Six writers came to Macclesfield one day in Autumn, each in search of inspiration.

Date: Saturday 23rd November 2019

Time: 6pm

Location: United Reformed Church, Park Green, SK11 7NA

Tickets: £11 - Available here 

Join us at this very special performance where each writer will read the six short stories they created as a result of their visits, set against a backdrop of specially commissioned visuals by Not Quite Light photographer Simon Buckley.

What will they have gleaned about the town and its folk from their mooching, eavesdropping and simply watching the Macc world go by? Come along and find out… Expect everything from fashion and football to worshippers and woodlands.

Writers

Sarah-Clare Conlon is a copywriter, proofreader and editor. The inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Manchester’s Victoria Baths, she is Best British & Irish Flash Fiction 2018-2019 listed, and her work is in print with Dostoyevsky Wannabe, Dunlin Press, Salt Publishing, the Universities of Greenwich and Manchester, and journals Flash, Lighthouse and Stand.

Abi Hynes is a drama and fiction writer. Her short stories have been widely published in print and online, including in Litro, Interzone, and minor literature[s], and she was shortlisted for the Bath Flash Fiction’s ‘Novella-in-flash’ Award in 2017. Her plays have been performed in venues across the UK. She graduated from Channel 4’s 4Screenwriting Course in 2018 and is currently developing original projects for TV.

David Gaffney is the author of the novels Never Never (2008) and All The Places I’ve Ever Lived (2017) plus the flash fiction and short story collections Sawn-Off Tales (2006), Aromabingo (2007), The Half-Life of Songs (2010) and More Sawn-Off Tales (2013).
He has written articles for The Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Prospect magazine, and was a judge for the Bridport Prize. His story ‘The Staring Man’ is featured in Best British Short Stories, and his story ‘Insight’ featured in the collection We Were Strangers – stories inspired by Joy Division (2018) David’s graphic novel with Dan Berry, The Three Rooms In Valerie’s Head was published in 2018 with Top Shelf and his next graphic novel, Rivers, will be out in 2020. davidgaffney.org

Nicholas Royle is the author of seven novels, two novellas and three volumes of short fiction​. He has edited twenty anthologies of short stories. Reader in Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and head judge of the Manchester Fiction Prize, he also runs Nightjar Press, publishing original short stories as signed, limited-edition chapbooks. He works as an editor for Salt Publishing. nicholasroyle.com

Reshma Ruia is a writer and poet, the author of Something Black in the Lentil Soup. Her second novel, A Mouthful of Silence was shortlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in international journals and anthologies and have been commissioned for Radio 4. She is the fiction editor of Jaggery magazine and is the co-founder of The Whole Kahani, a collective of British South Asian writers. Reshma’s latest poetry collection, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties was published on 25th October. reshmaruia.com

Joe Stretch is the author of three novels – Friction, Wildlife and The Adult. The Adult was nominated for the Portico Prize and received the Somerset Maugham Award in 2012. His ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ audiobook, Don’t Let Go, was read by Anna Friel, published by Spotify and received a Cannes Lion Award in 2011. His debut film, Wizard’s Way, received several awards and has been optioned for remake by Jack Black. His band, Performance, released two albums. Their songs have appeared in film and television around the world. Joe joined the Manchester Writing School as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing (Fiction) in July 2015. He is the Pathway Leader for the BA English and Creative Writing programme.