Yes, poems are very short stories, y’know. Really. (Stephen)
If you like the book, tell your friends. If you don’t like it, tell your enemies.
Day of the Flying Leaves (Selected Poems, Amazon KDP, 2021)
We're back to sharing favourite stories. How could anyone not love a story that contains the line "I was a cactus."(?) And don't tell me it's not December, months last for years now! Ed.
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
December 2020: Christmas Present by Lynsey Rose
“I wrote this a few years ago, when we were asked to write a story with the theme of Christmas for my writing group. Of course, Christmas is a crappy theme so you have to go the full ‘Carrie’ with it. Happy Christmas!“
Lynsey Rose is the author of the novel First Aid Kit Girl, described as “girl meets razorblade meets boy…”
Good news, you can now read N. Jane Kalu’s affecting story To Have a Ghost Baby in Isele Magazine. Originally featured in our own New Short Stories 11, it’s lovely to see it attaining a wider readership.
I dedicate the last of our 2020 lockdown series, and our last ever publication, to all those who have lost their lives and those bereaved in the Covid-19 pandemic. Follow the guidelines and stay well till all this is over. See you on the other side. (Ed.)
The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month
September 2020: As Long as it Takes by Susan Haigh
“For Mireille, grief seems like an impossible dream.”
Sue Haigh is a writer and Creative Writing tutor. She lives in North East Fife when she isn’t living in her cave house in France. Her work has been published in a number of journals and anthologies, including Northwords Now, New Writing Dundee, Mslexia, The Scottish Arts Trust anthology, Cadenza, Sunpenny Anthology, Dundee University Review of the Arts, The Short review and a number of academic journals.
As Long as it Takes was originally published in the Scottish Arts Trust Story Awards anthology (Scottish Arts Trust, 2019)
For the fourth in our summer lockdown series, a story of desperation. What could be more appropriate? And you know that light at the end of the tunnel? It's an oncoming train. Yes, it's being so cheerful that keeps us going. Ed.
The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month
August 2020: Unless He Is Born Again by David Butler
“April. A figure is loitering in the vicinity of the bus station of a provincial town. He’s not the only stranger in the bus yard. There are strangers with almost every arrival and departure. There’s nothing about this man to suggest he’s a foreigner. But all the same, something in his aspect attracts suspicious looks.”
David Butler’s third novel, City of Dis (New Island), was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, 2015. His second short story collection, Fugitive, is forthcoming from Arlen House.
Unless He Is Born Again was originally published in ‘No Greater Love’ by David Butler (Ward Wood, 2013)
“Some of our great writers – from Elizabeth Strout to Mark Haddon – nominate what their favourite short story is, and tell us, in this intimate series, why they love it so much. You can watch the series here, with new choices every week”
Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award website
Announcement: We’ve added this index of all the contributors to the Willesden Herald short story book series and Story of the Month.
Counting. Over the past sixteen years, Willesden Herald has published 139 short stories by 113 writers from Bosnia, Canada, China, England, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, USA and Wales.
(May 4) The story in this week’s issue, “The Resident Poet,” is a previously unpublished piece by Katherine Dunn, who died in 2016 and was the author of, among other things, the best-selling 1989 novel “Geek Love,” which follows a family of self-described “freaks” who operate and perform for a travelling circus.
Deborah Treisman
I’d read “Geek Love” three times…
Naomi Huffman
A previously unpublished story by the late Katherine Dunn. It’s a road trip, starts in a car park in the night rain, we go places, the resident poet is excoriated, sordid things happen, ends back in the night car park with a reflection in glass. What’s not to like? (Ed.)
