Two of our writers – Stephen Connolly and Graham Bruce Fletcher – have stories in the new Stroud Short Stories Anthology due to be launched on Friday 28 September between 7.00 and 10.00pm at the Ale House in John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA.

The Anthology, which covers the last six, twice-yearly Stroud Short Story events, has 57 stories by 45 Gloucestershire authors. It runs to 254 pages and costs £10. The evening is free and unticketed.

More information, including how to reserve a copy and a full list of all 45 authors in the Anthology, is here.

Do tune into Corinium Radio on Thursday October 4th to hear a play inspired by Gloucestershire martyr William Tyndale.

‘Death in Flanders ‘ is written by chair of Somewhere Else Writers Frank McMahon and was inspired by a stop at the Tyndale Monument near Wootton-Under-Edge.

“Suddenly I remembered Melvyn Bragg’s TV documentary and a wonderful play by David Edgar, Written on the Heart, which has some very powerful scenes involving Tyndale. I decided that I must find out more and discovered a very detailed and moving biography by Professor Daniell.

“It revealed not just a story of the turbulence of the Reformation, religious intolerance, his exile and courage. It showed  both his prodigious scholarship and the way he used  the English language to make his translation of the Bible accessible and memorable. His work has had a profound  influence on our language. No Tyndale, no Shakespeare.”

Tyndale’s translation of the Bible into English fed the desire of ordinary people to improve their lives through reading and self-education. It is also argued that it fed the pressure for democracy and public discourse.

Tyndale was executed by strangulation and then burnt at the stake in 1536.

‘Death in Flanders’ will be broadcast at 6pm. If you miss the broadcast it will be available on Corinium Radio’s ‘Listen Again’  feature and in the ‘Broadcasts’ section of this website.

How to sprint to the heart of a story was the theme of a flash fiction workshop led by American creative writing tutor Lisa Lutwyche for Somewhere Else Writers.

Poet, author, artist, playwright, and actor, Lisa has been published in anthologies and literary magazines across the US and in the UK, including Mad Poets Review, Falklands War Poetry, Minerva Rising, the cancer poetry project 2, In the Questions – Poetry By and About Strong Women, Fiction Vortex, and Riddled with Arrows. Her full-length poetry collection, A Difficult Animal, was published in 2016 by Saddle Road Press. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2000 and in 2015 for poetry, and has a short story nominated for inclusion in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 anthology.

Over a lively, two hour session Lisa discussed principles of writing including Aristotle’s principles of the dramatic arc.

Exposition & Inciting Incident
Rising Action
Climax/Turning Point
Falling Action
Resolution

The session also included practical exercises which left the group buzzing with ideas.

Lisa is currently an adjunct Professor of English at Cecil College in Maryland, at Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania, and at Delaware Technical Community College in Wilmington, Delaware.

Somewhere Else chair Frank McMahon has just had a story, ‘Grace Notes’ accepted for publication by Scribble Magazine, Stow-in-the Wold.

He sat down slowly and deliberately on the wicker chair beside the bed. A wisp of vapour floated from the cup of blackcurrant tea which sat untouched on the bedside table. Silence seemed to gather from the corners of the room and hover above the counterpane.

A breath of wind stirred the curtains. A thin shaft of light illuminated the brown corduroy pattern of his trousers. He breathed out slowly.

His sister Flora had briefed him before he had arrived and made him repeat it after he had unpacked.

“This is the most important part, Marcus. If you don’t get it exactly right Mother will keep reminding you about it for the rest of the day. So, ready?”…

He has also had two poems accepted for publication. The first, ‘Shoes’ will feature in Persona Non Grata and ‘Universal Credit’ in Fly on the Wall.

Somewhere Else Writers are delighted to welcome Frank McMahon as their new chairman. Frank, who attributes membership of the group for a surge his own creativity, paid tribute to retiring chair Sophie Livingston for her work over the last three years. Sophie said: “I am thrilled that Frank has agreed to take on the role. The group has changed enormously over the six years since it was  founded and grown hugely more ambitious. I am really looking forward to seeing what happens next.”

Iris Anne Lewis was among the poets presenting their poetry films at the charity premiere ‘Adventures in Poetry Film’ in Chippenham on 2nd August. Her film ‘Matryoshka’ was made as a member of the Poetry Film Collective, a group of poets who were invited to participate in an Arts Council funded initiative led by Chaucer Cameron and Helen Dewbery of Elephant’s Footprint.

This event was the start of the Collective’s mini-tour of the South West, with further shows planned for Bristol, Shepton Mallet and Swindon.