“That’s how we salvage the past, locating the small stories and passing them carefully into the future,” a grieving mother confides in “Stopping Distance.” At the same time, she continues, “The story of my loss isn’t something I want to pass on. The only thing I can pass on is the silence.”
From LA Times’ review of Two Nurses Smoking: Stories by David Means
David Means was the judge for Willesden Herald New Short Stories 7 (2013).
August 29, Monday. Good morning! The total number of short stories in the inbox as of this morning stands at 279. [Ed.]
Photo: The picture shows this year’s one-off prize mug inscribed “The Willesden Short Story Prize 2022” standing in an array of books.
Your forebears could hunt an epiphany through the great forest of Um without breaking a twig and spear it with words sharpened on the soles of their feet. Arise, put on your leotards and send in your short stories, ye of this century…(Enough, thank you. Get to the music. Ed.)
One-Off Mug inscribed
The Willesden
Short Story Prize 2022
Closing Date: August 31
As seen in Orbis – Kudos Featured Competitions
THE INTERNATIONAL WILLESDEN HERALD SHORT STORY COMPETITION
www.willesdenherald.com
A guest story to cool the air this summer. Sean Brijbasi has kindly lent us this far out story as a reprint from his unknowed book of the same name. Sean is one of the unknowed people behind the Willesden short story competition. Please do not write in to tell us that unknowed is not a word! (Ed.)
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
July 2022: The Unknowed Things by Sean Brijbasi
… To my surprise, I received a response, stating that a vice admiral couldn’t be blamed for the consequences of my ingratitude. Such a knowing people, I thought. It was true. Lily had given me everything even when I didn’t ask, appearing with unexpected gifts even when I deserved nothing. She told me the most beautiful stories that I, in turn, told to others as if they were my own …
Sean Adrian Brijbasi lives in America.
Sometimes he writes.
“You get the feeling that NO ONE CAN SEE THE WORLD I LIVE IN by Sean Brijbasi is the kind of book inspired by people who will most likely never read it.” –Rail Drinks Magazine (?)
We’re delighted to announce that novelist and short story writer Jarred McGinnis has agreed to judge the Willesden Herald Short Story Competition 2022. An American abroad, his debut novel The Coward (Canongate, 2021) was a BBC2 national television “Between the Covers” recommendation. It is also about to be published in the US and in France, Italy and Spain later this year. He has many strings to his bow, including short fiction for BBC Radio 4 and much more besides, which you can read all about on his website. He is no stranger to our competition, having had a short story in New Short Stories 4. (Submit)
We’re back with a competition for inclusion in Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 12. Open to international entries. Closing date will be August 31, 2022. Entry fee £5. There are ten prizes, as follows:
Judge: Jarred McGinnis (updated 20 Feb. 2022)
Please visit our submittable.com page for full details and to Submit.
Photo: One-off Willesden Herald mug inscribed “Willesden Short Story Prize 20xx”
Greetings to our friends in Ukraine and also in Russia. Here's a wish that your differences may be settled by diplomacy and not more war. I have to say something constructive when I'm about to share with you a short story in which a young woman asks, "Have the Russians won everything yet?" Ed.
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
February 2022: Triple Axel by Yelena Furman
“In the Soviet Union, with its ritual of daily obstacles and anti-Semitism, the U.S. had seemed a haven, a far-away hope of her life’s opposite. She was young when the exodus of Jewish refugees, as they were officially called, started in the 1970s, mostly to North America and Israel. Suddenly, everyone knew someone, or was someone, who was leaving. Her mother’s coworker. Her father’s cousin. The girl who sat behind her in school.”
Yelena Furman lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches Russian literature. Her fiction has previously appeared in Narrative.
“Maclaverty is the author of five previous collections of stories and five novels, including Grace Notes, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Midwinter Break, shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Born in Ireland, he now lives in Glasgow, Scotland.” (LitHub)
New Short Stories 