It’s a mystery to me why National Short Story Week takes place in November when writers are hammering away at keyboards trying to complete 50,000 words of a novel. But it’s worth taking a break from your magnum opus and celebrating the art of the short story. A change is as good as a rest.
This year National Short Story Week is the 16th to 22nd November 2015.
National short story week was launched in 2010 by Ian Skillicorn of Corazon Books. It aims to:
- Get more people reading and listening to short stories
- Get more people writing short stories
- Develop creative and commercial opportunities for individuals and organisations involved in the short story form.
I was hoping to point you to lots of resources and activities related to National Short Story Week but there seems to be very little happening online. So here’s a couple of free to enter competitions to get the creative juices flowing:
Morgen Bailey runs a monthly 100-word story competition. There is a different theme each month and the prizes are access to up to three of her online courses.
Words Magazine has an open-themed short story competition closing on December 31st 2015. First prize is £50 and second prize is £25. Word limit is 2,000.
Finally, in celebration of National Short Story Week, my latest story collection, House Guests And Other Stories, is only 99p/99c until 22nd November 2015. 
It’s a cornucopia of contemporary short stories about modern life. Enjoy a plethora of twist endings, some humour plus a tiny bit of romance.
Happy Short Story Week!
Sally Jenkins 
#1 by Julia on November 16, 2015 - 12:52 pm
I’ve yet to take the plunge with NaNoWriMo, and am therefore grateful for these links. I’ve entered Morgen’s comp and might have a go at the other, too.
#2 by Sally Jenkins on November 17, 2015 - 8:22 am
Best of luck, Julia. I’m not doing Nano this month either.
#3 by susanjanejones on November 16, 2015 - 4:46 pm
I’ll let that pass me by, Sally and thanks for the reminder, I have your collection on my kindle. I was planning a novel, doing planonano, but it’s gone by the by now as I have such a long reading list. When it’s cold I prefer to snuggle up on the settee and read.
#4 by Sally Jenkins on November 17, 2015 - 8:25 am
It is nice to curl up & read when It’s dark & cold, Susan. I think planning can be harder work than writing so it’s easy to get distracted. Hope you get back on course eventually! (And thanks for your support with House Guests!).
#5 by blogaboutwriting on November 16, 2015 - 5:39 pm
Yes, it’s a shame there’s not more on the National Short Story week website, isn’t it? Everything seems to either relate to 2014 or it’s about the short story competition that they ran for ‘young people’! (and I’m definitely not one of those any more!)
#6 by Sally Jenkins on November 17, 2015 - 8:26 am
Funny how it seems to have died a death, isn’t it Helen? But these things do happen if the orgniser is one man & his dog – I guess there were no sponsors etc.
#7 by Susan A Eames on November 17, 2015 - 3:05 pm
Looks like they need to change when to run National Short Story week.
#8 by Sally Jenkins on November 17, 2015 - 3:43 pm
I think so, Susan.
#9 by Linda Daunter on November 22, 2015 - 6:57 pm
Whoops, I completely missed it! This is the only place where I’ve seen it mentioned. But every week is a short story week for me – reading and writing them!
#10 by Sally Jenkins on November 22, 2015 - 7:07 pm
Good to see that you’re such an advocate of the short story, Linda!
#11 by Alyson Rhodes (I write as Alyson Faye) on December 13, 2015 - 12:30 pm
I have been following your blog for a few months and writing a bit more; so after reading about MorgEn Bailey 100 word comp – I entered it for November’s theme ‘Fireworks’ and I won, I was so pleased. It was a real boost.I also have entered a flash piece to Writers online comp and I entered Joanna Sterling’s The Casket of Fictional Delights TubeFlash comp for a story linked to a tube station and my story has been chosen as 1 of 12 for next year’s anthology 🙂
This has so encouraged me Sally to keep writing and reading, I bought the latest copy of the magazine Popshot you rec, and am impressed with that.
Thanks for all the info you’ve posted.
Alyson
#12 by Sally Jenkins on December 13, 2015 - 7:09 pm
Wow – how fabulous! Congratulations on all those wonderful achievements, Alyson. It’s so good to hear when people have been able to use any information that I’ve supplied. Fingers crossed you’ll have even more success in 2016, Alyson.
#13 by juliathorley on December 14, 2015 - 7:26 am
You beat me, Alyson! Congratulations. 🙂