writing short fiction
SEPTEMBER 2015 –
During this month, precise date to be announced, this site will update with a new look and substantial additional fiction, advice and interview content. Watch this space for further details; in the meantime, we cannot accept any new submissions.
July 1st – 2015 SUMMER NEWS BULLETIN, added to the site, updating the publications, projects, appearances and competition successes of our contributors. The pages indicate a fascinating variety of interests and achievements on the part of our contributors, even during the relative quiet months of high summer.
June 2015 – We have started our succession of interviews with successful and award-winning writers, and we’re delighted to begin with SHIRLEY GOLDEN and JONATHAN TAYLOR, who have both contributed generously to our CHAMPION FICTION section. More interviews will follow.
WATCH THIS SPACE!
WSF is proud to welcome another two successful short story writers to the site, and feature their stories in the Champion Fiction section.
LESLEY GLAISTER, award-winning novelist and playwright, whose stories have been published on Radio 4, has contributed Just Watch Me to the Champion Fiction section.
CHRISTIE CLUETT, prize-winning writer of ‘humorous short fiction with a dark twist’, has contributed Decisions Decisions to the Champion Fiction section. Christie has also been kind enough to add to our Tips from the Top section with her illustrated piece, Jumping The First Hurdle .
Many thanks to them both; for pictures and ‘bios’, please see the alphabetical list below.
We are also happy to add to our Champion Fiction list very welcome second contributions from
ALISON MOORE – the first prize-winning Static
ANDREW CAMPBELL KEARSEY – the haunting and also first prize-winning You Should Have Been There
SHIRLEY GOLDEN – yet another first prizer, the poignant The Right Time to Fly
In today’s literary landscape, writers often wear many hats — from crafting short stories and novellas to editing, teaching, and even freelancing in adjacent fields. As storytelling increasingly overlaps with commercial and academic work, it’s important to understand the broader context in which writing thrives. If you’re curious about how creative writers are navigating the demands of freelance and educational work, check out our latest article exploring the world of academic writing services.DEBUT FICTION SECTION LAUNCHED
April 2015 – Here we go! Our Debut Fiction is up and running, and we warmly welcome eight writers to our site who are either publishing their work for the very first time or have so far only one or two items in their ‘bios’. We welcome:
Jake Alan, S. Bee, Joe Eurell, Mathew Lopez-Bland, Shreyasi Majumdar, Steph Minns, Olga Wojtas and Thomas Williams
We will also shortly be starting a Contributors’ News section, and we hope the early successes of our Debut Fiction writers will lead them on to further publications which they will be able to tell us about.
Click on Debut Fiction title above or on the link to the left on this home page.
February 2015 – WSF WARMLY WELCOMES FIVE NEW CONTRIBUTORS TO THE SITE:
MAXINE ALTERIO , from New Zealand, short story writer, novelist and teacher, has contributed Big Blue and the Potato War to the Champion Fiction section, and Twelve Tips for Writing Short Fiction to the Tips from the Top section.
REGI CLAIRE, born and raised in Switzerland and now Edinburgh-based, novelist and short fiction writer, has contributed The Tasting to the Champion Fiction section.
JO GATFORD , from Brighton, novelist and flash and short fiction writer, has contributed Bing Bong to the Champion Fiction section and Working with Procrastination to the Tips from the Top section.
NINA KILLHAM, who currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, is a novelist and short story writer with an international background, and has contributed My Wife the Hyena to the Champion Fiction section and The problem with short stories to the Tips from the Top section.
JONATHAN TAYLOR , novelist, poet, short fiction writer and creative writing university lecturer, has contributed Ladies and Gentlemen, Tonight’s Concert will Commence in Fifteen Minutes to the Champion Fiction section.
See pictures and detailed bios below for all our new contributors, and our thanks to them for their support for the site.
We also welcome a second prize winning story from JOHN HOLLAND for the Champion Fiction section, The Open Door.
February 2nd 2015 – WSF WARMLY WELCOMES TO THE SITE:
SUE MOORCROFT, well-established novelist, short story writer, competition judge and fiction editor, has contributed a new title to the Tips from the Top section – Hints and tips for short story competition entries.
JEANETTE SHEPPARD, successful short fiction and flash fiction writer, has contributed both a prize-winning short story, No Glitter or Sparkle Allowed, to the Champion Fiction section and Writing in a Child’s Voice to the Tips from the Top section.
AVAILABLE ON SITE NOW; JUST CLICK ON THE LINKS ABOVE.
TWO NEW SECTIONS ONLINE FOR 2015
Two new sections have been added to Writing Short Fiction as of January 14th; CHAMPION FICTION and TIPS FROM THE TOP . Our thanks to all the distinguished contributors who have been prepared to let their prize-winning work appear on the site and offered advice, tips, suggestions etc. to all writers. Access to all material is free; no memberships, no passwords.
As new contributing writers join us, we will update the site from time to time, so that all site visitors will have the benefit of a considerable and growing volume of available material.
For ‘likes’, constructive feedback etc., please visit our page on Facebook or Twitter to @bruceharris241. Feedback can also be sent to [email protected] If you wish to contribute to the site, please see our Submission Guidelines
CHAMPION FICTION – for the launch of this section, we include two flash fiction and nine short fiction stories which have all distinguished themselves in competition.
TIPS FROM THE TOP – advice from successful prize-winning authors on all aspects of preparing, writing and entering short stories into competition.
Our contributing writers are listed below in alphabetical order. Biographical details follow each writer’s name, and clicking on each name will take you to that writer’s site. Our warm thanks to them all.
Maxine Alterio is a novelist, short story writer and narrative mentor who lives in Southern New Zealand. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington, where she studied the memoirs of First World War nurses. Penguin Books (NZ) published Maxine’s best-selling novels Ribbons of Grace (2007), and Lives We Leave Behind (2012), which Editions Prisma (France) published in 2013 as Des vies derrière soi. Steele Roberts (NZ) released Maxine’s well-received collection Live News and Other Stories in 2005. Several of her short stories have won, or been placed in, national and international competitions. Others have been broadcast on Radio NZ National or appeared in anthologies such as Penguin 25 New Fiction (Penguin Books, NZ, 1998) and Best New Zealand Fiction Volume 3 (Random House, NZ, 2006). Maxine is also co-author of Learning through Storytelling in Higher Education: Using Reflection and Experience to Improve Learning (RoutledgeFalmer, UK and USA, 2003). Further information about Maxine is available on her website: www.maxinealterio.co.nz
Andrew was a primary headteacher until he found the escape tunnel. Now he writes short stories. Two have been made into short films by Thorny Devil productions and have been screened at the Hollywood Short Film Festival in 2013 and 2014. Spinetinglers published twenty of his stories in an anthology called ‘Centurionman’. No macho pretensions, it’s named after Centurion Road where he lives in Brighton. The book was number one on the Amazon kindle download chart for eleven glorious hours. Never has the refresh button been hit so many times.
He’s currently writing a novel and pitching a screenplay of one of his short stories to the BBC.
Over one hundred of his stories have been published or placed in short story competitions.
Edinburgh-based Regi Claire is Swiss by birth and upbringing. English is her fourth language. She is the author of two novels ( The Waiting and The Beauty Room ) and two collections of stories ( Fighting It and Inside-Outside ). She has twice been shortlisted for a Saltire Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the MIND Book of the Year Award as well as the Edge Hill Short Story Prize (for best collection).
Bio: Christie Cluett is a short story writer from Bristol, UK. She writes humorous short fiction with a dark twist, getting the oddball characters that march through her head onto paper so that she can sometimes get some sleep.
She’s also currently hiding herself away from any temptation in order to finish her first novel: Alan Clements & The Search for Normality.
Her stories have been shortlisted in the Magic Oxygen literary prize & Writer’s Forum & published in Mash Stories, Darker Times and as a judge of the To Hull & Back Humorous Short Story competition.
You can read some of her short stories on her website http://christiecluett.co.uk/ or find her mumbling nonsense on Twitter.
Sandra Danby grew up on a small dairy farm at the bleak edge of East Yorkshire where England meets the North Sea. She started reading early and has never stopped. After a degree in English Literature in London, she became a journalist. She now writes fiction full-time. Her short stories have been published in anthologies, magazines and online. Her debut novel Ignoring Gravity examines how adoption affects a person’s sense of identity. Two pairs of sisters are separated by a generation of secrets. Finding her mother’s lost diaries, Rose begins to understand why she has always seemed the outsider in her family, why she feels so different from her sister Lily. Then just when she thinks there can’t be any more secrets… Sandra is now writing Connectedness, the second novel in the ‘Rose Haldane: Identity Detective’ series.
Buy Ignoring Gravity at Amazon. Find out more about Sandra’s short stories, and her novels Ignoring Gravity and Connectedness, on her site – click name above.
Karla Dearsley’s stories, flash fiction and poetry have appeared online and in print on both sides of the Atlantic, and several of her plays have been performed. Her short story anthology, Artists & Liars, and a fantasy novel, Discord’s Child, are available from Smashwords and Kindle.
Chris lives in Bristol, UK with his cat and Harley Davidson FLSTFi Fatboy 1584cc V-Twin air cooled 95.25 mm x 111.25 mm bore stroke fuel injected 6 speed cruise drive motorcycle (listed in order of importance, obviously).
His short stories have been published through a variety of competitions and magazines including InkTears, Scribble, Word Hut, Writers’ Forum and Writers’ Village.
He is addicted to writing stories, riding motorcycles and playing drums in rock bands. You can read some of Chris’s published stories on his website, where he uses them as case studies to try and help other writers achieve publication.
Jo Gatford wants to live on your bookshelf. Her debut novel White Lies was published by Legend Press in July 2014 after winning the Luke Bitmead Bursary. She also won The Fiction Desk’s 2014 flash fiction competition with her story Bing Bong
You can find her short stories and flash fiction in Aesthetica, Litro, Open Pen, PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, Vector Press, and elsewhere. She lives in Brighton where she wrangles two insomniac children and writes sweary social media content for a pair of rude cartoonists. Visit www.jogatford.com to find out more about her writing, or visit her on Facebook or Twitter.
Clare is a former biker who escaped from inner city teaching in Birmingham last century to live in a pretty Devon estuary town with her website designer husband and three cats, and pursue her writing career. She has won prizes in many short story competitions, including the Ian St James, Fish and Asham Awards, and her stories appear in these, and other, anthologies. Originally trained as a stage designer, she keeps in touch with her theatrical roots by writing plays, which vary in length from one minute to two hours. They have all been performed, and have regularly featured in drama festivals in Cambridge, where her one-acters seem to do quite well. Remaining ambitions: to have a play produced in a London theatre, publish the/a novel and win the Bridport short story competition. And the Booker would be nice. See website.
Lesley Glaister is the author of thirteen novels including Honour Thy Father (which won both a Somerset Maugham and a Betty Trask Award); Limestone and Clay (which won Yorkshire Post’s Author of the Year Award); Easy Peasy (which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction prize); Nina Todd has Gone and, most recently, Little Egypt (which has been awarded a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize. She has written drama for Radio 4 and her first stage play was performed at the Crucible Studio Theatre in 2004. Lesley has also had numerous short stories anthologised and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and has edited a book of women’s short stories. Lesley is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has taught creative writing several universities. She currently works at St Andrews. She lives in Edinburgh – with frequent sorties to Orkney – with her husband, the writer Andrew Greig, and dog.
Shirley’s short fiction pieces have found homes in the pages of various magazines and anthologies. The most current anthology to include her work is produced by Parthian Books; other stories are in online journals, such as Visual Verse and 1000WORDS. She won first prize for the Exeter Short Story Competition in 2013, was short listed for the Brighton Prize, 2014, and was recently awarded first place in the Retreat West Short Story Competition, judged by Vanessa Gebbie. @shirl1001
Bruce is compiler and editor of the WSF site. An anthology of twenty five of his stories which have all won prizes, commendations or listings in fiction competitions, ‘First Flame’, is available in print and e-book form at his site – click name above.
In addition to second prize in the 2014 Momaya Press Competition, his awards list includes Writers’ Bureau (twice); Grace Dieu Writers’ Circle (five times); Biscuit Publishing, Yeovil Prize, Milton Keynes Speakeasy (three times), Exeter Writers, Fylde Writers, Brighton Writers (three times), Wells Literary Festival, Wirral Festival of Firsts, New Writer, Segora, Sentinel Quarterly, Swale Life, Havant Literary Festival, Southport Writers’ Circle, Lichfield Writers’ Circle, Cheer Reader (three times), TLC Creative, 3into1 Short Story Competition, Meridian, Five Stop Story (three times), JB Writers’ Bureau, Red Line (twice) and Bridport Prize and Bristol Prize longlists.
John Holland is a writer based in Gloucestershire. He has been writing short fiction since 2011. His stories are often dark, funny and mordant. John’s stories are online, in magazines and in anthologies – including The Best Stories in a Decade published in 2013. His stories are in anthologies published by Momaya Press, Marble City Publishing, Earlyworks Press, Raging Aardvark, Worcs LitFest and Gloucestershire Writers’ Network. He has read at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Stroud Short Stories, The Book – A Celebration and on local radio. In 2015 John will read at A Feast of Stories in Cheltenham. John was a regular contributor to Punch and BBC Radio Comedy in the 1980s. He also wrote for TV comedy shows he is wise enough not to recall.
He has won/been runner up/shortlisted for about twenty competition prizes. In 2014, John’s The Night Ape won first prize in the Momaya annual short story competition and was published in their Annual Review. His story The Book also won second prize in the multi-story.co.uk short story competition and was published by Marble City. In 2014 John became the organiser of Stroud Short Stories, a twice-yearly event held at SVA, Stroud. Next event April 2015. See Stroud Short Stories at http://stroudshortstories.blogspot.co.uk
Tracey Iceton is an author and creative writing tutor from Teesside. Now studying for her creative writing PhD at Northumbria University, she is a qualified English teacher experienced in delivering creating writing courses and workshops. She won the 2013 HISSAC short story prize for ‘Butterfly Wings’, was runner up in the 2013 Cinnamon Press short story competition with ‘Slag’ which appears in the anthology Journey Planner, won the 2011 Writers Block NE Home Tomorrow Short Story Competition and was shortlisted for the 2012 Bristol Short Story Competition with ‘Apple Shot’. Green Dawn at St Enda’s, her debut novel and part one of her Irish Trilogy, will be published by Cinnamon Press in early 2016 with parts two and three following in 2017 and 2019. She regularly reads her work at local literary events. Her stories have appeared in anthologies and journals including; The Irish Literary Review, Prole, Litro, Neon, Tears in the Fence, The Momaya Annual Review, The Yellow Room and Writer’s Muse. Her PhD research can be seen by clicking on link.
Nina Killham is the American/British author of three novels, How to Cook a Tart (BloomsburyUSA), Mounting Desire (BloomsburyUSA), and Believe Me (Penguin). Her short story, My Wife the Hyena was included in the Best British Short Stories of 2013. She has just finished her fourth novel, called Tigerland, which is set in Singapore. She now lives in Melbourne with her family and is hoping to write a story set in the great Australian Outback. That is when she’s not tweeting at @ninakillham.
Award winning author Sue Moorcroft writes romantic novels of dauntless heroines and irresistible heroes. The Wedding Proposal, Dream a Little Dream and Is this Love? were all nominated for Readers’ Best Romantic Read Awards. Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013. Sue received three nominations at the Festival of Romance 2012, and is a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner. She’s a past vice chair of the RNA and editor of its two anthologies.
Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, writing ‘how to’ and is a competition judge and creative writing tutor.
Sue’s latest book: The Wedding Proposal
Website: www.suemoorcroft.com.
Blog: https://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/
Facebook sue.moorcroft.3
and https://www.facebook.com/SueMoorcroftAuthor
Twitter @suemoorcroft
Google+: google.com/+Suemoorcroftauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suemoorcroft
Alison Moore was born in Manchester in 1971. Her short fiction has been published in Best British Short Stories anthologies and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra. It is collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories, whose title story won a New Writer novella prize in 2009. Her first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and the National Book Awards 2012 (New Writer of the Year), winning the McKitterick Prize 2013. Her second novel, He Wants, was published in August and described by Rachel Cusk in The Guardian as ‘brave and rigorous’.
Graham Mort is Professor of Creative Writing and Transcultural Literature at Lancaster University. He has worked extensively in Literature development in sub-Saharan Africa and is currently helping to develop new projects in Kurdistan. Visibility: New & Selected Poems, appeared from Seren in 2007, when he was also winner of the Bridport Competition short story prize. His book of short fiction, Touch, was published by Seren in 2010 and won the Edge Hill Prize in the following year. His latest book of poems, Cusp, was published by Seren in 2011. Terroir, a collection of new short fiction, will appear from Seren in 2015 and includes The Glover, winner of the 2014 Short Fiction International Short Story Prize.
One of Jeanette’s flash fictions is due to be published by Litro Magazine online this summer (2015) as a #FridayFlash. Her flash fiction was published in the 2014 National Flash Fiction Day (NFFD) anthology, on the 2014 NFFD Write-in, NFFD’s Flash Flood 2012 and in Worcester Literature Festival’s anthology 2012. She has also been shortlisted for The Fish Flash Fiction Prize (2014), long listed for Flash500 (third quarter, 2014) and the inaugural Bare Fiction Competition (judged by 2014 The Costa Short Story Award winner Angela Readman). In 2012 her Twitter length story was one of Thresholds’ (Chichester University) Top 50. Her short story ‘No Glitter or Sparkle Allowed’ was third in The Phillip Good Memorial Prize 2006 and shortlisted for Frome Festival 2006. Her home is in the Midlands. She is working towards a collection of flash fiction. You can find her on Twitter @InkLinked.
Jonathan Taylor is a novelist, memoirist, short-story writer, critic, editor and lecturer. His books include the novels “Entertaining Strangers” (Salt, 2012), and “Melissa” (forthcoming, late 2015), the memoir “Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself” (Granta Books, 2007), and the short-story collection “Kontakte and Other Stories” (Roman Books, 2013 and 2014). He is editor of the award-winning anthology “Overheard: Stories to Read Aloud” (Salt, 2012). He is Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester, and co-director of arts organisation and small publisher, Crystal Clear Creators. His website is www.jonathanptaylor.co.uk.
WSF is offered entirely free of charge and this will continue, however much the site expands as time goes on. Although links and references to various sites, magazines etc. are used in the main sections and on the resources pages, they are offered for information only; WSF does not take advertising or sponsorship.
There are resources lists concerning magazines, e-zines, writers’ help sites and short story collections, and the questionnaires section includes interactive material on assessing a writer’s chances of success and knowledge of the contemporary fiction situation. Different formulas for questionnaires also offer ways of writers determining subjects to write about, and finding out research backgrounds and details when necessary.
Constructive feedback on the site is appreciated, and any additional references or information welcomed.
The editor and compiler of Writing Short Fiction is Bruce Harris – www.bruceharris.org
fantastic idea!! great attitude too, to give something back, a man of great spirit!!
Many thanks, Andy – great to know at the launch of a site that someone’s getting something out of it. Positive feedback is always greatly appreciated!