Short Story Evening with Jon McGregor, Eliza Robertson and Lucy Wood

I'm getting excited now about this event I am chairing next Wed - here are the details! Any questions you'd like me to ask them - about permission in writing, in particular?

Short Story Evening with Jon McGregor, Eliza Robertson and Lucy Wood

chaired by Tania Hershman

Date: Wednesday 25^th February
Time: 6pm for 6.30pm. Ends 7.45pm
Place: Bloomsbury Publishing, 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP. Click here to book

Tania Hershman delves into the imaginations of three wonderful Bloomsbury short story writers, Jon McGregor, Eliza Robertson and Lucy Wood, asking them about the weird and fabulous worlds they create in their short stories - from underwater husbands and memories entangled with catfish to how to trap hummingbirds, relinquish drams gracefully, feed raccoons without getting bitten, and fenland creations of things buried and unearthed.

Jon, Eliza and Lucy will reflect on the risks they take in their stories and on what and who gives them permission to try new things. They’ll discuss how they write these clever, surreal and minimalist short stories that ask the reader to play a part in their creation, as well as their own personal taboo topics, why they write and what it unravels for them.

 ‘Each time I find a new short story I love, it cracks open a window and lets fresh air into my own writing’ Tania Hershman

‘McGregor is the contemporary master of lives lived in what the Irish call a small way, and the belief, which is literature’s, that we are all poetic’ Linda Grant, Financial Times

Jon McGregor is the author of the critically acclaimed This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, So Many Ways to Begin and Even the Dogs. He is the winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Betty Trask Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award, and has been twice longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He was runner-up for the BBC National Short Story Award in both 2010 and 2011, with 'If It Keeps on Raining' and 'Wires' respectively. He was born in Bermuda in 1976. He grew up in Norfolk and now lives in Nottingham. www.jonmcgregor.com @jon_mcgregor
Eliza Robertson is the author of Wallflowers, her debut short story collection. She was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1987 and grew up on Vancouver Island. She studied creative writing and political science at the University of Victoria and then pursued her MA in prose fiction at the University of East Anglia. While there she received the Man Booker Scholarship and the Curtis Brown Prize for best writer. Robertson is now a highly celebrated short story writer; in 2013, she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was a finalist for the Journey and CBC Short Story prizes. She currently lives in Norwich and is working on completing her first novel. @ElizaRoberts0n

 

 

Lucy Wood is the author of a critically acclaimed collection of short stories based on Cornish folklore Diving Belles. She has been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize and was a runner-up in the BBC National Short Story Award. She has also been awarded the Holyer an Gof Award and a Somerset Maugham Award. Lucy Wood has a Master’s degree in creative writing from Exeter University. Her debut novel, Weathering, is published this January 2015. She lives in Devon.
Book tickets here >>>

Maps by Susannah Felts in Smokelong Quarterly

It was a great honour to be guest editor for Smokelong Quarterly's Weekly edition and I'm thrilled that the story I chose, 'Maps' by Susannah Felts, has just been published. This story leapt out at me, I love it, I hope you'll feel the same.

Here's a teaser...

Map
by Susannah Felts

I was the girl who climbed in the truck. Who said: I'm in.

You clean up real nice, he said.

My legs, bending into the pickup.

My legs, crossed bare.

Those legs need boots, he said.

*

Now go read the rest: http://www.smokelong.com/flash/susannahfelts47.asp

The Verb - Tonight!

I'm delighted to be one of the guests on tonight's episode of The Verb - Radio 3's Cabaret of the Word! They phoned on Monday and asked whether I could write  a piece of flash fiction inspired by... gasometers! No, I didn't know what they were either.

I wrote it on Tuesday, read it to them on Wednesday, and yesterday went along to the BBC and recorded the program. We had such a laugh! The other guests on the program are Boo Hewerdine, who wrote a song inspired by Susannah Hislop's gorgeous book on the constellations, which Susannah read from, and Chris Prendergast and Paul Georgiou, co-authors of a wonderful grammatical adventure story! It's on BBC Radio 3 tonight at 10pm and then available as a podcast... As the host, Ian McMillan says, it may be a world first for gasometer-inspired-flash fiction ... !

Making choices - Bare Fiction & Smokelong

I'm thrilled that the winners of the Bare Fiction short story competition - which I co-judged with Rachel Tresize - have now been announced, congrats to:

 

1st Prize (£500):

David McGrath, Ger Sheen and the Satanists (UK)

 

2nd Prize (£200):

Allie Rogers, Trout Quintet (UK)

 

3rd Prize (£100):

Anne Corlett, The Clay Baby (UK)

 

Highly Commended x 2 (£25):

Roy Marshall, Late (UK) chosen by Tania Hershman
Jenni Lawson, The Present (UK) chosen by Rachel Trezise

 

Shortlisted (in no particular order):

Paul Nicholas, The Clock (UK)
Annalisa Crawford, 133 Steps (UK)
Frances Gapper, Broken Thing (UK)
Tamara Jones, Dead Daffodils (UK)
Joanna Walsh, Enzo Ponza (UK)
Hannah Gildea, And Still the Sea is Salt (Portland, OR)
Jack Cooke, Still Life (UK)
Penny Simpson, Winter Solstice (UK)
Melanie Whipman, Dissolving (UK)
Paddy Doherty, The Lonely Gene (Spain)
Rachel Cather, Life of a Wasp (Belgium)

If you're interested in how the process worked, you can read our judges' reports here >> 

Also, I've now picked the flash story that will be published in Smokelong Quarterly under my guest editorship and the author of the story has been informed - there were over 100 submissions, thank you to all those of you who sent your work! I'll let you know when the story is published, I hope you'll like it as much as I do!

And the winner is...

Picked randomly out of the hat, the winner of a copy of Writing Short Stories: A Writers & Artists Companion is Tracey Upchurch! Congratulations, Tracey... and commiserations everyone else, but thank you so much for sharing about what and who gives you permission, and the book is available for purchase at the usual outlets, such as Foyles, Waterstones and the Book Depository. Happy New Year of Writing! 

Writing Short Stories... A Xmas giveaway!

It's here!

I'm delighted to unveil Writing Short Stories: A Writers & Artists Companion, co-written and co-edited by Courttia Newland and me, and with 20 VERY FINE guest writers in the centre. It's all about writing and all about short stories, from so many angles and perspectives, and with no "shoulds" and no "rules", and perhaps a little ranting (by me) about the "shoulds" and the "rules" that tried to deny me permission in the past. Permission. Something to be given. Yup.

Anyway, to celebrate, I'm going to give away a copy and all you have to do is comment here (by Jan 1st) and tell us who or what gave YOU permission, in some way, in your life. Am happy to post anywhere in the world. Dang, I'm feeling generous!

The book is published by Bloomsbury, and on Feb 25th in London, I'll be interviewing three AMAZING Bloomsbury short story writers - Jon McGregor, Lucy Wood and Eliza Roberston - about that very subject, permission and risk, in their own writings, so do come along, share your stories with us. More information here.

I'm reading at Loose Muse on Wed Jan 14th, at the Poetry Cafe in London, would be lovely to see you there, too!

Don't forget to comment to be in with a chance of winning a book...

This Time It's You

So, enough of the stuff about me - this time it's about you and your stories. I am delighted to have been asked to be Guest Editor at the excellent flash fiction publication, Smokelong Quarterly, for the week of Jan 5th- 9th, and so I will be wanting to read YOUR fantastic flash fictions. No, don't ask me what I like - I have no genre preferences, no length preferences (Smokelong only publishes work up to 1000 words), no style preferences. Grab me, surprise me, delight me.
Submissions guidelines are here - but do wait until Jan 5th if you want it to be me who is reading 'em!

Yes It's All Me Me Me... new poem & new short story

Sorry for the trumpet-blowing, but here it
is - first, I have a new poem in Issue 6, published today, of the delightful Poems in Which, entitled Poem in Which I Learn That Some People Are Better At This Than I Am. It is entirely autobiographical! Check out the whole issue, it's wonderful. 

I also have a new SoundCloud page where you can listen to me reading some of my stories & poems. Any requests?

Talking of listening, this Friday, Dec 5th, I am thrilled to have a brand new short story on BBC Radio 4, About Time - which may or may not be a time-travel-themed romp, but will be read deliciously straight into your ear by the wonderful Stephen Hogan! I went to hear him record it, and he utterly captured the voice I had heard in my head as I wrote it. This is the joy of radio - your characters, who've been rattling around only in your own brain, are suddenly alive and out there, because you can hear them! I hope you like it. Do check out the other two stories on the theme of Slow Rides in Fast Machines, by the amazing Adam Marek and Toby Litt, very different takes! In a thrilling development, all the stories are now available for 30 days after broadcast, thank you BBC.

I will be available to answer technical questions on time travel after the broadcast, should you have any. My pleasure. (Or before the broadcast, of course, if you've already got the hang of it.)

Leaving The Line: Images & Words of War & Wondering

Today, Nov 11th, is Armistice Day, and in commemoration I'm delighted to unveil Leaving The Line, the electronic version of the fruits of the WW1 arts collaboration I've been working on for the past year with military historian Jeremy Banning for the Bristol Festival of Ideas. What do you think? I've never really collaborated with anyone before - and Jeremy had never done any creative writing before!

I'm really proud of the set of 12 postcards we've created, with images (some by us) and each with a 100-word short story or poem, 8 written by me and 4 by Jeremy. Between us, we decided to focus on Bristol, on women during the war, on Jewish soldiers, and more generally on giving voice to the voiceless.  The above is one of the 12, we were rather taken with that Flanders cow!

Do leave us some comments on the particular postcard's blog post! The cards are just being printed and won't be for sale, we'll be giving them away, mostly in Bristol since we don't have the budget to send them far...

Litro Flash of Inspiration

So, I am immensely honoured to be the first interviewee of new online flash fiction editor of the excellent online & print mag Litro Jen Harvey, on the A Flash of Inspiration theme - she says very kind words about my flash story, Think of Icebergs, published in Litro in 2010 (oh my, that long ago? I am old!) and then asked me some questions which really got me thinking about my own writing... Do pop over there and have a look, I'm looking forward to the next flashes of inspiration interviews!

We want your general-relativity-inspired stories!

I'm really thrilled to be part of this fabulous new project, initiated by my friend Pippa Goldschmidt, a fellow fiction writer, poet and novelist with a passion for physics and science-inspired lit in general! We are co-editing an anthology of short stories and essays inspired by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, which has its 100th birthday next year! The book will be published by Freight Books, we have a great line up of fiction writers and physicists - and we have left a little bit of space in there which could be filled by YOUR STORY. Yes, you - no physics knowledge required! Here's what to do:

Open call for contributions to ‘I am because you are’: the anthology of short stories inspired by general relativity

Einstein published his revolutionary paper on general relativity in November 1915 and changed the way we think about the world. He also purportedly insisted that imagination was more important than knowledge – so here's a chance to use yours and borrow from his -  with no background in physics required!

General relativity turns our ideas about space, time and mass on their head. It predicts astonishing objects such as black holes: so compact that nothing – not even light - can escape them. It explains how the Universe started from a hot, dense explosion and has been expanding ever since. And it utterly befuddles accepted ‘common sense’ notions about space and time.

To celebrate the 100^th anniversary of this world changing theory we are publishing an anthology of short fiction and non-fiction inspired by general relativity, which will be edited by Pippa Goldschmidt and Tania Hershman. 'I am because you are' will be published by Freight Books in Autumn 2015. Around fourteen authors are contributing short stories, alongside essays by astrophysicists about the impact of general relativity on cosmology, black holes and quantum gravity.

Now we want your short fiction! We have assigned space for three more stories and we’re challenging writers to write a short story of no more than 3000 words - shorter is fine too - inspired in some way by general relativity.

Rules

The closing date is 28 February 2015.

Stories should be a maximum length of 3000 words (with no minimum) and written in English.

Stories should be your own work and should not have been published or accepted for publication elsewhere.

Entrants can be of any nationality.

Entrants can only submit one story.

Each story should be formatted as follows:

12 point arial or times new roman, provided digitally as a MS Word, RTF or TXT file.

The front page should include your name, address, email address, phone number and wordcount.

Your name should not appear anywhere else on the story.

Send your stories to us at info@freightbooks.co.uk as an attachment with ‘general relativity short stories’ in the subject line of the email.

Results

Chosen writers will be contacted no later than May 30th 2015 and a the titles and authors of the three chosen entries will be posted on Freight Books' website by 10th June.

Copyright

Copyright will remain with the authors

Coupla things

I'm not so good at the blogging anymore, forgive me, if there are any of you still reading this! What's been happening? Well, I've done a redesign of my website, do let me know what you think: www.taniahershman.com. Is it clear, easy to navigate, information, entertaining!

I am also very proud to have a new story in the Geek Girls issue of Canada's ROOM magazine, in print - that gorgeous thing to your left - which you can also read online, as a teaser to the issue, here. I am most definitely and unashamedly a geek and it is delightful to be recognised as such, and to celebrate geekness in all its guises!

I have also just begun as a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Bristol University's science faculties, which means I now spend two days a week - in my own office! - helping science students with any writing for their courses, undergrad and postgrad, in confidential, one-on-one meetings. I've had my first two days and it was fascinating. Mostly I was reassuring those who came to see me that their writing's better than they had feared. A lovely job to have - and I get to pick up a little science, too!

And finally, but not least, I am getting excited about next weekend's Bridport Prize prize-giving, at which I get to bestow garlands on the winners of the flash fiction section, what an honour. I also get to run a workshop and then read with Andrew Miller and Liz Lockhead, the judges of the short story and the poetry sections! Am immensely looking forward to it, and to the company of the wonderful people I know will be there, and those I have yet to meet. See you there! 

Visual Verse

It's a real honour to have been invited to be one of the lead writers on this month's Visual Verse, for which I wrote a poem, Portrait of Couple with Dog. If you don't know Visual Verse, do check it out:

Visual Verse: An Anthology of Art and Words

One image, one hour, 50-500 words.

The picture is the starting point, the text is up to you.

Then send it in to them, and they will publish it! They end up with a fabulous plethora of work all inspired by the same image, such a range, from the funny to the poignant. Go on, try it!

Moments of joy

You never know when they will come - sometimes it's that miraculous email or tweet from a stranger saying "I just had to tell you how much I enjoyed your ....". Today it's this blog post on the Arvon blog by one of the fantastic and delightful participants on the Starting to Write Short Stories course I co-tutored 2 weeks ago with Rob Shearman. When you run a workshop, you cross your fingers that, well, someone might get something, anything, out of it. You hope - you try things you've done before, you try new things. But you never really and truly know.

Until someone writes something like this, and it pretty much makes you cry:

" ... By Penrith I’m convinced that after such an intense week I’ll never settle to everyday life again. By Carlisle I start to worry how to break this awful news to my husband. I want to leave everything, turn my back on our previous life and write on an island retreat somewhere. By Motherwell I’m seriously nervous. The week has been truly intense and something in me feels forever altered.

Between Motherwell and Glasgow Central I take out my notebook and work on some of the pieces begun during my Arvon week.  I jot down a few thoughts and as I do I realise what the change has been. Two weeks ago I’d never have scribbled away on a train like this. I might daydream out of the window, passing the time, losing all those thoughts to the air. But now they’ve become a source of stories. Stories everywhere that only I can capture, only I can tell.

As we pull into Glasgow Central I am relieved to find that after all my marriage is safe, my lovely husband need never hear how deliciously unsettling my week turned out to be. But I also acknowledge this new need to make time and space in my day to write.

Because that’s who I am. I’m a writer.

Thank you Arvon.

by Colette Watson, a writer on the Starting to Write Short Stories week at Lumb Bank 4-9 August 2014" (Read the full post here)
 

Oh, thank you, Colette, for being so amazing and so open to everything, so ready. And thank you Arvon - who did this for me, years ago, and then did it again, and again. And now give me the immense pleasure to be able to attempt to pass some of that on. A joyous moment. 

Bare Fiction prizes

 

So, I am one of the short story judges for this fine slew of prizes from the very fine lit mag Bare Fiction. The fabulous Rachel Trezise and I will be reading your short stories, and the wonderful Adam Horovitz is all over the poetry, while the excellent Angela Readman wants your tiny wordthings. Do check out the guidelines here. Really refreshing to see the same amount of money to be won in all categories - nothing privilieged above everything else due to form or word count. Nice.

And lest you think I spend my time only on the judgemental side of the fence, tis not true, because I'm fortunate enough to have had two poems longlisted for a poetry comp, and they will be included in the competition anthology - regardless of what happens next with shortlists and so on, so yippee! I have said it before, will say it again - longlists are not to be sniffed at. As a judge, I know that it's often the greatest leap from large pile to longlist, and the tiniest of steps from that onwards, so I am delighted! Good luck to everything you bravely send out into the world! I would be delighted to read some of it.

That Dark Remembered Day

I am delighted to welcome Tom Vowler back to the blog today, to talk about his brand new novel - his third book - That Dark Remembered Day. Tom was here last year talking about his first novel, What Lies Within, and two years before that to chat about his short story collection, The Method. He's not been sitting still much! Below, we play Word Association, with Tom answering in the voice of his main character. But first...


 Alison Moore, author of The Lighthouse, called That Dark Remembered Day "a compelling story about damage done, a touching exploration of the possibility of forgiveness and recovery" and Anthony McGowan, author of Mortal Coil, said: "Almost every page has the sort of perfect sentence or paragraph that makes you want to elbow the stranger next to you on the train, point with a stubby finger, and say: ‘Read that. Just read it.'"

Here's a quick synopsis: 

A son returns to where he grew up, where his mother still lives and where a terrible event in his childhood changed the lives of every person living there. As the story unfolds through the eyes of the son, the mother and finally the father, the reader experiences the taut build up to one day's tragic unravelling, and the shock waves that echoed through a once happy family and close-knit community. Will they ever be able to exorcise the damage of that day or do some wounds run too deep?

Tom is giving away a copy to one lucky blog reader - just leave a comment below! Here's a little bit about Tom: " Tom Vowler is a novelist and short story writer living in south west England. His debut collection, The Method, won the Scott Prize in 2010, and his novel What Lies Within received critical acclaim. He is co-editor of the literary journal Short Fiction and an associate lecturer in creative writing at Plymouth University, where he’s completing a PhD looking at the role of the editor in fiction. That Dark Remembered Day is his second novel. More at www.tomvowler.co.uk"

To whet your appetite further, here are me and Tom playing Word Association, with Tom answering as Stephen from That Dark Remembered Day:

HOME

Sanctuary by the sea.

FRIEND

Betrayed in childhood. Forgiveness sought.

BIOLOGY

Work, the sea, escape.

MOTHER

Eccentric, avoided.

VICTIM

Thirteen.

WAR

Father remained there.

FAMILY

Broken forever. New one found.

MEMORY

Buried. Unwelcome.

STORY

Cover. Truth hidden.

DEATH

Seen.

LOVE

Daughter. Wife. Hope.

Intrigued? You should be! To find about more about Tom's amazing novel, visit his website. Don't forget - to be in with a chance of winning a copy, leave a comment below. Thanks for playing, Tom!

 

New story and some poetry news

I'm really thrilled to have a brand new story, "War Games" in the Summer Fiction issue of the Wales Arts Review, published today. It's a story I started in Nov 2012 and finished a few months ago, and I'm so happy it's found such a great home, alongside an amazing line-up: Anna Metcalfe, Jon Gower, Gee Williams, Orflaith Foyle, Lauren Oyler, Joel Smith, Noah Cicero, Mark Blayney, Ric Bower, Craig Austin, John Lavin and Gary Raymond. Check out the magazine here.

I was also recently longlisted for the Short Fiction journal competition for another new story, congrats to the 4 shortlisted writers: Elizabeth Baines, Catherine McNamara, Geoffrey Miller and Graham Mort!

And the past month has been a great boost for a fledgling poet - I had two poems longlisted and one shortlisted for the Wirral Festival of Firsts poetry competition, and my pamphlet longlisted for the Flarestack poetry pamphlet prize. Have been grapping with the poetry "no simultaneous submissions" rules for many comps - someone needs to come up with an algorithm for this! - and sending the poems back out, and out again. For, as I said recently on Twitter, this much I know: if you don't send anything out, magic can't happen. Go on, give the magic a chance!

National Flash Fiction Day 2014

Great excitement here in Bristol over National Flash Fiction Day 2014, this Saturday, June 21st! Here's what's happening, organised by Bristol Flash, do join if you can:

And the official NFFD anthology, Eat My Words, in which I am honoured to have a very short piece, is now out, the print version is available here, and get your copy of the ebook here. 

Happy National Flash Fiction Day!

Longlisted

I am thrilled to be on the longlist for the 2014 Short Fiction Journal story comp - my story, God Glows, is one that I started in June 2011, finished two years later, and it is 3300 words long. For me, that's LONG, a bit out of my comfort zone so, as I've said here before, this longlisting, whatever happens next (shortlist announced beginning July) this is a real boost - at the very least, I know that someone liked it and thinks it is actually a short story!

Congrats to the whole longlist! Here it is:

‘Lucy’ – Dallin Kapp

‘The Glover’ – Graham Mort

‘The Line’ – Dan Moreau’

‘Finish with the Rose’ – Perry Glasser

‘The Haughty Corpse’ – James Lark

‘The Butterfly Collector’s Wife’ – Holly Dawson

‘The Empty House’ – Jill Widner

‘The River Troll’ – Alison Fisher

‘The Seven Pathways to Resettlement’ – Andrew Neilson

‘God Glows’ – Tania Hershman

‘Critical State’ – Osama Ammar

‘Feathers’ – Ben Cribbin

‘Adieu, Mon Doux Rivage’ – Catherine McNamara

‘Looking for the Castle’ – Elizabeth Baines

‘Dragonflies’ – Geoffrey Miller

‘Borders’ – Angela Sherlock

‘Flipsy’ – Sean McArdell

‘Obsolescence’ – Joseph Mackertich

‘Au Naturel’ – Sara Mae Tuson

‘Thirteen Lies’ – Anne Corlett

Poems

I'm really honoured to be featured on my fabulous friend and poet Julie Maclean's blog, with two (or perhaps three - you'll see what I mean) of my poems - yup, one has line breaks. I know. Daring, eh? I've been doing quite a lot of that recently, really enjoying myself! It's wonderful to attempt something new, scary too but it keeps me on my toes.

I've been reading loads of poetry too - here are a few recent favourites:
Dreamwood by Adrienne Rich
The Colonel by Carolyn Forche
Stars and Planets by Norman MacCaig