Mslexia Short Story Competition

I am delighted to reveal that one of my short stories, 'Still Life Moving Fast', has been named runner-up in the Mslexia Short Story Competition 2015. It is available to read in the summer edition of Mslexia magazine, which is out now.

For those who don't know, Mslexia is a fantastic publication 'for women who write.' Like the recent Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, it aims to redress the gender imbalance in the publishing industry - in fact, the current issue discusses how men still dominate the top jobs in publishing. (The Guardian also just ran an article on how books about women are less likely to win literary prizes, which mentions Mslexia's research. Click here for more).

As I've said before, writing can sometimes be a lonely, unrewarding business, so it's a real boost to be acknowledged and published in such a well-respected magazine. Furthermore, judge Alison MacLeod had some lovely things to say about 'Still Life Moving Fast', including calling it 'visually delicious', which is something I may well quote until the end of time.

In addition to work by the winners and finalists of the short story competition, Issue 66 (Jun/Jul/Aug 2015) of Mslexia is chock-full of news, features, reviews, interviews and much more on the subject of writing, books and publishing. If this sounds like your thing - and you want to read 'Still Life Moving Fast' - do chase down a copy.

Thread

The November issue of the online journal Bookanista went live today, featuring one of my short stories, Thread.

Thread is probably my most experimental piece of fiction to date. I have been playing around with fairy tales and myths for a few years now, but have recently begun to think I can use them more sparingly in my work. With Thread, I started with a myth, but tried to write over rather than around it, hoping the original tale would show through in places, but not distract the course of my new, modern-day narrative.

A little taster:

You don’t choose your own story.” That’s what Mama had said, the real one.
Papa had grunted into his pipe, raised his gaze to the ceiling. “Let the children dream.”
Biting down a response, Mama had pulled the quilt tight over their little bodies, nudging them closer together to warm like coals in a grate. Then she had bent down, kissed their cheeks, stroked their hair, and blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill into the space between them.
“Very well,” she had said, while Papa puffed away in his chair. “But I will choose the story tonight, as I wish I could choose all your stories.”

Bookanista is a fantastic website packed with literary news, extracts, interviews and articles. It places particular emphasis on publishing new fiction, from both fledgling and established writers, and I am very excited to be contributing to it this month.

Guess the myth.

To read Thread, and the rest of Bookanista's November issue, head over here.