Tag Archives: literary events

Upcoming literary events & activities

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Celebration of the Book bannerI’m looking forward to a few weekends jam-packed with literary hi-jinks.

Saturday 26th October 2024 The Great Festival Flash Off, online

At this online session, I’ll be teaching a one-hour version of my ‘Writing on Water’ workshop, inviting flash writers to explore different ways of using water to inspire or shine up themes in their writing, with generative exercises, examples from a variety of writers, and time to write.

The full day (11.00am to 6.30pm) only costs £30, with two hour-long workshops and one 90min workshop, plus readings, breakout rooms for chats, yoga for writers and a competition each time.

In addition to ‘Writing on Water’, the 26th October edition of the Great Festival Flash Off includes workshops with Ingrid Jendzrejewski and a discussion/reading/Q&A with Karen Jones and Diane Simmons.

Book for The Great Festival Flash Off here.

Friday 1st November, Clevedon LitFest Writing Competitions prize-giving
Jubilee Lounge, Clevedon Community Centre, aka Princes Hall, BS21 7SZ, from 7.30pm

CompAwards showing KatLyon, bristol poet 2024, on orange and blue backgroundTo announce the winners Clevedon LitFest Writing Competitions, there’ll be an inspiring evening of celebrations and performances. As one of the judges for the short story entries, I can’t wait to meet the writers of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd award-winning stories, and the writer of the highly commended story.

With a performance from the current Bristol City Poet Kat Lyons. it’s going to be a very special night indeed.

There’s no need to book for this free event – just turn up. See you there?

Saturday 2nd November, Celebration of the Book
Clevedon Community Centre, aka Princes Hall, BS21 7SZ, from 10am

Clevedon LitFest’s Celebration of the Book returns as a one-day convention of books and book arts.

A day-pass for all talks, discussions and readings costs just £15, with workshops costing extra.

Find full details for Celebration of the Book and book here.

I’ll be helping out with talks and panels throughout the day, and sharing a story or two of my own from 5.30pm as part of ‘Exploring the Edges: Literary fiction readings.’

Sunday 10th November, The Laurie Lee Prize for Writing 2024
Lansdown, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 1BB, from 5.30pm

As one of the shortlisted authors, I’ll be there to celebrate being part of the legacy of one of my long-time favourite authors and hear readings from the winning entries and those “which most captivated our judges” as part of Stroud Book Festival 2024.

The event will feature a performance of ‘April Rise’, a poem by Laurie Lee, set to music by Jonathan Trim and performed by Every Other Monday Choir, which sounds wonderful!

Book your free tickets for The Laurie Lee Prize for Writing 2024.

Saturday 30th November, The Festival of Stories
SPARKS (the old M&S), 78 Broadmead, Bristol, from 10am

The celebration of storytelling is a free day bringing together an “eclectic mix of seasoned storytellers, emerging voices and passionate listeners for a day filled with tales that span generations, cultures, and experiences.”

I’m part of the ‘stories for grown ups’ line-up and can’t wait to discover what else is going on.

Edinburgh Book Festival welcomes word-lovers

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Edinburgh Book Festival. Shows people in a park enjoying the literary festivalThis year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival is on from 10th-25th August 2024, celebrating the joy of words with more than 550 world-class luminaries from 50 countries contributing to over 500 events.

This year’s theme is Future Tense as the Festival relocates Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) under the Directorship of Jenny Niven. “FUTURE TENSE comprises six sub-themes, each exploring an aspect of how we can, or should, change our individual and collective futures.”

Located just off The Meadows in the leafy heart of the city, the Festival’s new home is a stone’s throw from key Fringe venues at George Square and the home of the Edinburgh International Festival at the Hub.

Key themes include:

A Toast to the Future, with an opening gala event of readings presenting “a kaleidoscope of perspectives and provocations, from the hopeful to the momentous, as we ask a diverse line-up of stellar writers to explore the idea of The Future in 7 minutes each. Participants include experimental author Martin MacInnes; form-bending writer Irenosen Okojie; speculative novelist Naomi Alderman; and award-winning poet and performer Joelle Taylor.

Future Library, a project described as a meditation on time, and the imagination, which has commissioned renowned authors, including Margaret Atwood, to create works which are placed inside the Future Library in Oslo, remaining unread until 2114. Literary superstar Margaret Atwood contributed the first book to this visionary project, Atwood will join the event via livestream to explore how we can engender a better future. There will also be hands-on workshops, and the announcement of the 2025 Future Library contributor.

Generations, which offers perspectives on how we can become ‘good ancestors’, from Roman Krznaric and Ella Saltmarshe, and on how our political systems can be adapted to consider more deeply our impact on the generations after us (led by Wales’ first Commissioner for Future Generations, Sophie Howe). There will also be a series of intergenerational conversations between writers who share common ground, including  poets Roger McGough and Hollie McNish.

Discover all the themes in detail here.

“Our programme Future Tense speaks to the complexity of the moment we’re in, but hopefully also brings some optimism – the world is full of brilliant, insightful people working in so many imaginative ways. We’re excited to showcase some of that incredible thinking and writing – and the ways people are working together to solve problems and keep learning,” says Jenny Niven, Director at Edinburgh International Book Festival. “It’s been an honour to engage with authors, publicists, poets, performers, artists and audience members since I took on this role, and all of these conversations have informed what you will find on site this summer.”

Find full details of the Edinburgh International Book Festival programme.

Got an event, challenge, competition, opportunity or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) iCloud (dot) com.

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Discover the secrets of award-winning short story writers

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I’m excited to be chairing a panel at Clevedon Literary Festival on Saturday 8th June. From 1.30pm until 2.30pm, I will be interviewing writers Keza O’Neill, whose story Lucky Strike placed 3rd in the 2023 Bristol Prize short story competition, and Julie Davies, winner of the inaugural Clevedon Literary Festival short story competition in 2023.

Book your tickets here for just £5 each. Bargain!

Taking place at St John’s Hall, Clevedon BS21 7XJ, the session will cover creative processes, inspiration, and how you know when you have a potentially award-winning story ready to send out into the world. We’ll talk about the impact of a prize win on your sense of yourself as a writer, as well as what these talented writers are working on now.

Find details of the whole summer festival (5th-9th June) here. There are masses of excellent talks and inspiring events taking place throughout the beautiful North Somerset coastal town across these days, as well as pockets of literary goodness throughout the year!

Your panellists

Keza O'NeillKeza O’Neill’s story ‘Lucky Strike’, a tale of thwarted rage and a commentary on the gentrification of coastal towns, recently won the Sansom Award and was awarded third place in the Bristol Short Story Prize with her story Lucky Strike. Keza has been longlisted for the Bath Short Story Award 2023, the CWA Debut Dagger 2021 and the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2019. Keza completed a Masters in Creative Writing in 2023 via The Open University for which she was awarded a Distinction.

Keza is a qualified Coach-Mentor and spent 12 years working in Diversity & Inclusion and Learning & Development in a global Tech company, supporting clients across 40+ countries and multiple timezones. She’s interested in the relationships between people and places and the significance of ‘home’ in shaping identity.

Julie DaviesJulie Davies won the inaugural Clevedon Literary Festival short story competition with her story Remembrance in 2023. Her story Just Dessert was the second place winner in the Winchester Festival I Am Writing Flash Fiction Competition 2022.

Julie writes flash fiction, short stories, and poetry, and is currently working on her first novel. One of her favourites of the stories she’s written is about a Martian craterworm.

When she’s not writing, Julie enjoys time with her grandchildren, especially reading with them and encouraging their love of books. She also enjoys tending her garden, walking, visiting RSPB reserves, travelling, sewing, discussing books in her reading group, and a bit of drawing and mindful doodling whenever her mind needs a calming space.

Judy Darley photo credit Jo Mary Bulter Photography_cropJudy Darley is an award-winning writer, editor and creative workshop leader who relocated to Clevedon in December 2023. She is the author of short fiction collections The Stairs Are a Snowcapped Mountain (Reflex Press), Sky Light Rain (Valley Press) and Remember Me To The Bees (Tangent Books).

She previously judged competitions for National Flash Fiction Day UK and Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, among others, and is one of the judges for Clevedon Literary Festival Open Short Story Competition 2024. She won first prize in the New Writers UK Winter Story competition 2024 with her micro-tale A Bright Day.

In her other life, Judy is a Community Manager and helps to run conferences about financial wellbeing.

Book your Flash Fiction Festival tickets now!

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Trinity College BristolFlash Fiction Festival 2024 spreads out over three intensely creative days in July. The in-person version of the festival unfurls from 12th-14th July, welcoming fabulous flashers including Kathy Fish, Nancy Stohlman, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Carrie Etter and Michael Loveday.

The weekend takes place at Trinity College, Bristol, and is packed with inspiring workshops and panels tackling every aspect of flash fiction, from ‘Good Things Come in Small Packages: Creating Flash from Proverbs’ with Alison Powell, to ‘Writing A Prize Winning Story’, a panel chaired by Audrey Niven with Kathryn Aldridge- Morris, Sara Hills and Marie Gethins. Don’t miss ‘The Biggest Word Cricket in the Whole Wide World’ with Vanessa Gebbie.

These are just a few of the wonderful offerings tempting you to sign up. See the website to find out what else is happening.

The festival team, headed by director Jude Higgins, make this a weekend of imaginative adventures, attracting some of the loveliest writers ever to dip a toe into the art of flash writing. I’m not able to attend this year, but I’m sure it will be brilliant. Join the throng before all spaces fill up!

Book your flash festival admission here.

Got an event, challenge, competition, opportunity or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) iCloud (dot) com.

Enter National Flash Fiction Day’s microfiction competition

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Sweets by Judy DarleyNational Flash Fiction Day’s 100-word microfiction competition invites your submissions. Send something funny, something that resonates, is fresh and exciting, and leaves the judges lost for words.

The deadline is 15th February 2024. You’re invited to submit up to three flash fictions on any theme at no more than 100 words each. Titles aren’t included in the word count.

Last year’s winning micro was ‘All my lovers’ by Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar. Read it and the other winning tales here.

In 2022, Jan Kaneen won with her beautiful mini-tale ‘Just a Word to the Snowblind.’ Read it and the other winners here.

The microfiction competition prizes are:

  • £150 for first place
  • £100 for second place
  • £50 for third place

There are also seven awards of £20 for highly commended pieces. The winning and highly commended authors will be published in the National Flash Fiction Day 2024 anthology, and will receive a free print copy of this anthology.

This year’s judges are Sara Chansarkar, Jan Kaneen, David Rhymes and Alison Wassell.

Read more about the judges here.

By submitting work to the NFFD Microfiction Competition, you are agreeing to publication online and in the 2024 NFFD Anthology if your work is selected as a prizewinner or highly commended flash.

The submission fees for this year’s anthology is:

  • £2.00 for one (1) entry.
  • £3.75 for two (2) entries.
  • £5.25 for three (3) entries.

Find full details here, including details of the free entry scheme.

This year, National Flash Fiction Day is on Saturday 15th June. How will you celebrate?

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) iCloud (dot) com.

Celebrate writing at Manchester Literature Festival

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The-Royal-Exchange-Manchester-cr-Judy-Darley

This year’s Manchester Literature Festival promises a programme of buzzing, thought-provoking events celebrating writing in all its forms from 7th-22nd October.

Curated by Manchester Literature Festival Co-Directors Cathy Bolton & Sarah-Jane Roberts, this year’s programme aims to revel in imagination, creativity and ideas, offering new perspectives from which to view a fast-paced and shifting world. 

Taking place at an array of Manchester venues, from Manchester Art Gallery and International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Central Library to Contact, HOME and The Lowry, the line-up this year includes Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Simon Armitage, Natalie Haynes, Annie Macmanus, Afua Hirsch, George Monbiot, Gaia Vince, Lemn Sissay, Lisa Nandy and artist Jeremy Deller. 

Author and founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kate Mosse will hold a special ‘How to Write Historical Fiction’ Masterclass for the festival,l sharing what drew her to the genre, the inspiration behind her bestselling novels like Labyrinth, Sepulchre and The Burning Chambers, how she evokes convincing historical details and how to balance factual research with compelling characters and storytelling. 

Kate will also discuss her new novel, The Ghost Ship, and the real 18th century female pirates that inspired her in an In Conversation hosted by novelist Beth Underdown (The Key in the Lock). 

Novelist and memoirist Deborah Levy (The Cost of Living, The Man Who Saw Everything, Hot Milk) will be in conversation about her forthcoming novel, August Blue. Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing & Creative Manchester. 

Author Max Porter (Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Lanny) will perform a dramatic abridged reading from his new novel Shy with a live electronic score by musician Roly Porter. Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing & Creative Manchester. 

Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak (The Island of Missing Trees)will discuss some of the writers and poets that have influenced and inspired her, some of the books she returns to regularly for pleasure or guidance and her own life-long passion for reading, writing and storytelling. 

There will also be new commissions to experience.

To mark Manchester Art Gallery’s 200th anniversary, MLF and the gallery have co-commissioned award-winning poet Jason Allen-Paisant (Thinking with Trees, Self-Portrait as Othello) to create a new trio of playful and sensual poems inspired by paintings and garments in the gallery’s collection. 

Icelandic novelist, poet and lyricist Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (Animal Life, Hotel Silence, Miss Iceland) returns to the city to share new fiction inspired by her recent Writer’s Residency in Manchester. Presented in partnership with Manchester UNESCO City of Literature, John Rylands Research Institute and Library and Creative Manchester. 

Talented young writers from Manchester, Aalborg and Aarhus, Billie Meredith, SAF-S2E, Cassandra Marie Geyti, Silas Toft, Marie Laurberg Nielsen and Selina Rom Andersen, will present new poetry inspired by explorations of each other’s cities as part of the Cities Untold residency project. 

Find the full MLF line-up and download the brochure at manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Dive into Bath Children’s Literature Festival

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Child reading cr Julian Foxon Photography

© Julian Foxon Photography

Hungry for writing inspiration or simply got young book-worms to entertain? Bath Children’s Literature Festival returns this autumn with ten days of fantastic, imagination-stirring events.

The festival runs from Friday 29 September – Sunday 8 October, with events for all ages.

Look out for workshops, talks and performances with exceptional authors and illustrators including Katherine Rundell, Sir Lenny Henry, Cressida Cowell, Robin Stevens, Rob Biddulph, Holly Jackson, Dapo Adeola and Nathan Bryon, Nikita Gill, Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, Holly Bourne, Chris Riddell, Tom Holland and Tracy Darnton.

Not sure what to book your spot at? The team at the Festival have created a trailer to whet your appetite. Click here to view it,

Image supplied by Bath Festivals. Photo by Julian-Foxon-Photography.

Find details at bathfestivals.org.uk/childrens-literature.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Foraging for Inspiration at the Flash Fiction Festival

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Owl carving and baby shoe by Judy Darley
The Flash Fiction Festival takes place from Friday 8th until Sunday 10th July, with real world events happening at Trinity College, Bristol, and six hybrid workshops (online as well as face-to-face) workshops occurring over the weekend.

There are some amazing flash fiction writers teaching over the weekend, including Kathy Fish, Nancy Stohlman, Vanessa Gebbie, Eltra Rhodes, K.M. Elkes and Susmita Bhattacharya.

I’m delighted to be leading a workshop on ‘Foraging for Inspiration’ at 8.45am on Sunday 10th July. Expect random word prompts and other stimuli to get your imagination whirring!

One of the questions I’m asked most is where I get ideas from. The truth is that inspiration can come from anywhere, if you’re open and ready to gather the ideas as they come.

As someone who is, in all honesty, easily bored, I’m constantly on the lookout for entertaining distractions that can convert into story fuel, from overheard conversations to momentarily misunderstood glimpses (the weirder the better), to objects that could be important to a character in a tale.

I publish weekly writing prompts on my SkyLightRain blog,and collect small found objects and images that lead to piece of narrative prose. In this workshop you will be provided with a variety of writing prompts and investigate ways you can combine different sources with your own unique experiences to build up an original story.

Suitable for beginners and up. I intend to take participants on a short stroll of the grounds to forage for inspiration, returning to the workshop room for half an hour or so for the writing exercises.

I’ll also be reading my story ‘How to Hook a Heart’ from the Freedom-themed National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2022 on the Friday evening. Find the full festival programme here.

I hope to see you there!

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Time to rev up for the I AM Writing Festival

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Red ladybird on a red rosebud. Photo by Judy DarleyFormerly known as the Writers’ Weekend, (and before that Winchester Writers’ Festival), the I AM Writing Festival is a hybrid literary event with 65+ talks and workshops, some online and some in-person at the University of Winchester.

Aimed at budding writers keen to improve writing and editing skills, find inspiration, pitch to an agent or better understand the world of publishing, there are nine package prices available ranging from £37 for a single workshop to £597 for an Access All Areas pass.

The 11 live virtual talks take place 4th-8th June, with access to recordings available until midnight on 8th July 2022.

The in-person chapter of the festival is at the University of Winchester from 10th-12th June.

Speakers, workshop leaders and industry experts you can expect to encounter include:.

Keynote speakers: Philip Ardagh, Joanna Cannon, Lucy Diamond, Juliet Mushens and Adele Parks;

Workshop leaders: Rhoda Baxter, Helen Dennis, Karen Hamilton, Debbie Howells, Lauren James, David Litchfield, L.V Matthews, Nicola May, Jenny McLachlan, James Nicol, Neema Shah, Amy Sparkes, Bookouture, HarperCollins, Tracy Corderoy, Adrienne Dines, Simon Hall, Scott Pack and many, more.

Don’t miss the famous Agent121s!

The festival’s new organisers Elane and Sarah exclaim (presumably in unison):”Of course, we couldn’t have a festival without bringing #Agent121 to the fore – so we have a multitude of in-person literary agents/editors for you to seek feedback from and 20 to choose from online!”

Find full details here.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

An evening of flash fiction

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Rose chafer by Judy DarleyI’m excited to be sharing some of my tiniest tales at Flash Fiction, an event on Tuesday 3rd December.

Hosted by author and Flash Fiction Festival queen Jude Higgins, the event at Bishopston Library in Bristol features KM Elkes, Alison Woodhouse, John Wheway and me.

You can find out more and buy tickets (a bargain at just £3 each!) here.

Jude has invited me to read a handful of fairytales, so I plan to open with Invertebrates, my follow-up to the Hansel and Gretel story, from my short story collection Sky Light Rain. It focuses on an unusual dinner party where the guests include an assortment of creepy crawlies, hence the picture at the top of this post.

As far as I’m aware, no beetles will be in attendance at Bishopston Library…