Celebrate the short story at November’s Word Soup with a truly FABULOUS line-up of North West authors published by NIGHTJAR PRESS.

Stephen Gallagher, Claire Massey, Aiden Jack Clarkson, Richard Hirst, Alison Moore, Nicholas Royle, Sarah Jasmon, and Graeme Shimmin.

Stephen Gallagher, born in Salford and now living in Blackburn, is the author of more than a dozen novels and short story collections, has written widely for TV in Britain and the US, including Doctor Who, Bugs, Chimera, Chiller, and Murder Rooms. He is the creator of Eleventh Hour and was the lead writer on Crusoe.

Claire Massey based in Chorley, has published short stories, poems and articles in various magazines and anthologies. She is co-editor of Paraxis an online short story magazine and founding editor of New Fairy Tales. She has two stories forthcoming from Nightjar Press in spring 2012.

Richard Hirst, a Prestonian living in Manchester, won second prize worth £2500 in the Manchester Fiction Prize 2011 with his story ‘School Report’.

Alison Moore, born in Manchester and living in Leicestershire, is the author of numerous short stories. Her story, ‘When the Door Closed, It Was Dark’ was published as a Nightjar Press chapbook.

Nicholas Royle, born and once again living in Manchester, is the author of six novels and around 150 short stories. He has edited fifteen anthologies and is the editor and publisher of Nightjar Press.

Sarah Jasmon, born in Wiltshire, now lives on a boat on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. She has published a chapbook and has a short story online at Paraxis.

Graeme Shimmin, born in Manchester and still resident there, is close to completing an MA in creative writing at MMU.

Aiden Jack Clarkson, Preston writer now studying at Keele, makes a welcome return to his home town.

And supporting this amazing line-up will be Magic Mark, and of course our usual OPEN MIC slot for your 4 minutes of fame. Don’t miss this extraordinary night of literary talent!

UPDATE:-  Conrad Williams will not be attending now, but  Aiden Jack Clarkson will.

Thursday 24th November at The Continental, South Meadow Lane, Preston PR1 8JP

8pm start – £3 on the door – priceless entertainment!

A Cauldron of Soup: Word Soup Special celebrating Halloween with a heady brew of literary talent from the North West.

Headlining at Cauldron Soup on Thursday 27^th October we have the extraordinarily talented JO BELL – poet, performer, project manager, and producer.

Jo has been Director of National Poetry Day in the UK since 2006, and co-programmed the Ledbury Poetry Festival – the UK’s largest! – this year, and the Lancashire Writing Hub are thrilled to have Jo at Word Soup!

Jo Bell has been a poet in residence for Glastonbury Festival and for the Royal Derby Hospital, has been involved in numerous collaborative projects and live poetry events, produces and performs poetry shows such as Fourpenny Circus, nominated for the Ted Hughes Award in 2010. She is a former Cheshire Poet Laureate and her play First Person about the explorer Gertrude Bell was performed at Chester Literature Festival. She was the co-creator with David Calcutt of the hugely popular eavesdropping/ writing project Bugged and is poetry editor at the online journal, Word Gumbo

Joining Jo Bell in Word Soup’s Cauldron are the fabulous poetic talents of  Emma Decent, Mark Charlesworth, Martin Domleo, Michael Neary, and Trev Meaney, and the equally fabulous prose talents of Carys Bray and Richard Want

The final ingredients of this heady brew are Open Mic slots for YOUR 4 minutes of fame and a sprinkling of Magic from Magic Mark Fell.

A Cauldron of Soup – Thursday 27^th October 2011 – 8pm start – £3 entry – priceless entertainment.

Nicholas Royle has published two new  limited edition chapbooks in his
acclaimed Nightjar Press series.

They are 'Remains' by GA Pickin and 'Sullom Hill' by Christopher
Kenworthy.  Each chapbook is signed by the author. They are available
through the Nightjar Press website. 

‘Remains’ is described by Lisa Tuttle as ‘a wonderfully evocative and shivery new tale’ ; while Stephen Gallagher found that ‘Sullom Hill’ ‘resonates with an epic sense of latent magic’.

The covers are by Julie Jones http://www.juliejonesart.co.uk

We are delighted to announce that Nicholas Royle and a selection of Nightjar authors will be at the Word Soup Short Story Nightjar Special on Thursday 24^th November