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Room 204: End of 2017 Good News

We recently put a call out to our Room 204 cohort, asking them to offer up some good news they have received over the past couple of months. They’re a ferociously modest bunch, but – after a bit of nudging – we were completely taken aback by their recent successes. They’ve got boxes of prize wins. They’ve got shelves of new work. They’ve got shortlists, longlists and nominations coming out of their ears. 

 

Louise Palfreyman is launching the Black Country Arts Foundry at Wolverhampton Literature Festival this January. Her story ‘Clever-Clever’ is also due to appear in the first Flash Fiction anthology.

William Gallagher’s script ‘Vows’ made it into the top 100 of the C21 drama contest. He also recently wrote and acted in a short play called ‘In Time’ for the Cucumber writers. The Room 204 Buddying Programme – which William set up – has currently got the highest number of participants ever.

Stephanie Hutton received two nominations for the Pushcart Prize; was shortlisted for the Artificium short story competition; won the flash fiction category of the Hysteria competition; and was one of the winners of the Twisted50 short story competition, so will be in their anthology.

Liam Brown was shortlisted for the Brighton Short Story Prize and has just sold the foreign rights to his novel Broadcast to Eksmo, Russia’s biggest publishing house.

Liz Kershaw was shortlisted in the Historical Writer’s Association short story competition.

Jane Roberts’ ‘Waterloo Sunset’ was in ‘Flash: The International Short-Story Magazine Vol 10.1‘. Her story ‘Breathless’ is also still available in Unthology 9.

Louise Stokes in the last couple of months has delivered a drama and writing sessions in a men’s medium secure psychiatric unit, an adult theatre project around wellbeing stories with participants who had never written, sung or performed before. She also showcased her show about PTSD and is just finishing up a writing and visual arts project with young carers.

Carol Caffrey Witherow’s ‘happenings’ was shortlisted for the Rush Harbour Poetry and Bray Literary Festival competitions. It was also longlisted for the Dorset Fiction Award. She has had poems accepted by The Ogham Stone and Dos Gatos Press. She heads to Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery to perform ‘Music For Dogs’, by Paula Meehan, on January 12th 13th and then is at WOLF (Wolverhampton Literary Festival) on January 27th

Anna Selby’s dance-poetry piece ‘Beneath Our Feet’ is touring from 2017 – 2018 in caves and underground spaces. There is also a six-month installation of one of her poems at the national centre for the written word. She was also a Magma ‘featured poet’.

Tina NotTurner was shortlisted for the Bold Types Creative Writing Competition. As a result her story at the Glasgow Women’s Library. The Human Values Foundation has also commissioned her to write five diverse and inclusive short stories for KS2.

Rich Stokes is co-writing show ‘Dadman’ with the Notnow Collective, which is going on tour next year. He is also the musical director.

Naomi Paul is touring her cabaret show ‘Truth and Truffles’ alongside Cat Weatherill through rural venues via Live and Local.

Nadia Kingsley is completing an ACE funded project called ‘DIVERSIFLY / Urban Birds’, a series of 6 podcasts followed by an anthology of new poetry and art. It’s out in January. She has recently published Matthew Oates new book, which has been listed in the Guardian’s best nature books of 2017. She has also run a poetry and nature tent for the Shropshire Wildlife Trust and a poetry afternoon at Mid-Wales Arts Centre.

Jacqui Rowe’s first full collection Blink came out from V Press in October. The Co-founder of Flarestack Poets is also reviving the Roy Fisher Prize with Keele University.

Emma Purshouse won the Making Waves spoken word competition, which was judged by Luke Wright.

Gulara Vincent is offering one of her workshops at the Wolverhampton Literature Festival.