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The Northern Short Story Festival Academy 2021

The Northern Short Story Festival Academy has announced that applications to its Academy are now open until 30th September!

Over the last 3 years, the Academy has supported and developed 18 short story writers living in Yorkshire and is now on the search for its next intake. Are you a short story writer who wants to take your writing to the next level? Then the Academy could be for you!

The Northern Short Story Festival Academy is a development programme aimed at helping short story writers in Yorkshire take their writing to the next level.

Academy intake 2020/2021 (L to R) LMA Bauman-Milner, Monica Dickson, Hannah Walton-Hughes, Glenis Burgess, Rob Schofield and S.K. Perry.

The scheme promotes writing excellence. Participants will join a monthly workshop critique group led by writer Anna Chilvers where they will read and critique each other’s stories.

Academician Rob Schofield said: “I have learned so much from the monthly Northern Short Story Festival Academy sessions and enjoyed working closely with my fellow writers. I am sure that my writing and confidence have improved as a result of my time as an Academy member and I would encourage other emerging writers to apply for the next Academy as soon as the opportunity to do so arises.”

It is free to apply, you must be aged 18 or over and resident in the Yorkshire region with some demonstrable evidence of your short story writing.

Full details about how to apply can be found here: http://bigbookend.co.uk/nssf/northern-short-story-academy-short-story-writers/short-story-writers-2021-academy-applications/

Fiona Gell, Director of the Leeds Big Bookend and Northern Short Festival said: " It’s wonderful to be able to open our Academy to a further 6 Yorkshire based short story writers. There is so much writing talent in the Region and if we can help some of these writers develop their critical and professional skills and become better writers then the Academy will have succeeded. We have supported 18 writers through the process so far and we are on the hunt for our next intake! It’s a very exciting time and we cannot wait to meet them.

We are very grateful to Arts@Leeds and Leeds City Council, and The Walter Swan Trust for their continued support. Without them, the Academy scheme would not exist.”

Academician Sarah Perry said: “Being part of the Academy has been amazing, gifting me focussed time to grow my short fiction skills and body of work, and incisive feedback from a community of brilliant short story writers. I’m excited to continue working with our cohort to develop our craft and practices further, and build on the supportive relationships the Academy fostered between us. I’m so grateful such a thing exists and that I was able to be a part of it.”

Niccola Swan, Chair of Trustees at The Walter Swan Trust said: “The Walter Swan Trust was set up to support new creative writers. The work of the Northern Short Story Festival and especially the Academy is exactly the sort of scheme we want to support. This is our fourth collaboration and we are very excited about it. Good luck to all the applicants.”

The Northern Short Story Festival Academy is part of The Leeds Big Bookend and Northern Short Story Festival, and is supported by Arts@Leeds and Leeds City Council, and The Walter Swan Trust.