Hello short story fans! Here’s what’s been going on for the past few weeks on the blog –
Tania x

Lit Mags
It’s a good month new lit mags – thrilled to welcome to our Lit Mag listings both Paper And Ink – “punk rock literature for all page-turners out there” – and The Nottingham Review, “a new British digital literary journal looking to publish great short stories and flash fiction, first issue coming Sept 2015.” Check them out!

Firewords Quarterly’s Issue 4 is hot off the presses and Jotters United has a new issue out, 2Tango, and a call for submissions. Spelk also wants your short stories, and Bunbury has launched Issue 8 and shared some more exciting announcements with us.

Live Lit
You missed White Rabbit’s Bernadette Russell reading people stories in bed at the Brighton Festival, but check out White Rabbit’s second Alice in Wonderland podcast,Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Recliffe Future Way was launched on May 1st and is running its fiction trails in Bristol throughout the month. The Word Factory #33 is happening in London on May 30th – the masterclass is sold out, but there’s the short story reading club and the Irish-themed evening event.

Competitions & Festivals
The full programme for this year’s London Short Story Festival has now been announced. Ambit magazine has launched its first annual short story competition, judged by Alison Moore, deadline July 15th. This month’s Writing Maps’ contest is the Tea & Coffee contest, deadline May 23rd. And Headstuff magazine has launched a knockout comic short fiction competition with a prize fund of 3200 euros!

The Creative Future Literary Awards are now open to marginalised writers, deadline 15 June., and The Moth’s International Short Story Prize is open, deadline June 30th. Holland Park Press is running a short story competition, I Is Another, deadline 31 August. The University of Leicester’s 2015 short story competition is now open, deadline 11 September. The fourth Hysteria writing competition has also just opened for entries, deadline 15 August.

Last Minutes and Gentle Reminders
The Felixtstowe Book Festival’s 2015 short story competition closes on May 16th

If you are eager for even more short-story-related news, do follow ShortStops on Twitter where, when we should be writing, we spend (far too) much time passing on news from lit mags, live lit events, short story workshops and festivals! If you’d like to review an event or a publication, drop me a line.

Happy reading, writing, listening and performing!
Tania x