Happy retirement, Alice Munro!

I know that many admirers – like me – of Canadian short story writer Alice Munro were saddened to know that the talented author has announced her retirement from writing. I love Ms Munro’s stories, always based in the same Canadian regions and following the lives of every day men and women. Although the stories…

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Call for submissions at Writers Abroad

Writers, sharpen your pencils. The submission period is open for the Writers Abroad annual anthology. Each year, the writers group Writers Abroad publishes an anthology, organized around a particular theme. This year’s theme is Far Flung and Foreign. They seek submissions of short stories (up to 1700 words), flash fiction (up to 500 words), non-fiction (up to 1000…

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Launch of Foreign Encounters e-book

I already announced the launch of the Foreign Encounters anthology, where I was pleased to have one of my stories – Missed Connections – included.  This week, the e-book version of the anthology was launched – on Valentine’s Day. I’ve enjoyed reading the contributions, both stories and essays, that are set all over the world,…

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My story, Bitter Harvest, won a UK writing contest

Back in November, I wrote a post about National Short Story Week. In that post, I included links to markets for short stories and contests. I also decided to enter one of the contests myself. I’m a real sucker for writing prompts and this one intrigued me. The UK region of Hartlepool decided to sponsor…

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The Next Big Thing

Last week Catherine MacNamara invited me to take part in The Next Big Thing. She is a novelist and short story writer. Her novel A Divorced Lady’s Guide to Living in Italy was released last April and her short story collection, Pelt and Other Stories, is scheduled for release in 2013. In addition to being…

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It’s National Short Story Week!

For all you short story writers out there – and for all those who’ve “always meant to write one” – here’s your chance: 12-18 November marks National Short Story Week! I’ve always loved reading short stories, but I’ve only recently started writing them myself. To be honest, I was always a bit intimidated by the…

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Foreign Encounters: A New Anthology from Writers Abroad

The Online writing group Writers Abroad are proud to announce the publication on Wednesday 24th October of their new anthology, entitled Foreign Encounters. An encounter can be a chance meeting, a planned get-together or even a confrontation. This collection of stories, non-fiction articles and poems features a variety of foreign encounters: with family, friends, lovers,…

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