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Podcasts from the BBC National Short Story Award are now online
Posted Friday December 4th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaIt's been quite a week for the short story. Not only have they been broadcasting the short stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award every day on BBC Radio 4 this week at 3.30pm, but story on the shortlist is being read by a stellar line up of the finest acting talent: Miriam Margolyes, Penelope Wilton, Hannah Gordon, Jason Isaacs and Julia McKenzie.
Podcasts of each of the stories is now available from the BBC Radio 4 website but do hurry as they will only be available to download for free for two weeks.
The winner of the Award will be announced on Monday on BBC Radio 4's Front Row. If you want to know more about each of the shortlisted authors, visit our Story website
Which one has been your favourite story? Want to know ours? Well, you'll have to tune into Front Row on Monday to find out!
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Young People's Writing Workshop facilitated by Spoken Word Artist Adisa
Posted Friday December 4th 2009
by Raymond AntrobusSince my two weeks as one of the Free Word Poets in Residence I have managed to sneak in as a poet squatter and reside anyway. Yay!
This week I was called in by Booktrust to document and participate in a young writers workshop facilitated by Spoken Word heavy weight Adisa.
The number of attendants was small, but energy and productivity levels were flying as Adisa led the group through a series of exercises designed to enhance the self awareness of young writers.
‘Why do you write?’ he asked these types of questions like they weighed nothing but he knows it’s a challenging question to answer. I myself could have gone into my own Orwellian essay but I was busy admiring Adisa’s minimal style of leadership, he doesn’t give anything anyway, the role he takes as a workshop facilitator is well thought through as he doesn’t like to be too precise, there’s always another outlook to anything and he seems open to all, his air is extremely positive.
As a final exercise we were split into two groups and asked to create a campaign using poetry. We created slogans and used poetry as a medium we could capitalize on. For…
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Watch some animated trailers for the BBC National Short Story Award 2009 shortlist
Posted Monday November 30th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaAs you know, we have now announced the shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award 2009
The shortlist was announced on BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme on Friday 27 November and to coincide with the announcement, we collaborated with Radio 4 to create some video trails for each story, read on Radio 4 every day this week between 3.30pm and 4.00pm.
You can find the video trails here alongside a blog from judge Di Speirs about the stories.
You can also download each short story as a podcast as soon as it has been broadcast from the Radio 4 site.
Monday's story was 'Other People's Gods' by Naomi Alderman.
Naomi Alderman's first novel, Disobedience was released in 2006 and won the Orange Award for New Writers. It was broadcast as a Book at Bedtime on BBC Radio 4.
In 2007 Naomi was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, and one of Waterstones' 25 Writers for the Future. Naomi also writes online computer games, including writing for Penguin's award-winning We Tell Stories project. She has written commissioned short stories for BBC Radio 4. Penguin will publish her new novel, The Lessons, in… -
An interview with Richard Herring
Posted Monday November 23rd 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaComedian Richard Herring, famed for... how long have you got? (Fist of Fun, This Morning with Richard Not Judy, Talking Cock, Hitler Moustache), is a funny man, referred to by many as the 'comedian's comedian.' Keeper of a hilarious daily diary of funny incidents (Warming Up), curator of the finest free podcasts iTunes has to offer (sketch-based As It Occurs to Me and talk-based Collings and Herrin) and writer of some of the finest stand-up in the country, he has written a new book, out next year called How Not to Grow Up mostly about turning forty and wondering whether it's time to grow up.
Having just announced our top ten funny books and announced the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, we thought it'd be apt to talk to a well-respected comedian such as Richard about writing his new book and the funniest things he's read.
>You have just finished writing a new memoir for next year, How Not to Grow Up. Tell us about it.
I’ve been writing a blog for 7 years and I was looking to do something with that and about turning forty and about giving up drinking and Ebury suggested…
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Why I love… Margaret Atwood
Posted Monday November 23rd 2009
by Anna McKerrowAnna thinks of love and curls her thoughts around it, trying to mesh her bluish logical mind into her pinkly emotional one without too much suturing or rainbow striping. She wonders idly, do I really love Atwood that much? Why? Is it her style, with its frequent use of reported speech, interior monologue, single person narration and word play? She wonders, how would Margaret explain her own phenomenon? She has no answer to that. She wonders. She wanders. She knows she has witnessed wonders.
Is it the deft examination of character psyche in Margaret Atwood’s many novels and short story collections that leave me breathless and, like the Victorian Constant Reader, always wanting more? Is it her humour? Her examination of the dark, spiked motivations that nestle in the backs of all our brains? Her depictions of nature, growing up, girlhood and womanhood, or cautionary tales for the future? There’s too much to like, but too much, as they say, is never enough.
My first Atwood book was, perhaps like many readers, The Handmaid’s Tale, which I studied at A Level. I remember liking it, but perhaps because of having to study it, I didn’t leech right on to the…
