Tag Archives: performance

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 Submissions are free and you may submit unpublished or published stories.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.

Story Friday LEAP! Call for submissions

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Story Friday in February has the theme LEAP! in celebration of 2020 as a leap year. Story Friday is on 28th February, the day before the leaping day, and we want to revel in the glory of this springing theme! Whether your stories feature proposals or boxing hares, Christmas lords or death defying jumps, we are so looking forward to reading what you come up with!

Story Friday LEAP! will be on 28th February, deadline for submissions is 17th February. 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 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.

 

Untitled Writers’ Salon #3

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Find out more about Untitled here

FREE tickets can be reserved here

Following the success of the second Untitled Writers’ Salon back in July, we are back with the third in the series on November 7 as we welcome ten writers to The Curtain in London. Tickets are now available to attend the Salon as our wonderful audience!

Untitled is a new platform for underrepresented writers to share their work in front of a live audience. We welcome all writers who self identity as underrepresented.

There are no limitations to what might be shared and we know there’ll be something for everyone in this safe and intimate space. The evening will be co-hosted by writers Ollie Charles and Shiri Shah.

Untitled events will be collecting donations in support of akt, working for safe homes and better futures for LGBT+ young people.

Doors open: 7.15pm for a 7.45pm start in the Design Studio at The Curtain, 45 Curtain Rd, EC2A 3PT

Please ensure you enter through the members entrance on Scrutton St between Curtain Rd and Phipp St, not via the hotel entrance.

To find out more about Untitled, email us at contact.untitledwriting@gmail.com.

If you are interested in reading at a future event, please do get in touch!

Please note this event is 18+

Check us out on Twitter and Instagram.

Plug into FaxFiction

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Old technology – we all used it, and it’s still there: cassette tapes, floppy discs, videos, 35mm slides, overhead projectors, Ansaphones, games consoles, View-Masters, faxes, Dictaphones, reel to reel, Ceefax… How did we function with these ancient machines, these relics of the future?

Hopefully these six writers hold the answer: Writer-in-Residence at Manchester’s Victoria Baths Sarah-Clare Conlon, Sawn-off Tales author David Gaffney, John Rylands Library Writer-in-Residence Rosie Garland, Creative Writing lecturer Valerie O’Riordan, Bad Language host Fat Roland and Nicholas Royle, series editor of Best British Short Stories.

FAXFICTION 2019

FAXFICTION 2019

In FaxFiction, six brand-new short stories will focus on old technologies, and will each be performed using artefacts gathered especially for the event. Made uniquely for the Refract:19 festival, which takes place annually at Greater Manchester arts centre Waterside, this unique show on Saturday 27 July will also feature the live premiere of an installation commissioned from sound artist Gary Fisher.

Tickets cost £8 (£6 concessions) – book here.

Story Fridays ‘2018’ – call for submissions

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How was 2018 for you?

We think it has been quite a year.  We’d like to reflect on it and even  celebrate it at Story Friday with stories that are inspired by events that happened in 2018.  These events can be personal, local, national, international; they can be political, environmental, romantic, comic, tragic.  We’d like a whole range of responses to what we’ve just experienced, as we usher in the new dawn of 2019.

Story Friday 2018 will be on 25th January 2019, deadline for submissions Monday 14th January.  We’re looking for stories that are 2,000 words or fewer.  (Full submission details 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.

!! STORY FRIDAY CHALLENGE !!

January’s Story Friday is all about events that have just happened, so for this Story Friday we have a special challenge.

As well as the submissions about 2018, for the first time we want to include ONE special story, inspired by a NEWS story the week before Story Friday! (ie between 18th and 24th January).  Deadline is Thursday midday 24th January, the day before Story Friday.  Max word count is 1,000 words. You are very welcome to submit both to Story Friday 2018 AND to the Challenge. The chosen story will be read by an actor at Story Friday.

Talk about HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!

For more information: A Word In Your Ear

Story Friday Feast – call for submissions!

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As we hurtle towards Christmas we’re planning our next Story Friday and the theme is Feast!  We’re looking for stories long and short that touch on feasting. You might go traditional and give us tables laden with roast meats and suet puddings, or take us to far-flung corners of the globe for fresh mangoes and newly dropped coconuts. You might decide that lack-of-feast, or famine, is your interest, or look at a feast that has nothing to do with food. However you want to interpret the theme we know we will be intrigued by your offerings!

Story Friday Feast will be on November 30th, deadline for submissions is on 19th November.  Please check that you are available to come along to Burdall’s Yard in Bath on the 30th November before you submit.

We are looking for short stories or monologues, fact or fiction (but mainly fiction), maximum 2,000 words. If you want to enter a flash piece that can work too, either for the stage, or in print – recently we’ve included a flash piece in our programme for the audience to read in the interval and take home with them. No poetry, thank you.

We have some wonderful professional actors who are very happy to read your story if performance gives you the jitters. Olly Langdon of Kilter Theatre (who is also our brilliant host) will read a male voice, and we have a number of female actors who can read stories which need a female voice.  Let us know in your email when you submit if you’d like someone else to read your piece.

To submit, click here.

Liars’ League presents Women & Girls – Tuesday August 14th

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nev dress Arial big 2On Tuesday August 14th, Liars’ League proudly presents our annual short story soiree which sorts the women from the girls, and tells how the other half lives … (Click for Facebook event)

From truant wives to sarky schoolgirls, pyromaniac editors to teenage hookers via tantruming mums, our professional actresses and rising authors will give you a night of fantastic female-focused fiction.

WINNING STORIES for WOMEN & GIRLS
Trouble at the Uptown Espresso by Kristin King *NEW AUTHOR* – read by Sarah Gain
Tree House Date by S. Soliar *NEW AUTHOR* – read by Keleigh Wolf
How to be Unemployed by Alice Franklin *NEW AUTHOR* – read by Lois Tucker
Apotheosis of Maya and Bibi by Rebecca Skipwith – read by Susan Moisan
Homework by Anna Savory – read by Gloria Sanders

Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30 start and tickets are £5 on the door (cash only, sorry, but there is a cashpoint across the street). Drinks and food will be available at the bar, though there are also free sweets and the infamous interval quiz features fabulous books to be won! There’s no pre-booking, but tables for four or more can be reserved by calling 07808 939535.

The venue is the downstairs bar at:
The Phoenix Pub
37 Cavendish Square
London
W1G 0PP

Accessibility note: Access to the basement is via stairs: there is no lift, sadly.

The Phoenix is 5 minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus tube station, which is on the Victoria, Bakerloo and Central lines. Map here.

You’ve read Bunbury, now listen to us!

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Hello to you all from Bunbury Magazine!

We’re just dropping by the give you a quick update on what we are up to at Bunbury HQ.

Did you know we’re now doing podcasts? Well we are. This is a very exciting development and means you won’t be too long between bouts of Bunbury. Currently, we are running two.

Bunbury Speaks, which is a monthly interview podcast with a twist. As well as talking to some very special people about writing, inspirations and all manner of other things, each guest contributes to a chain story, taking a starting point to some very interesting places. Currently, there is one episode available where the guest is our very own poetry editor Malika Street.

Just Write Speaks, the recording of our monthly spoken word event. There are open micers and special guests bringing a huge variety of rhymes and words to your ears. There is almost 6 months worth of events live right now, with guests including Rose Condo, Genevieve L Walsh, Broccan Tyzack-Carlin and many more!

Both of these can be found by clicking the lovely photo below.

This month, we have Joe Williams as our special guest. If you are in or around Manchester, please drop by. There are open mic slots available as well as the chance to compete in the Haiku Death Match. Search Just Write Speaks on Facebook or follow the link to the event right here – Just Write Speaks June.

If you enjoy the podcasts, please consider subscribing and reviewing us on iTunes while you are there.

In other news, Bunbury is still open for submissions. The theme is run and we are looking for short stories, poetry, flash fiction and all manner of writing. Details of our submissions guidelines can be found below.

That’s all from us, folks. Before submitting, consider looking through some past issues to see the kind of thing we do. You can get to our past issues through our website.

Much love and keep scribbling,

Christopher and Keri.

SMALL & BEAUTIFUL flash fiction, Tue 10 April (Liars’ League’s 11th birthday bash)

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From action heroes to Irish farmers, murderers to museum guards, via cuckolds, crosswords, “relationship wine” and a man who starts growing balloons all over his body, we at Liars’ League have ten wild, weird and wonderful flash fiction stories for you in our birthday special* on Tuesday 10th April (click for Facebook event link).

Tickets to this terrific tasting menu of tiny tales are just £5 on the door (cash only) which adds up to 50p per story: probably the biggest entertainment bargain in the West End. Your £5 will also get you a programme, birthday cake, entry to our literary quiz (win books!), and of course all the small and beautiful sweets you can eat. 

WINNING STORIES for SMALL & BEAUTIFUL
  • Action by William Conway & Chiaroscuro by Richard A. Shury, read by Rich Keeble
  • Lighter than Air by Anton Rose & Mugged by Stephen Baily, read by Miranda Harrison
  • Wine Frame of Mind by Joseph Francis & The Last Real Thing by MFC Feeley, read by James Price
  • Losers by Nicolas Ridley, read by Will Goodhand
  • 24 Tiny Tales by Andreas Paraskevaides, read by Claire Lacey & Will Goodhand
  • Decluttering by Sue Smith, read by Claire Lacey
  • Mandatory Meeting for Museum Guards Before The VIP + Members’ Exhibition Opening Reception by Rachel Karyo, read by Keleigh Wolf

As always, doors open at 7pm and the show begins at 7.30. Drinks and food will be available at the bar, and the infamous interval quiz will feature fabulous free books to be won! There’s no pre-booking, but tables for four or more can be reserved by calling 07808 939535. And finally, if for whatever unimaginable reasons you can’t make the show, performances are recorded for podcast and videoed in HD for our YouTube channel.

The venue is the downstairs bar at:
The Phoenix pub
37 Cavendish Square
London
W1G 0PP
(The Phoenix is 5 minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus tube station, which is on the Victoria, Bakerloo and Central lines. Map here)

*we’re 11 this year, since you ask …

Stroud Short Stories is open for submissions for its 20 May event

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Stroud Short Stories is open for submissions for the 20 May event – our 16th event. Submissions will close at the end of Saturday 14 April. It’s an open theme this time. As ever it’s free to submit and we accept both published and unpublished stories from Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire writers. Ten authors will read their work in front of a capacity audience of 70 short story lovers on Sunday 20 May at the SVA in John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA.

We will also be publishing a second anthology later this year and all ten writers will be invited to have their story published in it.

All the info you need is on our website/blog – https://stroudshortstories.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 



‘The Squat Pen Rests’ Short Story Writing Competition

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squat-pen-rests-large

 Grab your hats, coats, shoes and socks and be sure to wipe your calendars clean for the evening of Friday 26th January 2018.

Why?

Because on that night ‘The Squat Pen Rests’ Short Story Spoken Word Event will be barrelling into the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon, with a freshly sharpened pencil clamped between its teeth, and brandishing a proper-fancy gaggle of fabulous stories for anyone brave enough to pitch up and listen.

Six  super-fine short story writers will duke it out in front of a live audience to find out who will be crowned the very first ever ‘The Squat Pen Rests’ Writing Competition Champion of the World!

There will be prizes, live music, a bar, some occasional bawdiness and, of course, those six spoken word performers who will have travelled from far and wide (maybe even further) in pursuit of the Holy Grail that is ‘The Squat Pen Rests’ Writing Competition Champion of the World title.

The game’s afoot: and upon this charge (just £5.50 per ticket), cry ‘gimme one!’ (or maybe two) to secure your seats.

Click here to buy your tickets.

 

Meanwhile…

‘The Squat Pen Rests’ is actively seeking writer-performers. So, if you’d like to be in with a chance of performing your story on the night (and winning fifty smackers, to boot) then we’d love to hear from you. All you have to do is follow the link for further details. The Squat Pen Rests Writing Competition

And when does this glorious event take place, I hear you roar. Well, because you’ve roared so nicely, I’ll tell you.

The date is Friday 28th January 2018. Doors will open at 7.30pm and the readings will commence around 8pm. Closing time is ‘late’. 

And Where, pray tell, doth this event take place? 

All right Shakespeare, keep your hair on. I’ll tell you where:

The Place – Wyvern Theatre,

Theatre Square,

Swindon SN1 1QN

01793 524481

For all other enquiries please email: stephentuffin@hotmail.com

 

 

Next Liars’ League event: Women & Girls

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women & girls text jpgLiars’ League‘s female-focused September event, Women & Girls (click for Facebook event), is a tasty selection of brand new short fiction by and about women (and girls), for everyone to enjoy. The show is on Tuesday 12th September, starting at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm), when the winning stories will be performed by our marvellous Liars’ League actresses.
The six chosen pieces feature superhero(in)es, ventriloquists, obsession, depression, Victorian prisoners, charismatic polygamists, West Midlands spiritual healers, and all manner of enticing stuff besides …
WOMEN & GIRLS WINNING STORIES
Summer Season by Sally Syson NEW AUTHOR, read by Charlotte Worthing
Walk a Mile in My Shoes by Olga Wojtas NEW AUTHOR, read by Keleigh Wolf
Limbo by Sue Smith NEW AUTHOR, read by Jennifer Aries
Finding Jezza by Sally Lane NEW AUTHOR, read by Nicky Diss
The Ends of the Earth by Aileen O’Farrell, read by Annalie Wilson
Le Retreat by Fiona Salter, read by Sarah Gain
The night will also feature our infamous book quiz (with female-authored novels as prizes #readwomen) and free sweets, just because. Tickets cost £5 on the door (cash only, no advance booking) and seating is unreserved – so it’s a good idea to get there a bit ahead of time if you want a good table. Accessibility note: access to the basement bar is via stairs – there’s no lift, alas.

The venue is downstairs at:
The Phoenix
37 Cavendish Square
London
W1G 0PP

(The Phoenix is five minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus tube station, which is on the Victoria, Bakerloo and Central lines). Map here.

P.S. We got an amazing number of submissions for this theme – more than double our usual amount – so if we get a good turnout at the event we may make Women & Girls a regular theme. If you think this is a great idea, please do come along, bring your friends and tell everyone you know, of any and every gender, about it. Ta!

Words And Women Launch Writing Sundays – All In A Good Cause

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Words and Women, which supports and celebrates women writers is launching a series of Writing Sundays in the community to support their bid to raise funds for a virtual office and website.

The series of exciting writing workouts in Norwich are designed to be an energizing dip into creativity and will be held on 3 Sundays in September and one on the first of October led by professional writers in prose, poetry, scriptwriting, and devised theatre. Learn how to kickstart your first novel with Sarah Ridgard, join poet Julia Webb on the theme of family and childhood in poetry, devise theatre with Hannah Walker and transform a Suffragette text into a contemporary script with Belona Greenwood. Book up for all four or fix on one that sparks your imagination.

The workshops take place in The Old Hospital Chapel, Fellowes Plain, Norwich, NR1 4DL all between 10 and 12 a.m (except for week 3 which will run between 9.45 – 12.15).

The workshops are just £20 each. They are open to all levels of women writers – there really is something for everyone. Book all four and get a 10% discount. Bookings open from August 19th at www.wordsandwomennorwich.blogspot.co.uk

If a workshop doesn’t appeal then Words and Women are asking supporters to dip into their pockets and support their crowd-funding appeal.

The voluntary organisation run by Lynne Bryan and Belona Greenwood are seeking to raise £3,500 by the end of September 2017 by asking people to become supporters offering donations of £5 and £25.

In return for their generosity, £5 supporters will receive advance notice of events and competitions planned for 2018.  The supporter’s name will also appear on the sponsors’ page of a new 2018 publication, the Words & Women compendium.

Become a Super Supporter for £25 and receive all of the above and a free copy of the compendium which will be published on the 8th March, International Women’s Day. Their name will also be entered in a prize draw for a bumper selection of books by women writers, published in the UK.

For more information and to donate go to: www.wordsandwomennorwich.blogspot.co.uk

Story Fridays Call for Submissions

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We’re looking for your stories!  The next Story Fridays in September has the theme the Speed of Light. Take it literally or metaphorically… Perhaps we’ll go to the dark side of the moon, or the furtherest far away star, or perhaps we’ll get caught up in the state of the nation, and enjoy how political fortunes can change at the speed of..well. You get the idea. Story Friday – The Speed of Light will be on Friday 22nd September at Burdall’s Yard in Bath, deadline for submissions is the 11th September.

We are looking for short stories or monologues, fact or fiction (but mainly fiction), maximum 2,000 words. If you want to enter a flash piece that can work too. No poetry, thank you. Please check that you are available to come along to Bath on the 22nd September before you submit. We like the writers to be in the audience for these events.

We have some wonderful professional actors who are very happy to read your story if performance gives you the jitters. Let us know when you submit if you’d like someone else to read your piece.

For more information, or to listen to the kind of stories we like, click here.

Flashers’ Club open mic flash fiction night, 10th November, Cheltenham

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Flashers Club will be holding its inaugural open mic night on Thursday 10th November, 7:30-11:00pm, at Smokey Joe’s Coffee Bar, Cheltenham. The mic is open to all writers of short fiction between 300 and 1,000 words. It’s open genre. Published or unpublished, old hand or debut, everyone’s welcome. We aim to be friendly and inclusive, and have a good time! Come along to read, or to hear exciting original writing.

There’ll be around 8 slots for readers, maybe more if time and story length allow. Names will be drawn from a hat if there are more readers than time. After each story we’ll have a short time for Q and A – not a critique, just a chat.

You can book tickets in advance or come along on the night. There’s a small entry fee (£2 + booking fee online, £3 on the door), all of which goes to the charity First Story. First Story places professional writers into schools in deprived areas to encourage children to write.

For lots more details, booking link and FAQs, see our website: www.flashersclub.wordpress.com. You can also find us on Twitter @flashers_club, or on Facebook /flashersclubcheltenham . We’d love to hear from you!

 

Stroud Short Stories at Cheltenham Literature Festival 10 October 2016

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SSS_Chelt_black_blue A4_240816_v3.pdf

The next Stroud Short Stories event will celebrate our fifth birthday – and will be held at the 2016 Cheltenham Literature Festival. It’s on Monday 10 October at 9pm. I have chosen my favourite seven stories from the 100+ read at SSS events from 2011-16. The authors will read them at the LitFest. Absolutely unmissable.

Tickets are £8 and are available from the Cheltenham LitFest website www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/

John Holland (Organiser, Stroud Short Stories)

SSS Website http://stroudshortstories.blogspot.co.uk/

Email stroudshortstories@gmail.com

Liars’ League | Work & Play Story Submissions

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THIS Sunday 3rd July: Liars’ League are looking for new, unpublished short stories of 800-2000 words on a Work & Play theme for our Tuesday 9th August event. Do you live to work, or work to live? And what do you do for fun? We want to hear about the 9-5 as well as the after-dark hours this month. 

Email your tales to us at liars@liarsleague.com by midnight on Sunday 3rd July.

For additional information, visit Liars’ League’s guidelines page.  

Liars’ League Short Story Competition with The National Gallery

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Ng woman writing

A Young Woman Writing, about 1530, after Jan Sanders van Hemessen, from the collection of the National Gallery

As part of The National Gallery’s celebrated Friday Lates, award-winning live fiction night Liars’ League is running its first ever short story competition for unpublished short stories of 1000-2000 words inspired by paintings or galleries. 

The contest is FREE TO ENTER, and the five winning stories will be read live by a professional actor in one of the magnificent rooms of the National Gallery on the evening of their Summer Late, which is themed around Inspiration. The event will take place from 6 to 9pm on Friday 22nd July 2016.

All five winners will be published on Liars’ League’s website as text, podcast and HD video. Winning authors will also receive complimentary drinks at the event and access to the Painters’ Paintings Special Exhibition (normally £10).

Interested? Here’s what to do …

  • Go to the National Gallery’s website and browse the online gallery – or even better, take a wander around the Gallery itself (it’s free!) until you find a painting that grabs you
  • Write a story inspired EITHER by that specific painting (don’t forget to tell us under the title of your story which painting it was inspired by) OR by the Gallery itself
  • Email your story (which MUST be unpublished and between 1000 and 2000 words long) as a .doc, .docx or .rtf attachment to liars@liarsleague.com by midnight on Thursday June 30th
  • Further formatting and submission guidelines are here. If you have any more questions about the competition please contact liars@liarsleague.com
  • IMPORTANT: We judge anonymously so please DO NOT put your name anywhere on your story. If successful, we will contact you via the email address you use to submit.Best of luck, and we look forward to reading your stories!

Liars’ League