Call for Submissions

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The Casket of Fictional Delights is an online short story and flash fiction website which specialises in producing professional podcasts. We are looking for submissions for the following slots :~

Short Stories – The vast majority of short stories are made into podcasts, therefore should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words. This is an optimum length for a podcast.  There is flexibility on word count and, in terms of theme, other than Valentines, there are no restrictions. 

November 2022 short story

February 2023 short story (Valentines)

June 2023 short story

October 2023 short story

November 2023 short story

2023 Summer Flash Fiction Collection – this will be a group of flash fictions on the theme of ‘Summer’ in its widest interpretation.  We anticipating there will be between 6 and 12 in the collection.  Flash fictions should be no more than 500 words (excluding title). The Summer Flash Fiction Collection will be made into a series of podcasts. 

We do not publish stories  containing excessive swearing, sex or violence (we do not have an ‘explicit licence’ from Apple iTunes).

Deadline – 1st May 2022.

Contact The Casket with ShortStops in the subject. Thank you.

We look forward to hearing from you and Good Writing Vibes.

Five-Day Short Story Writing Course with Cynan Jones

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If you’re working on a short story and would like to learn essential techniques to unlock the story’s potential and make it the best it can be, then this brand new Curtis Brown Creative course for you. Across five days – from Monday 17 May to Friday 21 May – award-winning writer Cynan Jones (author of Stillicide, The Dig, The Long Dry) will show you how to develop your characters, narrative voice and the world of your story to maximum effect; how to refine your prose to make it work harder for you; and how to approach and edit your work with fresh insight and confidence.

15 talented writers will be selected to take part in this intensive five-day short story course. The course will be hosted through a combination of live Zoom meetings/webinars for the student group and tutor, plus writing and work-sharing time on the CBC online Learn platform. Teaching sessions will focus on interrogating aspects of the short story craft and identifying areas for improvement in your own work as well as giving you the tools to make those improvements. Cynan will set exercises to help you practise what you’ve learnt and try out new techniques and skills as well as generating new material to give your work a fresh lease of life. You will be encouraged to post and discuss your work on our forum and read and comment on the work of those in your group – this will help not only to explore your work in more detail but also to hone your editorial eye and critical faculties.

You will also get a one-to-one tutorial with Cynan, which will provide an opportunity for in-depth discussion about your story-in-progress and how to develop it further, as well as a chance to talk about any specific difficulties you’re having with your writing. On the final day of the course, students will attend an industry Q&A with literary agent Lucy Luck (C&W) and short story writer Chris Power in the morning, followed by a celebratory reading event and farewell with Cynan in the afternoon. You will be invited to read from your work and there will be advice on how to keep going and move forward with your writing.

The fee for this course is £480.

Find out more & apply by Sun 18 April.

Fictive Dream Call for Submissions

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Fictive Dream is open to submissions and, as always, we’re interested in short stories with a contemporary feel (500 – 2,500 words). We especially like stories that give an insight into the human condition; stories that focus on those moments that change people’s lives. They may be on any subject. They may be challenging, dramatic, playful, exhilarating or cryptic. Above all, they must be well-crafted and compelling.

Check out the Fictive Dream website here.

See our submission guidelines here.

We’re looking forward to receiving your best work!

Laura Black
Editor

Website www.fictivedream.com
Twitter @fictivedream
Instagram fictive.dream

March Round-Up

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Competitions

Shooter lit mag’s short story competition has launched for stories up to 5000 words, deadline May 31. The Short Fiction/ University of Essex prize for short stories up to 5000 words closes on March 31.

The Quiet Man Dave prize, a new international prize for flash fiction and flash non-fiction, is now open for entries, deadline April 17. The Creative Future Writers Awards are open now for short fiction up to 2000 words, deadline May 30.

 

Lit Mags & Anthologies

Fairlight Books is calling for short story submissions.

 

Workshops & Courses

Claire Keegan is running a three-day fiction writing workshop from March 14-16 in Co.Wexford.

 

Live Lit & Festivals

Stroud Short Stories is calling for submissions by March 8 for its April event.

Three-Day Fiction-Writing Workshop

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Amber Springs Hotel, Gorey, Co Wexford 

March 14-16, 2020.  9:45am–5pm

A 3 day fiction-writing workshop concentrating on works-in-progress submitted by the participants. Manuscripts (novel excerpt or short story of up to 3,000 words) are due on or before March 1, distributed to every participant, and read with care by all.

Keegan will read every text before the workshop begins, and then discuss every text with the group. Discussion will include the structure of a narrative, paragraph structure, time, tension versus drama, melodrama, statement, description, suggestion, conflict, character, humor, point of view, dialogue, place and time. The aim, always, is to help each author with the next draft.

The workshops will be of particular interest to those who write, teach, read or edit fiction — but anyone with an interest in how fiction works, improving their prose and/or helping others to do so, is welcome to attend. While most participants like to submit a manuscript, this is not a requirement.

The fee for this 3-day fiction-writing workshop with Claire Keegan is 450 Euro. To book your place, contact ckfictionclinic@yahoo.com

More info here

Book Launch

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Launch of Stormlight by Jan Woolf

Housmans Radical booksellers

5 Caledonian Road London N1 9DX

February 28th – 7 – 8.30pm

Stormlight_cover-jpeg

Stories – short and long- setting ordinary people against big themes; love, war, loss, contemporary politics and the search for fulfilment. Like the author’s first collection Fugues on a Funny Bone they are funny, witty and acerbic as well as serious. Stormlight includes her Royal Court short play You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know, examining the Blair legacy. Stories range from a Rambler’s Christmas day walk, a childless senior sneaking into a mothers’ and babies’ only film, a bitter family argument over theEU referendum, management consultant wonkery, and the down but not quite out of homeless street life. All are rooted in experience and activism. Jan Woolf is also a playwright. janwoolf.com

Spry, alert and heartful, Jan Woolf’s writing pulses with the quick of life. Lindsay Clarke

 

Entrance free, wine donation, signed books £10 (cash only)

Riversmeet Press 

 

Cyber Smut – call for submissions

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Guts Publishing wants to know how the internet has impacted your life. We are seeking short stories and poetry for our next anthology Cyber Smut. Closing date for submissions is 29 February 2020.


This is wide open in terms of interpretation, and anything goes – poetry, memoir, erotica, literary fiction, sci fi, essays, etc – as long as it aligns with the theme. Things to consider: our daily lives are saturated with the internet, impacting our minds and behavior. Miscommunications and mishaps. Lust and desire for fame and money. Hilarity and tragedy with Tinder or Grindr. This is rich and fertile ground, and surely there are countless ways to approach this theme. We are thrilled about our next anthology and hope you are too.


• Closing date for submissions – 29 February 2020.
• Short stories (fiction & nonfiction) – 1000-5000 words.
• Poetry – up to 5 pages.
• UK & Ireland – seeking submissions from anyone living or born in the UK or Ireland.
• Unpublished work only please. We are not able to accept previously published work, print or online.

Visit gutpublishing.com for more info, or submit your work on Submittable: gutspublishing.submittable.com/submit

Fairlight Books Short Story Submissions

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Fairlight Books, an Oxford-based publisher, is accepting submissions for its online short story publishing platform. Our mission is to promote quality writing and bring attention to talented writers. We set up Fairlight Shorts to champion the short story format and we keep our short story portal freely accessible so that we are better able to bring readers and writers together.

For more information about how we publish short stories and our submission guidelines please visit our submissions page: https://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/submissions/.

To read any Fairlight Shorts visit: https://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/short_stories/.

Submit to 2020 Shooter Short Story Competition

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Shooter Literary Magazine’s 2020 Short Story Competition is now open to stories of any style, subject or genre, up to a max of 5,000 words. The contest spotlights the best emerging literary talent, with £500 in cash prizes and publication both in the magazine and online.

Shooter seeks imaginative, absorbing and beautifully written work that brings characters to life and elicits an emotional response from the reader. In short, we want well written tales that appeal to both the head and the heart.

In return for the £7 entry fee (or £10 for two), all entrants receive an e-copy of Shooter’s winter 2021 issue, which will feature the winning story.

  • The winner of the 2020 Shooter Short Story Competition will receive £400, publication in the winter issue and on the website, and promotion on Shooter’s social media.
  • The runner-up will receive £100, publication on Shooter’s website, and promotion on social media.
  • All entrants will receive an e-copy of Shooter’s winter issue.
  • Stories may be any theme or genre, up to a max of 5,000 words.
  • The competition is open to entries through May 31st, 2020.
  • Winners will be announced in July 2020
  • All proceeds from entry fees go toward prizes, contributor payments and Shooter’s production costs, supporting our mission to promote the best new writing and encourage the principle of paying writers for their work.

To enter, please email your story (as a Word or PDF file) to competition.shooterlitmag@gmail.com by the deadline of May 31st, 2020. Include your name, title of story and word count in the body of the email, with no identifying information on the story itself. Multiple entries are accepted. Payment can be made via Shooter’s website at https://shooterlitmag.com/competition.

Other information can be found at https://shooterlitmag.com. We look forward to reading your work – good luck!

February Round-Up

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News

We welcome a new live lit event to our list: The Whole Story is a new poetry, prose and music night which takes place in London on every fourth Friday of the month.

Lit Mags & Anthologies

Here Comes Everyone wants your green-themed stories for its next issue by 10 Feb, and Guts Publishing is calling for submissions for its anthology on the theme of cyberlives, deadline 15 Feb.

 

Competitions

The Quiet Man Dave prize, a new international prize for flash fiction and flash non-fiction, is now open for entries, deadline April 17. The Creative Future Writers Awards are open now for short fiction up to 2000 words, deadline May 30. Reflex Fiction announces its Autumn winners, and the spring competition for flash fiction between 180-360 words closes on Feb 29. The Short Fiction/ University of Essex prize for short stories up to 5000 words closes on March 31.

Live Lit & Festivals

Short Shorts is holding its Valentine’s Special in London on Friday Feb 14. Stroud Short Stories is calling for submissions by March 8 for its April event.

White Rabbit is calling for submissions for an evening of short stories in Ashford, Kent, on the theme of ‘Wonder’ in March 2020, deadline 14th Feb.  Story Friday is calling for submissions for its Leap-themed event on Feb 28th in Bath, deadline 17th Feb.

Workshops & Courses

Haringey Live Lit is running another Novella Fever novella-writing course beginning at the end of February in London. Claire Keegan is running six days of short stories over six Saturdays in March and April in Dublin.

New prize for flash fiction & non-fiction in honour of Dave Murray

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An international award for new and emerging flash fiction and flash non-fiction writers has been launched in memory of a popular Manchester-based writer and critic. The QuietManDave Prize will be run by the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, in conjunction with the Manchester School of Theatre, named in honour of Dave Murray, a keen writer and theatre blogger, and lover of flash fiction and non-fiction, who passed away last year.

In recognition of Murray’s achievements and his passion for writing that he embraced later in life, the QuietManDave Prize offers awards of £1,000 for Flash Fiction and Flash Non-Fiction under 500 words, as well as runner-up prizes. the Flash Non-Fiction category open for everything from creative non-fiction – which weaves fact into the form of a story using the tools of fiction, to blog posts or theatre reviews, which were QuietManDave’s particular passions. Judges are ShortStops curator, poet and short story writer Tania Hershman,  short story writer, essayist and poet Kate Feld, and Shane Kinghorn, Senior Lecturer in Drama and Contemporary Performance at Manchester Metropolitan.

Both prizes are open internationally to writers aged 16 or over – with award judges keen to encourage, discover and celebrate new writers, particularly those who have come to writing later in life. Sponsored entry is available for those who might not otherwise be able to participate. The deadline for entries is Friday April 17. Enter here 

New dates for Novella Writing Course!

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Work on a novella this Spring with tutor Kiare Ladner in Collage Writing Room’s cosy North London retreat and join a supportive writing community.

Wednesday evenings 6.45pm-9.15pm; Feb 26, March 4, 11, 18, 25, April 1; cost £99; venue Writing Room, 40 Cumberland Road, London N22 7SG. Contact Kate Pemberton at kate@collage-arts.org for more information or to book a place.

Are you intrigued by the idea of writing a novella? Maybe you’re wondering how to finish that short story that keeps getting longer and longer… or you have a novel that’s run out of steam. Perhaps it wants to be a novella?

Although still very popular in Europe, the novella is a neglected form in the UK in these days of ‘more bang for your buck’ doorstop novels. So why not do something different with this year’s writing resolution and get Novella Fever with short story writer and author, Kiare Ladner. Kiare’s short stories have been shortlisted or received honourable mentions in competitions including the BBC National Short Story Award, the Bridport Prize, the Short Fiction Competition among others and appeared in Ambit Magazine. Kiare’s debut novel Nightshift will be published by Picador in 2021. Here’s what she says about the course:

“In six weeks, we will aim to make a start on (or even finish) drafting a novella. There will be plenty of exercises in class, and the opportunity for your work/ideas to be work-shopped by your peers. We will look at the various elements of fiction: creating characters, plot and structure, dialogue, editing, point of view, voice and tenses. The focus will be on examining the craft, as well as on your own writing practice, and lots of published works will be referenced for your information.

During intensive weekly sessions, we will discuss what gives the novella form its particular power. We will also think about the value of the instinctive in our writing and the general shape a story of this length this may take.”

All levels welcome.

Stroud Short Stories is Open for Submissions until 8 March 2020

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Stroud Short Stories is currently open for submissions for its special 20th event which is dedicated to Stroud writer Rick Vick who sadly died at the end of November. There were obituaries for Rick in The Times and The Guardian. Here is the latter.
 
The event is for all Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire writers. The theme this time is DISRUPTION. Submissions are free and you may submit unpublished or published stories. Ten stories will be selected and their authors will read/perform them at our event.
The deadline is the end of Sunday 8 March and the event is on Sunday 19 April at the 150-seater Cotswold Playhouse. Tickets will go on sale on 20 March.
 
All information about submitting is on the Stroud Short Stories website.

Reflex Fiction Autumn 2019 Winners!

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Spring 2020 - Reflex Fiction - Flash Fiction Competition shortstops Jan
Reflex Fiction is a quarterly international flash fiction competition for stories between 180 and 360 words. We operate a choose your own entry fee system.

Autumn 2019 Winners

At the end of December, we published the three winning stories from our Autumn 2019 flash fiction competition as chosen by Naomi Booth. Here are the winners and links to the stories:

You can read Naomi’s thoughts on the winning stories here.

Winter 2019 Long-List

We’ve also just published the long-list for our Winter 2019 competition and have started publishing stories as we count down to the announcement of the winners at the end of March.

Spring 2020 – Choose your own entry fee

We’re also accepting entries for our Spring 2020 competition. For this round, we’re delighted to have flash-fiction legend Kathy Fish as our judge.

We’re continuing with our choose-your-own-entry-fee system. If the suggested entry fee of £7 is prohibitive, just pay what you can afford. If you’d like to support a writer who can’t afford the full fee, why not add a pound or two? More details on our website.

Here are the important details:

Prizes: £1,000 first, £500 second, £250 third (or the equivalent in your local currency)
Entry Fee: Choose your own
Entries close: 29 February 2020
Judge: Kathy Fish

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY

Call for Submissions – Short Stories & Poetry

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Stories About Cyber Lives

Guts Publishing. Ballsy books about life. An independent publisher in London specializing in short story anthologies, fiction & nonfiction, and often with poetry. We also publish full-length memoirs. Our goal is to support exceptional writers to ensure that readers can find bold life stories (and that other stuff they call fiction) in the marketplace.

On 28 November 2019 we released our debut anthology Stories About Penises, a collection of 21 poems and short stories about, well exactly what it sounds like. We have some nice reviews on our website, and also on Goodreads.

We are thrilled to announce that we are open for submissions for our next anthology Stories About Cyber Lives. Seeking poetry and short stories (fiction & nonfiction) by UK writers. Which means anyone currently living in the UK, or anyone who was born in the UK. Closing date is 15 February 2020. This is wide open and anything goes (poetry, memoir, erotica, literary fiction, sci fi, lgbt, etc) as long as it aligns with the theme.

For details visit gutspublishing.com/submissions and our Submittable page.

We can’t wait to read your stories! xx Guts

Creative Future Writers’ Award 2020

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The 2020 Creative Future Writers’ Award is now open for submissions.

Founded in 2013, the Creative Future Writers’ Award is the UK’s only national writing competition and development programme for under-represented writers. They showcase talented writers who lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, identity or other social circumstance.

Prizes are awarded for both poetry and short fiction, including cash and professional writing development opportunities, publication in an anthology, and a high profile awards ceremony at the Southbank Centre in London as part of London Literature Festival (TBC).

2020 judges are Kerry Hudson, Anthony Anaxagorou, Aki Schilz of The Literary Consultancy, and the CFWA 2020 Writer In Residence (TBA).

This year’s theme is ‘Tomorrow‘.  Submissions are open for:

  • Poetry (one poem up to 42 lines)
  • Short fiction (up to 2,000 words)

Deadline is 31 May 2020.

For more information and how to submit, please click here.

Call for Submissions: HCE’s Green Issue

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The editors at Here Come Everyone magazine (HCE) are seeking submissions for our upcoming Green Issue. We’re a tri-annual literary magazine of short fiction, poetry, articles and artwork based around topical and interesting themes. HCE aims to provide an open and accessible platform for readers and contributors.

 

The new theme: GREEN

Deadline: 10 Feb 2020

We encourage bold/striking interpretations of the theme. If your link to ‘green’ isn’t self-evident, we advise you to include a few lines in your author bio to provide context.

Green

Fiction: please submit only one piece per issue; stories may be up to 2,000 words.

Poetry: you may submit up to three poems of no longer than 35 lines each.

Non-fiction: please submit only one piece per issue; articles may be up to 1,500 words.

Artwork: you may submit up to three pieces; we accept all visual media (300 dpi and 640 x 640 res).

 

Please see our submissions guidelines for full details. Work must be sent via the submissions form on our website; stuff we receive via email will not be accepted. Any Word or .docx format is fine, but no PDFs. For submissions of artwork, please ensure your files are of sufficient image size and hi-res, otherwise they cannot be used.

We look forward to receiving your creations…

FRONT COVER Classified

To get an idea of what HCE is looking for, you can check out our brand new Classified Issue – now available for purchase from our shop! Full of short stories and flash fiction, plus art, poetry and other writing.

January Round-Up

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Happy New Year!

Wishing you a wonderful year full of short stories – writing, reading, submitting, performing and listening to them! We welcome a new lit mag to our list: Fudoki magazine: “an online, flash fiction magazine of myths, legends, fables, fantasy, folklore and fairytales.”

 

Lit Mags & Chapbooks

The A3 Review is asking, Is your work too intense? They want to read your intense chapbooks of disquiet – send your short stories and flash fictions by Jan 10th.

 

Competitions

The Short Fiction/ University of Essex prize for short stories up to 5000 words is now open, deadline March 31st. Reflex Fiction’s spring competition is now open for flash fictions of 180-360 words, deadline 29 Feb.

 

Live Lit & Festivals

Story Friday is calling for submissions for its Leap-themed event on Feb 28th in Bath, deadline 17th Feb. White Rabbit is calling for submissions for an evening of short stories in Ashford, Kent, on the theme of ‘Wonder’ in March 2020, deadline 14th Feb.

 

Workshops & Courses

Haringey Live Lit’s Novella Fever course begins at the end of January in London. Claire Keegan is running two manuscript-based workshops in Dublin in February.

Short Fiction Prize now open

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The editorial team at Short Fiction journal are excited to announce the relaunch of our internationally-renowned Prize, now the Short Fiction/University of Essex Prize. It offers £500 for the winner and £250 for the runner-up, and will be judged by acclaimed author Jon McGregor.

Submissions are open now! The deadline is 31 March 2020, but if you enter in January or February, you’ll benefit from a discounted entry fee of £7 instead of £9. We are also offering 25 free entries for writers for whom the fee would be a barrier to entry – but hurry, as these are offered first-come, first-served.

It’s the start of a new and exciting time for us, as we’re affiliating with the University of Essex LiFTS department – not just through their sponsorship of the Prize, but also to support our publishing excellent short fiction as we head into the new decade. In the coming year we’ll be getting into a position to handle submissions through Submittable, reduce our response times and – best of all – significantly increase our payments to writers.

But, for now, the Prize! All details are on the Competition page of our website, but the headlines are: it’s open internationally, judged blind, with a maximum length of 5,000 words. A shortlist will be announced in May, with the winner and runner-up chosen by Jon McGregor and announced in June.

We can’t wait to start reading your entries – and we’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word about the Prize through your own networks. Thanks!

Ruby, Agri, Liam, Maria, Emma, Naush and Jon