The 15th International Conference on the Short Story in English will take place from June 27-30, 2018 at the University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal with the theme: “Beyond History: The Radiance of the Short Story.”

I’ll be reading on Wednesday 27 June at 3.30pm alongside Maria Teresa Horta and Angelo Lacuesta.

Some writer friends going to… Hisham Bustani, Robert Olen Butler, Rebekah Clarkson, Evelyn Conlon, Lucy Durneen, Nancy Freund, Sandra Jensen, Alison Lock, Alan McMonagle, Mary Morrissy, Billy O’Callaghan, Nuala O’Connor, Judith Nika Pfeifer, Anna Solding, Billie Travalini, Jose Varghese and William Wall.

“In an age when private lives appear to be ruled by the force of historical events, we are contradictorily challenged by creative achievements that, even if originating in History, develop a self-sustainable energy, a radiance, so to say, that supersedes material circumstances and/or envisages alternatives for them.

The 15th International Conference on the Short Story in English brings writers of many nationalities to Lisbon, a city where the cultures of the world meet and stories of history unravel around every corner. In this scenario, fiction writers in English, or authors who have been translated into English, together with scholars of the short story, will join in reading sessions, roundtable discussions and panels, as well as in the more traditional paper presentation sessions.

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Society for the Study of the Short Story, the Conference looks forward to the opportunity of highlighting the variety of ways in which the Short Story becomes a specific form, blurs the boundaries with other literary forms, goes beyond the written medium and borrows from other artistic processes/languages, shaping itself anew in an endless process. Indeed, proving to be an extremely resilient medium, the Short Story has been changing throughout the times and aesthetic tendencies, without losing the kernel that makes it a distinctive mode of the human expressive genius.”

You can check out my online short story course with Writers Victoria here.

Hope to see some of you there.

Huge thanks to Culture Ireland for supporting this trip.

At my ripe old age I’m not often surprised but I wasn’t expecting this Russian cover for The Good Son. Mickey Donnelly-Bieber in YA/Comic style.

What do you think of it?

The shortlist for this year’s prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Prize, worth £10,000, has been announced and I’ve to start my judge’s duties!

“Five collections have made the shortlist from the longlist of 15 for the only UK-based award that recognises excellence in a single author short story collection.

Bad Dreams by Tess Hadley (Jonathan Cape) is a collection of gripping and unsettling stories where the real things that happen to people turn out to be as mysterious as their dreams.

Madame Zero by Sarah Hall (Faber) is a collection rich in the mythic symbolism of wilderness and wasteland.

All the Beloved Ghosts by Alison MacLeod (Bloomsbury) is an acutely observed collection of stories which hover on the border of life and death.

Basket of Deplorables by Tom Rachman (Riverrun Books) is a series of witty, cutting, and addictive tales of Trump times.

Come Let Us Sing Anyway (Peepal Tree Press) by Leone Ross is a varied and witty collection whose frankness may sometimes tickle but always engages the intellect as well as the heart.

Prize organiser Billy Cowan, senior lecturer in Creative Writing, said: “Choosing the winner may prove more difficult for the judges, and I don’t envy them.”

This year’s judges are Professor Alisa Cox (Professor of Short Fiction, Edge Hill University), Paul McVeigh (Co-Founder of London Short Story Festival and Associate Director of The Word Factory), Daisy Johnson (Winner of the 2017 Edge Hill Short Story Prize) and Alice O’Keeffe (Critic for The Guardian, The Observer, The New Statesman, and Literary Programmer for the Brighton Festival).”

Time up on this post…

To celebrate National Flash Fiction Day I am posting my flash ‘My Aunt Maggie’ here -until tomorrow only!

This piece was first published thanks to author Nuala Ní Chonchúir/O’Connor who chose it for print while guest editor of one of my favourite literary magazines, Ireland’s The Stinging Fly. It’s only available now behind their paywall.

Look out for the beautiful Northern Irish magazine Freckle later this year which is printing an unpublished flash I found in a clear out – it was where I got the end for The Good Son.

My Aunt Maggie

My Aunt Maggie’s house smells. Her breath does too. Her biscuits are always soggy and they’re never chocolate. That’s cuz she’s poor. She’s poorer than Colm Mulvenna in my class at school who only ever has sugar sandwiches for lunch every day…..

*My Aunt Maggie is also published in National Flash Fiction Day Anthology A Box of Stars Beneath the Bed.