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Monthly archive - October 2024

Commonwealth Prize Short Story Competition 2025

Information

Closing date: 
2 November 2024
Entry: 
Eligibility: open to writers over 18 who are Commonwealth citizens. No entry fee. Entries accepted in a number of languages and in translation into English
Prize: 
Prize for overall winner £5,000, 5 regional winners £2,500

Writer and filmmaker Vilsoni Hereniko from Rotuma, Fiji will chair the panel of judges for the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, which has opened for entries.  Read more

Stonehenge - one of the greatest mysteries of all time

21 October 2024

‘Stonehenge is one of the world's most iconic and recognizable monuments but, in reality, so little is known about it. How was it built? Why was it built? Who built it?  Read more

'Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly - they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced.'

— Aldous Huxley

Ask the editor 14: ... And endings

Mon, 21/10/2024 - 6:09pm
... And endings

‘Always leave them wanting more'; that little show-business adage has a lot to answer for. It colours our expectations, as an audience, of how a movie or a comedy act should finish; and it influences our expectations, as readers and writers, of books. I think the adage is true for precisely half of the books you read or write; for the other half it indicates a failure on the author's part.  Read more

7 October 2024 - What's new

October 2024
  • ‘One person writing in a quiet room, trying to connect with another person, reading in another quiet-or maybe not so quiet-room. Stories can entertain, sometimes teach or argue a point. But for me the essential thing is that they communicate feelings. That they appeal to what we share as human beings across our borders and divides.
  Read more