Tag: Jackie Morris

Living a Little

"I often think of Larkin’s poem, Afternoons, and the young mothers and how ‘something is pushing them/to the side of their own lives’. This feeling informs Living a Little. That and my memories of growing up on a Birmingham Council Estate and the sense of having escaped a ‘life less lived’ when I left home." (Jackie Morris)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

October 2023: Living a Little by Jackie Morris

‘Seems like only yesterday me and your Daddy were coming over on the ferry. Love’s young dream. You should have seen your Daddy then,’ Mam exhaled her cigarette. Smoke drifted over the children’s heads. ‘Your Nana had him down to be a priest, but I couldn’t have him going to waste like that.’

Jackie Morris

Jackie Morris’s stories are online at Brilliant Flash Fiction, Free Flash Fiction, Micro Fiction Monday, Retreat West the National Flash Fiction Day 2022 anthology and the National Flash Fiction Flashflood 23. She came third in the Willesden Herald Short Story Prize, 2022. She can be found on Twitter @JackieMMorris and on Bluesky @jackiemmorris.bsky.social.

Willesden Results and Awards Event on YouTube (slideshow/audio)

A happy and peaceful Christmas, Hanukkah and general winter wingding to all who love short stories. This is our gift to you! Willesden Herald Short Story Competition 2022 Results and Book Launch.

Short clips for those in a hurry? Step right this way…

One minute: intro to Jarred and cheer for the Willesden Writers’ Group
One minute: the verdict: first prize goes to…

Want to play the whole one and a half hours and have done with it [because it’s so entertaining – Ed.]?

Willesden Herald in association with Liars’ League presents
THE WILLESDEN SHORT STORY PRIZE 2022

With Special Guest
CLAIRE LACEY

Introduced by
KATY DARBY – www.katydarby.com

In association with Liars’ League – www.liarsleague.com

Slideshow and complete recording of the event, with story excerpts, results and prizegiving

“Who will take the coveted one-off Willesden Herald inscribed The Willesden Short Story Prize 2022? All will be revealed on the night. Plus ten cash prizes to the writers of the stories in New Short Stories 12. From The Performance Space, upstairs in The Library at Willesden Green.”

Buy! Buy! [Bye Bye! ed] New Short Stories 12

Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 12

Contents

“I can just say read these wonderful wonderful stories. They were an absolute pleasure to read and I hope you too will enjoy these writers as much as I did.”

Jarred McGinnis

Available from (latest info)

isbn: 979-8-9859089-1-6

Contributors

David Butler’s most recent short story collection is Fugitive (Arlen House, 2021). His novel City of Dis (New Island) was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, 2015.

Helen Harjak was born in Estonia, studied literature and philosophy in Scotland, and now lives in London, where she works as a freelance journalist and copy-editor. Her fiction has been published in Okay Donkey, Visual Verse, Fudoki Magazine, and Small Good Things, an anthology by Dahlia Books.

Catherine McNamara grew up in Sydney, ran away to Paris to write and ended up in West Africa co-running a bar. Love Stories for Hectic People won Best Short Story Collection in the Saboteur Awards 2021. The Cartography of Others was finalist in the People’s Book Prize. Catherine lives in Italy and her stories have been published widely.

Andy Mead is a retired teacher who was brought up in Jamaica in the 1960’s and still retains strong links with that island he still regards as home. He has an MA in creative writing from the University of Chichester and is now a private tutor, writer and storyteller.

Jackie Morris is a recent graduate of The Open University’s MA in Creative Writing (2021). She writes short form and flash fiction and spends far too much time on Twitter. Her husband has no interest in chickens.

Peter Newall was born in Sydney, Australia, where he worked variously in a naval dockyard, as a musician and as a lawyer, but has since lived in Kyoto, Japan, and now in Odessa, Ukraine, where he sings for a popular local r’n’b group, the Newall Band. He has been published in England, Hong Kong, Australia and the USA.

Diana Powell’s stories have featured in a number of competitions, including the 2020 SoA ALCS Tom-Gallon Award (runner-up) and the 2019 ChipLit Prize (winner) and most recently the Bristol Short Story Prize 2022 (winner). They have also been published in several anthologies and journals, such as ‘Best (British) Short Stories 2020’. Her novella, ‘Esther Bligh’, was published in 2018 by Holland House Books. Her collection, ‘Trouble Crossing the Bridge’ came out in 2020. Her novella, ‘The Sisters of Cynvael’, won the 2021 Cinnamon Press Literature Award, and will be published next year.

Anju Sharma grew up in Uttar Pradesh, India, majored in history from Delhi University, worked as a copy-writer, taught copywriting, then went back to being a student – this time of literature – purely through the act of intense reading. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Maine Review, The Margins, The Forge and Nelle. She is shortlisted for Bridport Short Story Prize 2022 and longlisted for Desperate Literature Short Fiction prize 2022. She is presently working on a novel.

Lui Sit writes in multiple genres including adult short fiction, memoir and children’s middle grade books. She is an alumnus of several writers’ development schemes including A Brief Pause, London Writers Award and Penguin WriteNow. Her stories are published in journals and anthologies including MAINSTREAM, Superlative, Short Good Things, Fudoki, City of Stories and Out of The Box. Update: Writing for children, Lui Sit has just won the Faber FAB Prize 2022 for text with “The Legend of Linger Island” (Puffin).

Zakia Uddin is a short story writer whose previous work has been published by The White Review, The Stinging Fly and Granta. Winner of the Willesden Herald short story prize 2022. She lives in London.

Jarred McGinnis was chosen by the Guardian as one of the UK’s ten best emerging writers. His debut novel ‘The Coward’ was selected for BBC 2’s Between the Covers, BBC Radio 2’s Book Club and listed for the Barbellion Prize. The French edition won the First Novel Prize and was selected for the prestigious Femina prize. He is the winner of the 2023 Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award. His short fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4 and appeared in respected journals in the UK, Canada, USA and Ireland. JarredMcGinnis.com

Photo by Sarah McGinnis

Announcement: Results of the Willesden Short Story Prize 2022

The Willesden Short Story Prize 2022 was revealed at Willesden Library this evening. First prize went to “Hotline” by Zakia Uddin (left). 

Runners-up were “Vevey” by Catherine McNamara and “Cuckquean” by Jackie Morris. 

Thanks to Claire Lacey and Katy Darby for bringing the stories to life and making the event go with a zing. 

Thanks to Jarred McGinnis for judging and to the writers of all ten shortlisted stories, as every one is a prize-winner in this short story competition. (Ed.)