Tag Archives: Bath

Story Friday Chemistry – we want your stories!

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After a lovely long summer and story walks in the sun, Story Fridays is back inside, at Burdall’s Yard in Bath.  Our next event in November has the theme Chemistry. Are you thinking of bunsen burners, or eyes meeting across a crowded room? Whatever you choose, chemistry is all about reactions, explosive or otherwise. We can’t wait to see where our latest theme takes you!

Story Friday Chemistry will be on 8th November, deadline for submissions is 28th October. We’re looking for stories that are 2,000 words or fewer.  (Full submission details are here).  Writers must be available to come to Bath for the event.  If you’d rather not read, we have wonderful actors who can read your story for you.

For more information about Story Friday, to listen to stories that we have recorded at our events over the years, and/or to submit your story please visit A Word In Your Ear.

 

Story Sunday in Bristol: call for submissions

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FALL FLYER
Writers Unchained of Bristol are delighted to be open for submissions once more for our second 2018 Story Sunday event on Sunday October 7th when ten writers will be invited to take to the Southbank stage in Bedminster to enthral us with their talent.
Our theme this time is The Fall  which you may interpret any way you like.

Submissions Open Now

Any genre is acceptable, your story may be set in the past, present, future, or might be just a moment, crystallised in words. As ever we love to be shocked, stunned, terrified or delighted.

If you’d like to send a story for our consideration, please observe the following:

  • wordcount 500 – 1500 – complete stories please, no extracts
  • your story can be published or unpublished as long as you have the right to read it out
  • deadline midnight Sunday September 23rd. 
  • only submit if you can read on Sunday October 7th between 7.30 and 9.30 pm at Southbank Club, Dean Lane, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 1DB. We’ll let you know if you’ve been chosen around a week beforehand.
  • email your submission to writersunchained at gmail.com with ‘The Fall’ in the subject line
  • attach the story as a Word doc (or docx) rather than in the body of the email. Make sure you include your own name, the title and the wordcount with the text

We think this should cover everything, but if you have any questions we suggest you contact us via Twitter @bww_unchained or email writersunchained at gmail.com with ”Story Sunday query’ in the subject line.

Hoping to hear from you soon!

 

Story Fridays – Call for Submissions

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The next Story Friday has the theme of ‘Stolen’: stolen hearts, stolen kisses, stolen jewels, stolen lives… who is the thief in your story?  Will you go all Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or are your robber’s deeds more domestic?  We can’t wait to read your stolen stories!  2,000 words maximum, no minimum, deadline Monday April 30th.  Story Friday Stolen is on Friday 11th May – please ensure you are available to come to the event before submitting.  We have fine actors who are happy to read your story for you if you’d like them to – please let us know when you submit.  For more information about Story Fridays, to listen to stories that we’ve recorded, for full submission details and to submit your story click here.

25th November. Flashy times in Bristol and Bath

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Bath-Flash-Fiction-AwardSome people write a  novel in November. Others write a flash a day. Join in the November flashy fun at Bath Flash Fiction Award’s ‘Flashathon’, an intensive day of writing and editing flash fiction at Trinity College, Bristol this coming Saturday 25th November, from 10:00 am- 4:00 pm. Be inspired by a variety of prompts from Meg Pokrass, flash fiction writer editor and tutor and current judge for the Bath Flash Fiction novella-in-flash award and Jude Higgins  flash fiction writer and founder of the Bath Flash Fiction Award. You’re guaranteed to produce at least six new pieces plus get advice, tips and encouragement on all aspects of flash. £45

NoirflashLater the same day come to ‘Flash Noir’ at, St James’ Wine Vaults Bath, an evening of darker-themed flash fiction . From 7.30-9.30pm. Six writers reading short- short stories. Expect suspense, mini-thrillers and black comedy from published  flash writers, Meg Pokrass, KM Elkes, Jason Jackson Damhnait Monaghan, John Wheway and Christopher Stanley. Cost £5. Free nibbles. Late Bar. Students can come free. Hope to see you there.

Book soon here for both events

Story Fridays gets the shivers!

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Missing Halloween already?  Been inspired by ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night?  Story Fridays wants your stories on the theme of HAUNTING.  This is our firstly ghostly themed Story Fridays in five years, so we’re really excited and just a little bit scared already!  Stories should be 2,000 words or fewer, deadline for submissions is coming up fast on 13th November, and the date of Story Friday Haunting is 24th November in Bath.  Please ensure you are available to come along before you submit.  If you don’t want to read your story, and would like one of our wonderful actors to read it for you, please let us know when you send in your story.  We can’t wait to read them!  For more information, to listen to the kind of stories we like, and to submit your story, click here.

A Night of Crime (Bristol): call for submissions

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The next event from Writers Unchained of Bristol is on Sunday October 22nd  between 7 and 9 pm at Southbank Club, Dean Lane, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 1DB and will be A Night of Crime.

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The crime needn’t be perfect but we know your writing will be. Bring us victims or perpetrators, good cops, bad cops or no cops at all. Bring us a criminal tendency or full-blown guilt. As ever we love to be shocked, stunned, terrified or highly amused.

If you’d like to submit, follow our guidelines. We will choose the stories that appeal to us and fit with the other parts of the programme.

Or you can just come along to listen! Tickets will £5 on the door.

Submission guidelines:

  • wordcount 500 – 1500 – complete stories please, no extracts
  • your story can be published or unpublished as long as you have the right to read it out.
  • deadline midnight Sunday October 1st 2017
  • only submit if you can read on Sunday October 22nd  2017 between 7 and 9 pm at Southbank Club, Dean Lane, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 1DB. We’ll let you know if you’ve been chosen around a week before hand.
  • email your submission to writersunchained at gmail.com with ‘A Night of Crime’ in the subject line
  • attach the story as a Word doc (or docx) or in the body of the email. Make sure you include your own name, the title and the wordcount with the text

We think this should cover everything, but if you have any questions we suggest you contact us via Twitter @bww_unchained or email writersunchained at gmail.com with ”Story Sunday query’ in the subject line.

Writers Unchained are thrilled to be part of

Bristol Lit Fest  2017.

Flash Fiction Festival: Saturday 24th June & Sunday 25th 2017, in Bath.

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The first literary festival in the UK entirely devoted to Flash Fiction. Happening on the weekend of National Flash Fiction Day UK 2017, our first year will be taking place in Bath. Our venue, The New Oriel Hall, is a short bus ride or a twenty minute walk from the town centre, with wifi, disabled access and a hearing loop.The whole building is available for the festival.

The Flash Fiction Festival is for beginning and experienced writers who want to learn more about flash fiction – an exciting and continually emerging short-short form of prose, growing in popularity around the world. Come and be inspired by the UK’s leading flash fiction practitioners and to immerse yourself in writing, reading and listening to flash fiction throughout the weekend. All sections of the community, from all corners of the globe, are welcome.

Workshops and talks generously funded by The Arts Council England include: Vanessa Gebbie, Kit de Waal, Tania Hershman, Paul McVeigh, David Gaffney, Ashley Chantler, Peter Blair, David Swann, Meg Pokrass, Jude Higgins, K M Elkes, Christopher Fielden, Michael Loveday, and The National Flash Fiction Day Anthology Launch with Calum Kerr.

For more information and to book tickets, please visit our website: https://www.flashfictionfestival.com

We hope to see you there for a fun-filled weekend of flash fiction!

Submit your flashes to National Flash Fiction Day’s Micro Competition and Anthology!

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National Flash Fiction Day UK is on Saturday 24th June 2017, and we are open for submissions for our Micro Fiction Competition and our Annual Anthology! Entry for both are free!

Competition: There is no theme for our competition, so feel free to send us up to three of your stories that are 100 words or fewer! Deadline for entries for our Micro Fiction Competition is Friday 31st March 2017. You can find out more information here: http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/comp.html

Anthology: Once again we are delighted to open ourselves up to submissions for the annual NFFD anthology. This year the theme is Life As You Know It.

This year’s editors will be the Co-Director of National Flash-Fiction Day, Santino Prinzi, and renowned flash-fiction writer, Meg Pokrass.

We want stories inspired by the lens of your own experiences, stories that navigate life and the world as only your characters know how. Tales of hope, loss, fear, and resilience. Flashes about identity, vulnerability, and triumph. We want you to harness and make use of your own experiences in fiction: What are your secrets? What makes you cry? What keeps you awake? Feel free to interpret “life as you know it” however you like, but your flashes must fit the theme in some way.

However you care to work with our theme, we want to read your stories. The word limit is 500 words, and you can submit up to 3 stories. Please include them in the email as MS Word attachments, and follow all the guidelines below.

All writers who have a story selected for the anthology will receive a free print copy of the book upon publication. Deadline for entries for our Anthology is Friday 14th April 2017.

You can find out more information here: http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/anth.html

This year we will be launching the anthology the U.K.’s first ever Flash Fiction Literary Festival, which will be taking place in Bath.

Story Sunday in Bristol: call for submissions

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Let us tell you another story ….landscape-409551_960_720

Writers Unchained of Bristol are delighted to announce the next Story Sunday event will be on March 19th.

Our theme this time is Another Country and we are open to any genre of prose fiction or memoir. 

  • wordcount 500 – 1500
  • stories can be published or unpublished as long as you have the right to read it out.
  • deadline midnight Sunday March 5th
  • only submit if you can read on Sunday March 19th between 7 and 9 pm at Southbank Club, Dean Lane, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 1DB.

There’s more detailed information on how to submit on our website.

Don’t forget this is also an event for those who just enjoy listening!

Tickets for our audience  will be £5 on the door.

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Join us in The Twilight Zone on Sunday Oct 23rd

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smallscifiWriters Unchained are all set for their next Story Sunday event which is part of this year’s Bristol Festival of Literature and will feature some great sci-fi and spec-fic stories. The response to our call for submissions has been the best yet and the  line-up includes not only popular local writer/performers but also newcomers to the Bristol live-lit scene.

What can you expect if you decide to come along?

  •  Anne Corlett‘s award-winning story about space-travel
  • Philip Douch with sci-fi at its most hilarious
  • cosmic shenanigans from Jonty Levine, Barney Barret and Julie Hayman
  • an alien with a roving eye from  John Holland
  • an edgy take on time travel from  Alex Bridge

bristollitfest16If you feel the need for something more familiar, Mark Lewis offers boiled sweets (but not as you know them) and you can share an apocalyptic cigarette with Kevlin Henney. Or if far out really is your thing, we have D. S. Ketleby with an avian family saga.

We hope we have you hooked!

 

You can join us in the Twilight Zone NEXT SUNDAY October 23rd at Southbank Club, Bristol, BS3 1DB, 6 – 8 pm for what promises to be quite an evening.

Tickets £5 on the door.

 

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Story Sunday (Scifi, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction): call for submissions

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Let us tell you another story…

Writers Unchained of Bristol are delighted to announce the next Story Sunday event on October 23rd will be part of the 2016 Bristol Literature Festival (October 21 – 29th) an event famous for its nurturing of grassroots writing and performing talent.

shutterstock_322984532Our theme this time is The Twilight Zone so we’re calling for stories in the genres of scifi, fantasy and speculative fiction.

  • wordcount 500 – 1500
  • stories can be published or unpublished as long as you have the right to read it out.
  • deadline midnight Friday October 7th 2016
  •  only submit if you can read on Sunday October 23rd between 6 and 8 pm at Southbank Club, Dean Lane, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 1DB.

There’s more detailed information on how to submit on our website.

Don’t forget this is also an event for those who just enjoy listening!

Tickets for ‘non-readers’ will be £5 on the door.

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Flash Fiction Readings in Bath, 29th July

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photo of readings

If you’re in or near Bath on Friday evening, 29th July,  do come to hear fabulous flash fiction writers at our Evening of Readings organised by Jude Higgins at Bath Flash Fiction Award. Readings from acclaimed US flash-fiction writer, poet, writing teacher and editor, Meg Pokrass, who will be reading from51oCRJs7VwL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_ her new collection The Dog Looks Happy Upside Down

Carrie Etter poet, flash-fiction writer and Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University who will be reading from her new pamphlet HometownHometown-001

together with award winning local flash-fiction writers

K M Elkes, Santino Prinzi and Diane Simmons

 

Venue: St James Wine Vaults, Bath.

Time: 7.30 pm – 10.00 pm.

Cost £5. Places limited. Book now at bathflashfictionaward.com via paypal or any card

 

Banksy at the Bath Fringe? 5th June

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More BanksyLess than a week to go before Talking Tales, Bristol’s finest story telling night, hits the Bath Fringe Festival at Burdall’s Yard.

Stokes Croft Writers are hosting a brilliant cast of writers from Bristol and beyond plus quokkas*, zombies** and Banksy***. Live Lit? Oh yes.  You may want to escape to the streets of Paris for a bit of peace and quiet…

* nope – never heard of them either

** heard of them – and so will you on the night

*** in name only…or in person?

You can pay at the door, entry is £5 each or 2 for £8, but if you want to be sure…and want to avoid another long wait for the green man at the London Road crossing…advance tickets are available here: Tickets

Starts at 8pm.

Bath Fringe Festival

 

 

 

Talking Tales @ Bath Fringe Festival: 5th June

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More Banksy Than Bonnets Bath Fringe Festival

Talking Tales, Bristol’s finest story telling night, is going on tour – to the Bath Fringe Festival.

Stokes Croft Writers bring a selection of tales from Bristol’s best writing talents to Burdall’s Yard. Expect entertaining and edgy stories from the creative heart of Bristol and beyond.

More a cultural exchange than an inter-city invasion, but we might bring our superheroes and zombies. We might bring our Beryl and we will certainly bring our badges. Who knows…we might even bring Banksy*.

Probably for one night only, although the temptation to set up an independent state may yet get the better of us.

Bonnets not required.

Tickets are £5 or 2 for £8 – available here: Tickets Starts at 8pm.

* re Banksy – who’s going to know?

Talking Tales

 

 

 

 

That Killer First Page

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Paul McVeigh’s coming to Bath on Saturday afternoon, October 17th, to run his popular That Killer First Page workshop. Bath Short Story Award is hosting the three-hour event which will take place in Bath Central Library from 1.45 pm – 4.45 pm.  Cost:  £40.  Only 5 places left. Book  via paypal or card on bathshortstoryaward.co.uk

Paul McVeigh’s short fiction has been published in journals and anthologies and been commissioned by BBC Radio 4. He is co-founder of the London Short Story Festival, Associate Director at the Word Factory and judge for national and international short story competitions. His debut novel, The Good Son is shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker Prize.

So why not get ready for the next round of big short story competitions and magazine submission windows and find out what competition judges and journal editors look for in a short story? You’ll get tips on staying focused, where to start the action and how to write with emotional impact. Then you’ll have a go at writing an opening and get brief feedback from Paul. You’ll also look at submission opportunities; how to find them and where you should be sending your short stories.

Bath Short Story Award is also hosting an evening of readings the same day, Saturday October 17th, 7.30pm -10.00 pm at St James Wine Vaults Bath, with Paul and thriller writer Sarah Hilary reading extracts from their novels and short story writer and poet Tania Hershman, who will give us a first look inside the new anthology she co-edited with Pippa Goldschmidt of short stories inspired by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, ‘I am because you are’, to be published in September by Freight Books.

Only £3. Numbers limited so book in advance on bathshortstoryaward.co.uk via paypal

Story Friday: Blue

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Story Fridays 2

STORY FRIDAY: BLUE

FRIDAY 17TH JANUARY, 8PM

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VENUE:  BURDALL’S YARD, 7A ANGLO TERRACE, BATH BA1 5NH

http://www.burdallsyard.org/

Beat those January Blues with stories to entertain and to delight!

BLUE is for Aegean seas under azure skies and shivery swims in the waves off Cornwall, for the mellow notes of a sax player in New Orleans, for the indigo dye of a faded pair of Levis, for the chips of ice in the eyes of a lover. How will our writers be inspired?  Come along and find out!

Admission £4.00 on the door.  Bar open from 7.30, stories start at 8pm.

Live music from THE MURRAY WATERS DUO

For further information go to www.awordinyourear.org.uk

Story Fridays Call for Submissions

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Story Fridays 2

After a brilliant evening of Brief Encounter stories last month, we are now looking for submissions for our January event, theme BLUE.

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As always, we are looking for short stories or monologues, fact or fiction (but mainly fiction) that would be 15 minutes or under when read, so maximum 2,100 words.  The event will be on FRIDAY 17th JANUARY at Burdall’s Yard in Bath.  Deadline for submissions is MONDAY 6th JANUARY.  Please do check that you are available to come along on the 17th before you submit – we like to welcome all the writers to our events, the audience likes to meet you!  Two wonderful professional actors Olly and Caroline from Kilter Theatre are more than willing to read your piece if performance gives you the jitters.  Let us know in your submission whether you would like to read, or have your piece read.  This is an unpaid opportunity.

Please submit your stories via the A Word In Your Ear website:

http://www.awordinyourear.org.uk/contact/

There is loads more info about Story Fridays on the website, and you can listen to some of the fantastic stories that have been performed at our events.

Story Friday: Brief Encounter: 22nd November

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FRIDAY 22nd NOVEMBER, Doors open 7pm, stories start at 7.30

Venue: Burdall’s Yard, 7A Anglo Terrace, Bath BA1 5NH

http://www.burdallsyard.org/

Six freshly minted stories on the theme Brief Encounter AND a movie!  All for £4.00.  Tickets on the door.

Come and listen to some stories to surprise and delight, read by writer-performers in a warm friendly cabaret atmosphere.  This Story Friday is a bit different from our usual events, just to keep you on your toes!  The vaults of our lovely venue Burdall’s Yard reminded us of railway arches, and from there it was but a hop, skip and a jump to the thwarted lovers in the 1946 black and white classic Brief Encounter.  We asked our writers to come up with stories inspired by the movie – and they’ve done just that!  Expect love, loss and passion as our writers explore their own brief encounters…  And then!  As if that’s not enough!  There’ll be a screening of the film, and we can all watch Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson being perfectly, perfectly in love in what those cynics at Time Out voted ‘The Most Romantic Film of All Time’.

Writer-performers are Elaine Miles, Stephanie Weston, Clare Reddaway and Doc Watson with actors Olly Langdon and Caroline Garland reading stories by Catherine Strong and Geoffrey Heptonstall.

We’ll be dressing up a la 1940s Brief Encounter – if you’d like to dress up to please do – optional of course!

What our audience thinks:

‘Enthralling’ ‘Great stories, great venue’ ‘Quaint and quirky’ ‘Fascinating’ ‘Great way to spend Friday evenings’ ‘I’ll certainly come again!’

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