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Confingo Publishing is launching The Crib and Other Stories, by Albertine Sarrazin, translated from the French by Sonya Moor.

Confingo Publishing is launching The Crib and Other Stories, by Albertine Sarrazin, translated from the French by Sonya Moor.

These short stories, which appear in English for the first time, were composed for the most part in prison, before Sarrazin’s novels were published to international acclaim in 1965. Here, Sarrazin turns her singular eye on the prison environment, charting the cruelties, small kindnesses, constraints and paradoxical freedoms of daily life in prison. By turns astute, tender and wryly humorous, Sarrazin presents a panorama ranging from the dangers
of ‘favours’ and clandestine letters, to the delights of illicit coffee and self-imposed creative limits. Sarrazin’s stories swoop the quotidian into the epic, as officers, inmates, and alter egos play out, in the small world of the prison, their comédie humaine. Against this backdrop emerges Sarrazin’s own personal battle: to be, and express, herself.

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Scratch A4 Summer 25 Competition!

 

Submissions are now open to the Scratch A4 Summer ’25

1000 word short story competition!

Come and explore the rich and exhilarating possibilities of the short, short story – the six shortlisted writers reading their stories in the biannual event in Soho, London in June.

 

This year’s judges are:

Denise Rose Hansen, editorial director at Penguin Books.

Liv Bignold, literary agent at C&W literary agency.

Tom Conaghan, publisher of Scratch Books.

 

Submissions close on 26th April.

More information on submissions here.

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Call for Contributions: Short Fiction in Theory & Practice Special issue: ‘Uniquely Canadian Cultural Narratives’, guest edited by Zsuzsanna Lénárt-Muszka (University of Debrecen)

Short Fiction in Theory & Practice ISSN 2043-0701 | online ISSN 2043-071X 2 issues per volume | First published 2011

Special issue: ‘Uniquely Canadian Cultural Narratives’, guest edited by Zsuzsanna Lénárt-Muszka (University of Debrecen)

In 1972, seventeen-year-old Heather Scott submitted a memorable entry – ‘As Canadian as possible under the circumstances’ – to radio host Peter Gzowski’s contest seeking the perfect Canadian aphorism. But even before this iconic phrase, the question of what it means to be Canadian had been debated for generations. From garrison mentality and biculturalism to multiculturalism, Canada has frequently relied on such notions to define its identity, while simultaneously attempting to erase First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities and downplaying the contributions of various other minority groups. Today, amid increasing global migration, calls for reconciliation, bids to recognize and celebrate diverse communities, and official measures such as Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy (2024 2028), the question of what – if anything – constitutes ‘Canadianness’ is still open.

The international, peer-reviewed journal, Short Fiction in Theory and Practice (Intellect Books) is inviting original submissions for a special issue to be published in 2026 that seeks to explore how short fiction reflects on historical and contemporary notions of ‘Canadianness’. We invite proposals for scholarly papers.

 

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CFP: Placing Katherine Mansfield

Placing Katherine Mansfield
University of Birmingham
1–3 July 2025

Keynote speakers:
Lauren Elkin (‘Mansfield Walking the City’) and Andrew Harrison (‘Mansfield in the Midlands’)
With a special performance from musician Stepha Schweiger

Katherine Mansfield once wrote ‘How hard it is to escape from places […] — you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences — little rags and shreds of your very life’. Mansfield’s journeys ‘From the other side of the world / From a little island cradled in the giant sea bosom’ indelibly shaped the form and content of her writing, and the places that she visited and in which she settled throughout Europe exerted a lasting influence on her.
The 2025 conference of the Katherine Mansfield Society will re-examine the importance of place in Mansfield’s writings, while also asking: how do we ‘place’ Mansfield today? How do we situate her work in current critical conversations and against new scholarly debates?
Proposals are invited from researchers at all career stages for individual 20-minute presentations.
Suggested topics might include (but are not limited to):
• KM’s association with specific places (Wellington, London, Fontainebleau, etc.
• KM, the city, and metropolitan urban experience
• KM, the countryside, nature, and non-human worlds
• KM, locality, and regional identity
• KM, the Midlands, and D. H. Lawrence
• KM, borders, and boundary-crossing
• KM, houses, and belonging
• KM and suburbia
• KM, travel, and impermanent/temporary residences (hotels, guesthouses, etc.)
• KM and contemporary literary theory and criticism

Abstracts of no more than 250 words, together with a 50-word biographical sketch, should be sent to kms@katherinemansfieldsociety.org before 1 February 2025.
All members of the Katherine Mansfield Society will be eligible to pay a reduced conference fee, with significantly reduced rates available to postgraduate members. To become a member of the society, please visit https://katherinemansfieldsociety.org/join-the-kms/

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Edge Hill Prize Shortlist Announced

The shortlisted titles for the Edge Hill Prize 2024  for a published collection from Britain and Ireland are as follows:

  • Forgetting is How we Survive by David Frankel (Salt)
  • After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape)
  • Encounters with Everyday Madness by Charlie Hill (Roman Books)
  • Monstrous Longing by Abi Hynes (Dahlia Publishing)
  • Parables, Fables, Nightmares by Malachi McIntosh (The Emma Press)
  • Walter Benjamin Stares at the Sea by CD Rose (Melville House Publishing)

A new £1,000 Debut Collection Award will also be presented to one of the shortlisted authors to celebrate the best new voices in short story writing, and a £500 prize will be awarded for the best entry from an Edge Hill University postgraduate creative writing student.

The winner will be announced in February 2025 at an award ceremony in London.  More details of judges and news about the prize are on its website.