On December 21, 2010, a multi-organisational collaboration will be making a toast, live and online, to fiction’s short form. Newly-commissioned stories, workshops, readings and other events are already in the works for Newcastle, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Oxford, London and online at Lancashire Writing Hub, and the celebration will be extended to as many places as possible throughout the UK.

With a newly-launched website, www.nationalshortstoryday.co.uk, featuring an eclectic and wide-ranging selection of short stories chosen by some of your favourite writers – including text and audio links to over 50 classic short stories – a full listing of events, and with contributions from literary luminaries such as Brian Aldiss, David Constantine, Ian Rankin, David Vann, Tracy Chevalier, Caryl Phillips, Bernardine Evaristo, Aminatta Forna, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Nicola Barker, National Short Story Day is quickly becoming the best way to celebrate your winter solstice and fiction’s short form.

Naomi Alderman, shortlisted for 2009's National Short Story Award, says: 'What a great idea! The short story is the most astonishing form: more supple than the novel, because of its length it's possible to be more experimental, to do away, sometimes with plot or character or logic. Instead of having to fill in details, to explain itself, to come to a conclusion, a short story can simply throw a thought at the reader, hurl a moment. It's gemlike. There are no perfect novels, but there are perfect stories, I think.'

For updates, please join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter – @shortstoryday – and visit our website,www.nationalshortstoryday.co.uk.

More info on:
www.nationalshortstoryday.co.uk

For the Leeds event

PRESS:
For more information, or to set up an interview or coverage on the day, contact National Short Story Day Coordinator, Daneet Steffens on info@nationalshortstoryday.co.uk or 07800 963 295.

ORGANISERS:
National Short Story Day is organised by a group of independent publishers and writers including Comma Press, Iron Press, Flambard, Cadaverine and Route, coordinated by Literature Northwest, with support from Arts Council England, Creative Scotland and Academi.