Where better to hold a literary festival than in Waterstones' flagship store on London's Piccadilly? Award-winning writers nestled in amongst the endless shelves of books and a sea of book-loving streaming in through the doors every hour. Solid effort from Spread the Word teaming up with Waterstones for the first ever London Short Story Festival.
With the sun blazing outside, though, some anxious cynicism seeped into my brain - was the lineup, fantastic as it is, likely to win against the blue skies and 25 degrees outside? Thanks to Spread the Word and the festival's Guest Director, writer and blogger, Paul McVeigh, lined up such a fantastic series of talks and workshops across the weekend that the turnout was not something we needed to be concerned about.
The festival kicked off on Friday evening with the launch of Salt Publishing's Best of British Short Stories 2014 followed by an evening with the winner of the Guardian's Fiction Prize, the impressive Jackie Kay who had the audience in the palm of her hand as she read, discussed and answered questions on her work.
With the sun blazing outside, though, some anxious cynicism seeped into my brain - was the lineup, fantastic as it is, likely to win against the blue skies and 25 degrees outside? Thanks to Spread the Word and the festival's Guest Director, writer and blogger, Paul McVeigh, lined up such a fantastic series of talks and workshops across the weekend that the turnout was not something we needed to be concerned about.
The festival kicked off on Friday evening with the launch of Salt Publishing's Best of British Short Stories 2014 followed by an evening with the winner of the Guardian's Fiction Prize, the impressive Jackie Kay who had the audience in the palm of her hand as she read, discussed and answered questions on her work.
Amidst the science-fiction novels and Manga on Waterstones' first floor was the festival's main space, which played host to an eclectic range of talks all weekend. The first of which got everything off to a weird and wonderful start with "The Weird and Wonderful World of Short Stories" with readings from Adam Marek, Dan Powell and Robert Shearman. Marek's first line made sure there wasn't any hanging around in the 'weird and wonderful' department: "I met a man with a 40 litre monkey..."
You can see just what went on by looking at the Festival Programme online HERE, which featured writer and journalist Anita Sethi, writer and editor Jacob Ross, writers Colin Barrett, Stuart Evers, MJ Hyland, Alex Preston, Radio4's Di Spears, Booker-shortlisted Alison Moore, the list goes on...
A big draw for the writers in the audience was the range of workshops on offer over the weekend, hosted by huge talents such as MJ Hyland, Vanessa Gebbie and Claire Keegan, whose book Foster was, from my experience, the talk of the festival!
Meanwhile, downstairs Spread the Word had set up a series of hands-on sessions in the Writers' Space.
If you didn't have tickets, you needn't have left the store's main atrium to have listened to some stunning examples of short stories at Speaker's Corner. I was very lucky in being able to introduce Davy Byrnes-shortlisted Irish writer, Danielle McLaughlin, Crossword Book Award Winner and author of Boat on Land, Janie Pariat, Edge Hill-shortlisted writer Jaki McCarrick and journalist and writer, Anita Sethi. All of which were fantastically evocative and entertaining. And I mustn't forget the powerful English Pen session which saw Femi Martin read some extraordinary extracts from creative writing written by prisoners - quite amazing.
I feel there is so much more to say as it was such a fun-packed event. Fingers crossed for round two next year so you can all come along for yourselves!
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