The Bristol Prize and Rattle Tales Best

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Alice Cunninghame, Brighton Digital Festival, Bristol, Charleston, ghost stories, Green Man, Halloween, Katherine Doggrell, Lonny Pop, MR James, performing, Rattle Tales, reading, Small WOnder, spoken word, Tania Hershman, The Bristol Prize, The Creative Writing Coach, What The Dicken's Magazine

My resolution about blogging once a month hasn’t quite worked out. I just don’t seem to have the time and as a result I’ve got lots to tell. October was a pretty good month this year, of course I had a few rejection emails and failed to list in a couple of comps, but this is usual for me and mostly I don’t let it get to me. I did get a rejection from a big name journal that bothered me slightly but this was because I submitted to them nearly two years ago. What’s the point, seriously, after two years? I’d forgotten I’d even submitted so the rejection was a real ‘you think we’d be interested in you?’ slap in the face on a Monday morning. Submission managers – if it’s been over eighteen months, don’t bother with the reply.

One story I am very proud of was over-looked and rejected by almost everyone I sent it to. The thing is I knew it was worth something because the two times I read it to an audience complete strangers came up to me and told me how good it was. It is a bit of a hybrid though, not quite literary fiction and not quite science fiction, so I can see how it might not appeal. I entered it into The Bristol Prize at the last minute when I read that they didn’t dismiss genre fiction and lo, I heard it had been short-listed in July!

The prize giving was held at the Arnolfini in Bristol on Oct 19^th. My Rattle Tales buddy Katherine Doggrell came with me and sixteen of the twenty short-listed authors were in attendance. It was a great evening and it was lovely to meet everyone. It reminded me of how supportive writers are of their fellow scribes. Gathered in the gorgeous gallery space with free flowing wine we all chatted about our stories and how to pull our Oscar face when the winner was announced. First prize went to Paul McMichael with The House On St John’s Avenue, and well-deserved it is too, the story is funny, moving and a little bit out there. After the event we all headed off for pizza and more chat in a local tavern. The Bristol Prize is brilliantly run by Joe Melia who realises that it is the writers and the stories that are important but other prizes take note, there was much talk in the room about how badly some prizes are run, the very least that is required is an email telling us that the long-list is up, I think we all know which ones we’re talking about here. I will post a review of the anthology when I have read all the stories.

Another high-light of the evening was finally getting to meet Tania Hershman. Tania is the editor of The Short Review and an award winning short story writer. When Starlings was released and couldn’t get a review for love nor money The Short Review stepped up and not only reviewed it but gave it the best review ever given to anything anywhere. In times of artistic crisis I read this review (written by author AJ Kirby) because it makes me realise that I can do this thing after all. I got to thank Tania personally and I hope our paths cross again.

The other big event of October was the Autumn Rattle Tales show. We’d had a busy Summer what with Green Man and Brighton Digital Festivals and helping our very own Lonny Pop host The Small Wonder Slam at Charleston in September, and we almost forgot about our regular show so it was a bit of a rush to organise. In the end it turned out to be one of our best. To see why go to our brand new website (brilliantly refurbed by Alice Cuninghame) and read a review, there are many other brilliant features on site including a rather good guide to submitting which will help with submitting stories anywhere, not just to us. The show took place just before Halloween and I got to read the only real ghost story I have ever written, Footprints, which was written for What The Dicken’s Magazine. When I set about writing this story I wanted it to be traditional rather than graphic to rely on atmosphere rather than shocks. After I had read it a member of the audience (who is an experienced creative writing tutor) told me that it reminded her of MR James – she made my day!

Telling Tales

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Are You Sitting Comfortably?, Book Slam, Dr. Suess, Giraffe's Can't Dance, Green Eggs and Ham, Grit Lit, Liar's League, literacy, National Storytelling Week, Oh The Places You Will Go, Rattle Tales, reading, reading aloud, short stories, spoken word, Story Tails, Tiger Flower, Winnie The Pooh, Word Theatre

It’s National Storytelling Week. I know, I know, it’s always something or other week but I like this one, I am after all a storyteller, both verbally and on the page. Most of us start out in life being read to even if it’s only at school, if we are lucky our parents read to us at bedtime.  It goes without saying that children who are read to show a greater interest in books than those who are not, there have been numerous studies confirming this over the years; take a look at the Reading Agency for evidence. 

I don’t think you ever lose the memory of being read to as a child; even when we grow up it lays dormant within us. When I became a parent and started to read to my sons it stirred memories of my Dad reading Winnie the Pooh complete with silly voices,

‘Good Morning, Pooh Bear,’ said Eeyore gloomily. ‘If it is a good morning,’ he said. ‘Which I doubt,’ he said.”

The memory of it made me feel all warm and secure.  There is nothing like watching the delight on a child’s face as the tale unfolds, the wide eyes of surprise when the under-dog triumphs or the squirming laughter when the baddie gets a pie in their face. When you are an adult you can also see the skill involved in the really great stories, the brilliance with which Dr Seuss suggests to children that you don’t have to do what everyone else does, that it’s a big world out there with lots of options (Green Eggs and Ham and Oh The Places You Will Go!), or when Giles Andraeas and Guy Parker Rees show us that actually Giraffes can dance even when everyone else thinks they can’t (for supreme story-telling check out the Hugh Laurie audio book of Giraffes Can’t Dance).

My mother recently gave me an old battered picture book she’d found at the back of a wardrobe, Tiger Flower, a riot of 1970s psychedelic colour and poetry my older sisters used to read to me. I had forgotten all about it but turning the pages I was immediately transported to a time of nylon sheets, cuddly Wombles and midnight feasts of bourbons and milk. I was amazed by the strength of this memory buried for so long and yet so instantly retrievable.

But stories aren’t just for children. Over the last few years I have become a storyteller. As part of Rattle Tales I have read stories to adults many times. I suppose we recreate the storytelling atmosphere of our youth (perhaps even further back to our tribal ancestors sitting around the campfire) our events take place in candlelit rooms that are invariably toasty warm, everyone sips a drink and listens quietly as they are told a story, they don’t know where they will go or who will take them but like children they give themselves up to the ride. All our nights have been sell-outs and people return again and again. It’s not just us there is probably a storytelling event in every major city, Liar’s League, Grit Lit, Book Slam, Story Tails, and Are You Sitting Comfortably? The list is endless and that’s just in the UK.

I have also been lucky enough to listen to my own stories being read by other more proficient readers. I have listened to my words being read by actors at Are You Sitting Comfortably?, Liars League and Word Theatre. It is a strange experience, I recognise the words but somehow it’s like someone else has written them. Sitting in an audience in which few people knew I was the author made me both acutely aware of every word and its success or failure and utterly thrilled by the laughs and gasps from those around me. The fact that an audience was listening rapt to my work gave me butterflies.  Of course this happens when I am reading my work too, but then there is so much else to think about when someone else is reading it you just sit back and listen to the rhythm of the words. When one of my stories was read at Word Theatre at Latitude Festival the performance by the actors (Gethin Anthony and Diana Vickers) was so good that I actually forgot I’d written it, I just sat back on a cushion and listened, returning once again to the bedtime story of my childhood.

If you want to mark National Storytelling Week check out their website for details of events or look in the local press, I promise you won’t regret it. If you are a writer and fancy becoming a storyteller why not submit to Rattle Tales? The deadline is Friday for our show on Feb 20^th at The Brunswick in Hove.

‘He who holds the rattle tells the story.’