News from Room 204
News from Room 204:
Room 204 writer Lerah has a short story forthcoming in Fly On The Wall Press’ Modern Gothic anthology coming out in October 2024. “Embark on a chilling journey through nightmarish tales that will captivate the ghoulish modern reader.” The pre-order is active on their website here. Not only that, but Lerah has also signed with an agent!
Annabel Brightling has written episode one of the new drama series SeaView. The show will be out on 29th February on Amazon prime Video. You can find out more about the show here.
Whale Fall by Room 204 writer Elizabeth O’Connor will be published 25th April 2024. ‘It is 1938 and for Manod, a young woman living on a remote island off the coast of Wales, the world looks ready to end just as she is trying to imagine a future for herself’. Elizabeth O’Connor’s beautiful, devastating debut Whale Fall tells a story of longing and betrayal set against the backdrop of a world on the edge of great tumult.
Tim Franks’ debut novel Days of Long Shadows is out now. With intriguing speculative elements, Tim has crafted a unique and unputdownable tale, exploring class resentment and scrutinising state power through the lens of a regional crime novel. You can purchase Tim’s novel here.
Naneh V Hovhannisyan has written an essay titled Sketches from the Edges. The essay has been published by the online magazine, Writers Mosaic. You can read Naneh’s essay here.
Writing Support and Resources
As part of their tenth anniversary celebrations, Speaking Volumes published an anthology, Not Quite Right for Us, which featured forty authors from the UK and around the world, from Poet Laureates to upcoming voices. Many of those authors have shared their advice on writing in short films, which are available as a free resource on the Speaking Volumes website.
Competitions and opportunities
Poets and Room 204-ers Jane Commane and Gregory Leadbetter are running a Residential Writing Week on Advanced Poetry. They will introduce you to a whole host of favourite new poems, as well as encourage you to share your own discoveries. And, of course, you will make poems as well as read them. The course runs from Monday March 18th – Saturday March 23rd 2024. Prices are £985 for a single room, and £689.50 for concessions. Click here for more details.
The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) and BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University (YWA) are open for submissions. The deadline for NSSA is 9am Monday 18th March 2024. The deadline for YWA is 9am Monday 25th March 2024.
Warwickshire Libraries is seeking proposals for a creative practitioner/ organisation to co-create content for our Hidden Stories programme, driven by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities in response to Heritage and Culture Warwickshire Collections. Proposals are encouraged from creative practitioners who have lived experience/ identify as being part of GRT communities. Deadline to apply is 25th March Midday. You can find the commission pack link here.
Submissions for the Creative Future Writers Awards 2024 are now open! This is the UK’s only national award for all underrepresented writers. This year’s theme is ‘Reveal’. The competition is open for poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. The deadline to enter is Sunday 19 May 2024. Find out more, including how to enter, here
The 2024 Wasafiri Writing Prizes are now open! The prizes are open to writers from around the world, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. For the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, submit by 1 July, 2024. For the Wasafiri Essay Prize, enter by 31 May, 2024. To find out more about the entry requirements of both prizes, click here.
Multi-award winning author Wyl Menmuir is hosting ‘Writing Seas & Trees‘, a writing retreat in Cornwall. Tailored for writers at all stages, this retreat is inspired by the contradictions and consolations of the woodland and the sea. Through collaborative exercises Wyl will help you to craft your own stories inspired by these beautiful settings, whether you want to write short stories, a novel, or works of nonfiction. The retreat takes place September 9th-13th. Find out more including information on free grant places here.