If you are asked about literary characters, pigs are unlikely to be among your first thoughts but they take centre stage in the latest broadcast from Somewhere Else Writers this Sunday ( June 24th). With his tongue firmly in his cheek, Richard Lutwyche presents a range of poetry and prose in which our porker friend is very much the hero – from children’s nursery rhymes through to Shakespeare.

The programme is broadcast on Corinium Radio at 4.30pm and will be repeated at the same time for the following three Sundays. If you miss it, it is also available in the ‘Broadcasts’ section of our website along with many of our previous programmes. Do listen and enjoy.

‘The Red Dress,’ a short story by Sophie Livingston, is in this month’s  (July) Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special.

It’s a realistic story about a magic dress that makes you look fantastic until midnight – at which point you say what you really think about people.

Sophie said: “It happens to me quite a lot and when it does I always blame the dress.”

Two of Stephen Connolly’s short monologues are being performed as part of Gloucester Scriptorium’s ‘The Gloucester Citizen’ event on Thursday 31st May at 19:30.

The monologues are based around characters inspired by life in the city of Gloucester and the event is happening in the Fountain Inn, Gloucester. Entry is free, but any donations (to fund the Scriptorium’s next project) would be more than welcome.

Stephen Connolly’s radio play ‘Sky Pilots’, joint winner of the BBC Solent Radio Playwright Competition, was  broadcast on BBC Solent on Friday 18th May 2018.

The play can be found on BBC iPlayer here, at around the 3:05:30.

Congratulations to Jim Moeller whose story ‘The Hired Hand’ has just been shortlisted for the Evesham Festival of Words short story competition. The winner, out of 10 finalists, will be announced on Friday June 29^th and all the stories will appear in the festival anthology.

The festival runs until Sunday 1^st July, more information is available here.

Somewhere Else writer, Iris Anne Lewis, is looking forward to seeing two of her pieces — ‘Octet’, a short abstract performance poem and ‘Song for Abererch’, a prose poem for eleven voices — published in ‘Domestic Cherry 6’.

Retreat West’s Climate Fiction anthology ‘Nothing Is As It Was‘ was officially released on Sunday 22nd April.

The book contains Stephen Connolly’s short piece ‘The Window Box‘ (an extract from a novel-in-progress) and is available from Amazon in both eBook and paperback formats.

Proceeds raised from the book sales will be donated to support the work of the climate action group, Earth Day Network.

Stephen Connolly’s radio play ‘Sky Pilots’ was recorded on 12th April before a live audience at Thornden Hall near Southampton.

The three winning plays in the BBC Solent Search for new Radio Playwrights competition – Ben White’s ‘The Family Way’, Gillian Palmer/Georgina Pitts’ ‘Searching’ and Stephen Connolly’s ‘Sky Pilots’ will all be broadcast by BBC Solent in May.

More details on Stephen’s blog.