction? Does it depend on where a story is read: a collection, single story in a magazine, on an ereader? Tania is joined by three passionate short story readers- book reviewer and blogger David Hebblethwaite, Clare Hey, former editor at HarperCollins and founder of trailblazing, digital-only short story publisher Shortfire Press and Scott Pack, publisher at The Friday Project, influential blogger, commentator, reader, and creator of the popular meandmyshortstories blog. Tickets £3

3.30 – 4.30 Helen Oyeyemi and Stuart Evers - Editor of Venue magazine, Joe Spurgeon, interviews two of the UK’s most exciting writers. Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox (Picador) and Stuart Evers’ Ten Stories about Smoking (Picador) are two of this year’s most anticipated books of short stories, both taking a different approach to the linked stories tradition. Helen and Stuart will be signing copies of their latest books in the Arnolfini bookshop after the interview. Tickets £3. Sponsored by Venue magazine.

5.00 – 6.00 Choice Cuts - The Bristol area pulsates with an abundance of brilliant short story writers. Sample some of the finest exponents’ stories, including Patricia Ferguson, Tania Hershman, Sarah Hilary, Amy Mason, Emma Newman and Gareth Powell. Compered by poet, publisher and performer Bertel Martin. This is a free, ticketed event and likely to be very popular so please book early.
Light Studio – Following on from their brilliant exhibition last year, Henbury School art students present original mixed media prints inspired by Nastasya Parker’s short story ‘The Meek Inherit’ published in last year’s Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology.  Free, no ticket required.

Dark Studio – Showing throughout the day, Fairfield School’s Year 11 animation students adaptation of Craig Hawes’ short story ‘Pictures in the Dust’ published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 2.  Free, no ticket required.

Reading Room – Display of magazines and journals that publish short stories - one aspect of the vibrant and di­verse world of short story publishing. Lots of real gems on show.

The 2011 Bristol Short Story Prize Awards Ceremony will be the closing event of the festival.

Tickets available from Arnolfini box office : phone 0117 9172300 or visit www.arnolfini.org.uk 

We are extremely grateful for the funding and sponsorship help of Arts Council England, Bristol City Council, Venue magazine, Arnolfini and The Bristol Hotel in making this exciting event happen.

I really hope to see you there! I am so excited about this happening in my home city - short stories and more short stories...