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Short Story Course starts in Liverpool, Feb 2020
Starting in early February, I will be leading another of the popular Comma Press short story courses, in Liverpool once more - yes! Over six months, we will be investigating and working with the structures and elements that make great short fiction - looking at form, theme, process, and more. We will read, we will talk, and - most importantly - we will write. We meet at the Bluecoat once a month for six months, and by the end of it you will have written and edited a number of short stories, with the chance to publish one of them as part of the Comma Press ebook series. As well as looking at formal and structural elements of short fiction, this year - inspired by a panel discussion I was part of for National Creative Writing Industry Day - we will also be exploring the role of doubt as a creative tool. Oh yes. I've worked with writers of all experience levels and this course is open to all: from those new to creative writing as a whole to experienced writers new to the form, or looking to sharpen their skill. There is no minimum or maximum experience level required, only the desire to dive in and take part. I have absolutely loved leading these courses in the past, and watching truly excellent stories emerge over our time together. There are a couple of reduced price places available for single parents and writers who receive means-tested or disability benefits. Please contact Louis.PA@thebluecoat.org.uk for more information about these tickets. Click here to find out more about what and where and when, and to sign up! |
listenI spoke with Chris Neilan for the excellent Two Minute Stories podcast and it got quite unexpectedly close to... not the bone but the core, the gut, the gristle. The heart. We talk short fiction and time distortion, aid agencies and war and the ways in which work writes itself on our bodies, the way stories can reach the unspeakable.
Have a listen to some Seán Hewitt magic, and then work your way back through the season. aboutI'm a British-Canadian writer and artist. I've performed at many festivals and live events across the UK and beyond, solo and in collaboration with other writers, musicians and visual/digital artists. I have most recently written for the Comma Press anthology Protest! Stories of Resistance, looking at working class suffragettes and forced feeding. My stories have featured on BBC Radio 4, in Short Fiction Journal, and on the literary mapping app LitNav, with poetry appearing in numerous anthologies. My ongoing work on disability aesthetics was featured at Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters 2019. My short story collection, Jebel Marra (Comma Press, 2015), was nominated for a number of national and international awards, and I am now working on my second collection, an audio and digital short story map of Hayling Island. See below for more on that.
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hayling island - stories at sea level
a digital audio map of short stories
I'm currently writing a new collection of short stories to be published as a digital audio map. Working in collaboration with composer and sound designer Caro C, digital artist (among many other things) Maya Chowdhry, and literary geographer Dr David Cooper, we are drawing on memory, experience, and geography to create a map of fictional stories set on Hayling, a small island off the south coast of England, in Hampshire. Exploring economic shift, climate change, and the ways we map our lives, the stories will focus largely on those who live at the water's edge: the skint, the canny, the ill, the queer - the people who face the wind and build lives on hope, grit and shingle. I was born on Hayling, and was two when my parents left, so part of this collection is informed by that experience of carrying borrowed memories, mapping stories of the arcades, bingos, cafes and clubs my family ran in the 70s, just as the arrival of package holidays was starting to take its toll.
This project is made possible by the generous support of Arts Council England and New Writing North, and we work in collaboration with Comma Press and their wonderful wordy jukebox, MacGuffin. Check out the press page if you want the whys and the whatnots.
I'm currently writing a new collection of short stories to be published as a digital audio map. Working in collaboration with composer and sound designer Caro C, digital artist (among many other things) Maya Chowdhry, and literary geographer Dr David Cooper, we are drawing on memory, experience, and geography to create a map of fictional stories set on Hayling, a small island off the south coast of England, in Hampshire. Exploring economic shift, climate change, and the ways we map our lives, the stories will focus largely on those who live at the water's edge: the skint, the canny, the ill, the queer - the people who face the wind and build lives on hope, grit and shingle. I was born on Hayling, and was two when my parents left, so part of this collection is informed by that experience of carrying borrowed memories, mapping stories of the arcades, bingos, cafes and clubs my family ran in the 70s, just as the arrival of package holidays was starting to take its toll.
This project is made possible by the generous support of Arts Council England and New Writing North, and we work in collaboration with Comma Press and their wonderful wordy jukebox, MacGuffin. Check out the press page if you want the whys and the whatnots.
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