We have been given a grant through London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Allia Impact which we hope will enable us to do something we’ve wanted to do for a long time – create an anthology of our writers’ work. We’ve also committed to running more writers’ salons and some more fiction workshops like the ones we ran in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and the Daisy Green cafe in Holland Park to help emerging writers find their voice.

If you’d like to support our fledgling CIC in any way, or have some ideas for how we can support emerging writers, please get in touch using the form below this post! You can donate to us, but you can also advertise on our show. We’d love to promote your bookshop, for example. And writers, please keep sending us your stories. We have some exciting plans for the future!

Story Radio CIC is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Allia Impact.

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Please make a note in your diaries for our next live short story reading, on the 9th June, which is based on the theme of ‘The Library’. We will be looking at the power and magic of words, and how others seek to limit and control them. Writers who are reading their work include Lindsay Gillespie, Simon Roberts, Declan Geraghty, Martin Nathan and Tabitha Potts.

We will also be running a series of flash fiction workshops in June, July and August in the beautiful surroundings of the Holland Park Cafe run by Daisy Green, which is generously hosting us (and providing free teas and coffees). The workshops are £30 a head with five subsidised free places for concessions – you can buy tickets here.

Do listen to some of our latest podcasts – we had some wonderful short stories on the theme of love from some of our writers which you can listen to here. The regular literary salon has become a cornerstone of our podcast and we are so grateful to all the writers who have submitted stories for it. It’s a fun, informal event in the inspiring surroundings of the Colony Room Green, who are hosting us every two months.

We’ve also got some exciting podcasts coming. On June 1st, you will be able to hear a podcast about our visit to Secrets of the Thames, an exhibition about mudlarking that is currently on the London Museum Docklands. Mudlarking is subject that has always fascinated us and inspired writers and works of art over the years.

And soon we will have an interview with Allie Esiri, British writer, poetry curator and actor, about her recent book Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year, which we watched and recorded in the beautiful surroundings of the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. You’ll be able to hear some extracts from her Shakespeare anthology performed by an amazing cast of actors, including Damian Lewis, Tony Robinson, Olivia Williams, James Phoon, Indira Varma, Hugh Ross, Kate Fleetwood, Danny Sapani, Samantha Spiro and Susan Wokoma. Stay tuned for more!

The post Flash fiction workshops, library themed readings and Shakespearean delights in store appeared first on Story Radio Podcast.

Please explore the concept of the library in your short story (2000 words or less is ideal for us, we will also consider shorter flash fiction pieces or short extracts from longer works-in-progress that are relevant to the theme) and we will record your reading live on the 9th of June. You don’t necessarily have to have books in your library, your library does not have to be set in this world or period of history, but we do want some exploration of what a library can be. You have to be able to come to London to read your work live to be part of the Salon. However, if we like your story, we will consider it separately for the podcast if you are not able to read it live.

The post Submissions call for June 9th Salon – our theme is The Library appeared first on Story Radio Podcast.

We will be listening to the work of Lindsay Gillespie, Kristin Burniston, Martin Nathan, Lana Citron, Miki Lentin and Tabitha Potts (and recording live for our podcast).

Get your free tickets here!

Lindsay Gillespie was born in South Wales, and lives in the South Downs. In between she has been a graphic designer and illustrator, lived in New Delhi, Washington DC, France and taught English in Tokyo. In 2018-2019, she was enrolled in the Creative Writing Programme of New Writing South. She writes short and not-so-short stories and was a Costa 2021 Short Story Award finalist. A year later, she was a finalist for the Bridport Short Story Prize. Other short stories have been shortlisted in nine competitions in recent years including Fiction Factory, Exeter, Oxford Flash Fiction, Fiction Factory Flash, Rhys Davies, Frome, ChipLit, Edinburgh and Fish.

Kristin Burniston is a graduate of the MA Screenwriting program at the University of Arts London. In 2023, her short film scripts TREE and HAIRY MARY were selected by the City of Angels Film Festival, WOFFF (where HAIRY MARY placed 2nd), and Best-Script, London.

Recently, Kristin‘s script EGGS was made into a short film and will soon be released on to the festival circuit. Currently, Kristin is working on a London-based children’s animation, a crime fiction TV series, and a feature film script based on her menopausal rite-of-passage novel.

Martin Nathan‘s short fiction and poetry have appeared in various journals. His novel A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing. His dramatic writing has been shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award and the Woodward International Prize. Martin will be reading from a new short story.

Miki Lentin completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck and was a finalist for the 2020 Irish Novel Fair with Winter Sun. His short stories have been published in Litro and Story Radio. He released his short story collection Inner Core in 2022, and his debut novel Winter Sun was published by Afsana Press.

Lana Citron is a prize-winning author and scriptwriter with twenty years’ professional writing experience. She has published five novels, two non-fiction books and numerous short stories, plays, poems, film scripts, articles and book. Extracts read today are from her book Edible Pleasures, a Textbook of Aphrodisiacs.

Founder and co-host of the Story Radio Podcast, Tabitha Potts is a short story writer and novelist. She received an Honourable Mention in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize for her story ‘Poppet’ and is publishing her debut novel The House of Dust and Shadows in 2026 with Rowan Prose Publishing.

Listen to our previous Salon here on the podcast.

Come along and be inspired by listening to authors reading their short stories. There will be books for sale, so there will be opportunities to get an author-signed copy and to discuss their work.

The post Join us for a Valentine’s Day Writers’ Salon on the 10th February! appeared first on Story Radio Podcast.

Lana Citron is a prize-winning author and scriptwriter with twenty years’ professional writing experience. She has published five novels, two non-fiction books and numerous short stories, plays, poems, film scripts, articles and book reviews. You can read more about her work at www.lanacitron.com.

Lindsay Gillespie, from South Wales, now resides in the South Downs. She has lived in New Delhi, Washington DC, France, and Tokyo, where she taught English. A Costa 2021 Short Story Award finalist, she was also a finalist for the 2022 Bridport Short Story Prize, with stories shortlisted in Fiction Factory, Exeter, and Oxford Flash Fiction. Find her on Twitter @LindsGillesp14.

Dr Stuart Gillespie has four decades of experience in nutrition and development since his first position as nutrition coordinator in a rural development project in southern India in the early 80s. His book Food Fight tells the tale of how the food system we once relied upon for global nutrition has warped into the very thing making us sick. It will be published by Canongate in 2025.  

Sue Hubbard is a poet, novelist and freelance art critic. You can learn more about her on her website www.suehubbard.com. Her two most recent works are Flatlands by Sue Hubbard | 9781911590743 | Pushkin Press, Mercure de France in The Sunday Times list of best historical fiction 2023 and Rainsongs – Duckworth Books, Overlook Press US, Mercure de France and Yilin Press, China.

Martin Nathan’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in various journals. His novel A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing. His dramatic writing has been shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award and the Woodward International Prize.

Tabitha Potts is a short story writer and novelist, recognised with an Honourable Mention in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize and third place in the Olga Sinclair Prize. Her debut novel will be published by Rowan Prose Publishing in 2026.

The Colony Room Green is a brilliantly detailed and evocative recreation of the legendary drinking club in Soho by Darren Coffield, who has written a book about its long and louche history. You will find some wonderful art, cartoons and memorabilia on the walls and drinks at 1990s prices. Just one thing – remember that using mobile phones is frowned on.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1531983984349431/

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The Colony Room Green is a brilliantly detailed and evocative recreation of the legendary drinking club in Soho by Darren, who has written a book about its long and louche history. You will find some wonderful art, cartoons and memorabilia on the walls and drinks at 1990s prices. Just one thing – remember that using mobile phones is frowned on.

View event on Facebook

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Prizewinners – The Plaza Prizes

The post Dirty Chicken and Rice by Simon Roberts comes second in Plaza Prizes Short Story competition 2024 appeared first on Story Radio Podcast.

The Slaves of Solitude takes place in 1943. It involves an ill-assorted group of lodgers eking out a wartime existence in a boarding house a few miles outside London. They are joined by two pleasure-seeking GIs and a brash vamp called Vicki Kugelmann. Their arrival has disturbing consequences for Miss Enid Roach, a shy but dignified woman on the verge of middle-age. Hamilton’s dark comedy cleverly interlinks the vastness of devastating world events with the pared-back lives of random strangers forced into close proximity. The blackout battle is on!

For further information and tickets please follow the link below.

The Slaves of Solitude (questors.org.uk)

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For those curious to sample her work, here’s the link: A Book of Short Stories by Tabitha Potts.

The post Tabitha Potts’ debut story collection available in audio format appeared first on Story Radio Podcast.

The post Tabitha Potts received an Honourable Mention in Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize appeared first on Story Radio Podcast.