Posts

Posted on

Biannual Scratch A4 Writing Competition

The Biannual Scratch A4 writing competition has just opened! It’s a superb competition celebrating stories 1000 words long or less – culminating in the Scratch A4 event in Soho on Saturday 6th December.

The prestigious judges are: Harriet Armstrong – author of To Rest Our Minds and Bodies; Steven Evans – Literary Agent at The Eve White Literary Agency; Tom Conaghan – Publisher at Scratch Books

Details of the competition – with our previous finalist stories – are here: https://www.scratch-books.co.uk/scratcha4competition [scratch-books.co.uk]

Posted on

Podcast: A Small Good Thing

A series of interviews from Andrea Marzocchi at the University of Surrey. Andrea discusses the short story form with academics, writers, publishers, and anyone who shares a passion for short stories. Previous episodes have included Michael Collins, Tom Conaghan,  Michael Basseler and short story author Heuijung Hur.  In the latest conversation he talks to Andrew Levy, author of  The Culture and Commerce of the American Short Story, a foundational text for short story scholars.

Find all episodes here 

Posted on

Survey for PhD research!

Please help Zohreh Baghban, a member of ENSFR. As part of her creative writing PhD research, she is conducting a survey on animals and food. The responses will contribute to her flash fiction collection.
The survey takes around 15 minutes to complete. It would be great if you could submit your response by June 30, 2025. Thank you!
Posted on

Short Fiction in Theory & Practice 15.1 & 2 out now.

This double issue of Short Fiction in Theory and Practice is the second of two issues on the theme of Landscape and Temporality, guest edited by Paul Knowles, Ana Garcia Soriano and Madeleine Sinclair. It features articles drawn from the ENSFR conference held in Manchester, covering authors including Karen Russell, Andres Barba, Daphne du Maurier, Andre Gide and  Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay as well as creative-critical contributions by Ines G. Labarta, Jennifer Cavanagh and A.J. Ashworth. Paul March-Russell’s ‘Anthropocene feminism and the Weird temporalities of landscape’ focuses on work by Zoe Gilbert, Sarah Hall, Daisy Johnson and Lucy Wood. Plus ‘”Guerilla academics”: An interview with Ailsa Cox, Michelle Ryan and Elke D’hoker, founders of the European Network for Short Fiction Research’ by Laura Gallon and the latest book reviews.

 

Posted on

Save the Dates! (10-12 June 2026) 8th Annual ENSFR Conference: University of Artois

Dear all,

We are excited to announce a Save The Date for the 8th Annual ENSFR Conference. The conference will be held at the University of Artois (Northern France) on the 10-12th of June 2026. The title of the conference is: ‘In Different Shapes: the short story and its modes of circulation in magazines and newspapers’.

Keep your eyes peeled for more information and the CFP coming soon.