Next appearance....

Saturday June 1st, 4.30-5.15: Resist! Stories of Uprising preview event. £4 / FREE. Tickets here. [note: event may appear as "Protest II" on Carriageworks website.]




Northern Short Story Festival, Carriageworks, Leeds, with Lucas Stewart, Uschi Gatward and Jude Brown.

Following on from Comma Press' hugely successful Protest anthology, Resist is another of Comma Press' "fact into fiction" anthologies, where authors are paired with historians and academics to re-tell incidents of protest and resistance. I'll be talking about my story about the 1590 Enslow Hill Rising, and am looking forward to appearing with 3 hugely talented short story writers who will be talking about their own stories. Event hosted by James Nash.

The "Creative nonfiction for punks" workshop that I'd hoped to run at Ante Art Festival on May 5th now isn't happening, but watch this space, as I hope to run it at another time or place.


That's it for now, and I hope to see some of you in June.


Currently reading

Watership Down Richard Adam

"Which organisation are you from?"

With Rachel Connor at The Northern Short Story Festival, 2018

David Cundall & Koyejo Adebakin at the
Remembering Oluwale launch.

A couple of weeks ago, I helped with the Northern Short Story Festival / Big Bookend event, a free event that we called "Speed Dating for Writers." It wasn't a 'dating' event (yes, I know the name's confusing.) It was an event aimed at helping writers meet & network, for support and solidarity.

It's a simple format. Writers get paired up, they're given a question, and allowed 2 minutes to talk. At the end of 2 minutes, Rachel Connor rings a bell, and one writer from the pair has to get up and move around, so that everybody forms a new pair, who then chat again, for another 2 minutes. And so on, and so on, until the discussion at the end.

At one point in the evening a lady turned to me and asked, "Where are you from?" meaning not where do you come from, but which organisation. It had slowly dawned on me during the group discussion, that there were certain things this group of writers wanted that we, as a voluntary-led organisation ("we" being The Northern Short Story Festival) couldn't provide, either because we haven't the time, or we haven't the resources, or the infrastructure, and that some of them wanted to know WHY NOT?

Afterwards, Jenna and I got to talking, and she said, "You should do a blog post about running a voluntary arts organisation", and she was right, I should, so here it is.

Hello. My name's SJ, and for the past 4-10 years, I've been a voluntary arts organiser. I started out running a writers' social night called Fiction of Every Kind, back in 2010. Later on, I edited an anthology called the Remembering Oluwale anthology, which won a Saboteur Award. More recently, I've been director of the Northern Short Story Festival, which is part of Leeds Big Bookend. [I recently wrote about 'My Small Press Writing Day' about how I manage all this alongside a day job, and you can read that post here.] I also am Fiction Editor at Strix magazine.

Every single one of these endeavours is run by volunteers. Fictions is a voluntary organisation, Strix is a voluntary organisation, the Northern Short Story Festival is a voluntary organisation, and none of us who do any of it, including me, don't get paid anything at all.

So why bother?

Quite aside from an almost pathological need to be busy, there are a couple of reasons why I organise cultural stuff. In short: I want cool stuff to happen near me, and if I want cool stuff to happen, I'll either have to do it myself, or get involved with a group who are.

Years ago, when I first moved to Leeds, I got pretty involved in the strong DIY music scene here. Around that time, 2001-ish, there were loads of exciting things going on. Bands like Send More Paramedics, Bilge Pump and later on, Cowtown, were bands who organised their own gigs and played and put out their own music for the love of it. There was a strength of feeling against the mainstream way of doing things, where bands got ripped off by unscrupulous labels and managers, and where so much personality and truth was ripped out of the music in pursuit of producing something with mass appeal.

It was an exciting time. I put on gigs and played in bands myself. I went to gigs in basements and in squats, and drove around the UK in the back of a Mercedes splitter van playing gigs in rock clubs, in houses, and on one particularly memorable occasion, inside a flat, where the guy who lived there set off a couple of glitter cannons at the end of the gig. We all slept on the floor and I left my towel there, a moment you might recognise if you've read Guest.

Photographic proof that I used to be in a band.

There were only two of us in the band: me, my friend Nicky, and our Yamaha QY48 sequencer. We were quirky and poppy and weird. We were unique amongst DIY bands in that our ouevre was pop melodies, programmed drum beats from general MIDI sounds, and synchronised dance moves.

Unforgiveable! To have a sense of humour, to dance, to be stupid, not to care about not being cool, unforgiveable! To actually not care about being cool, as opposed to just pretending you didn't care about being cool - these things were Verboten in some parts of the DIY world.

A group from Fictions at Chapel FM 'Writing on Air' festival,
April 2017.

We were unpopular. People didn't like us. They wouldn't put us on. Somebody once wrote a review of one of our gigs that said we both deserved to be shot in the face with a big gun. Another time, we played a gig in Harrogate, where everybody left and we played to the sound guy, the band we'd gone there with, and a bloke from one of the other bands who, inexplicably, was wearing a Viking hat.

All of these experiences taught me, more than anything else, not to worry about what other people think. That if you want to do something, you should go ahead and do it. (There was also certainly a misogynistic element to some of the bad reviews we got, but that's a topic for another post.)

If you do something, not everybody is going to like it. Also, if you want something to happen in your backyard, go ahead and do it, don't wait for somebody else to do it for you. A fine example of DIY attitude is Strix magazine, started by Andrew Lambeth and Ian Harker. It's an excellent print magazine which is based in Leeds and which you should definitely buy.

L-R Sarah Brook, Moira Garland, Fay Kesby, Ian Harker,
Lizzie Hudson
Strix reading event, NoShoSto 2018.

Because here's the thing. Publishing industry, all of its infrastructure, and the corporate and mainstream parts of the "corporate arts world", if you want to put it that way, are based in London, and getting projects funded by the Arts Council is a lengthy and bureaucratic business. I realised that nobody is going to come and rescue you. If you're in certain parts of Yorkshire, or maybe Stoke, or parts of Wales, say, there's not really much point in sitting around waiting for somebody else to do something. If you want somebody else to organise the events your local area needs, whatever those may be, and you're going to sit around and wait for some statutory body to come and organise them, well... you're going to be waiting a long fucking time.

The ideas that I was introduced to during my formative years - those ideas about doing it yourself, about creating your own culture, about making the things you want to happen, happen - those ideas stuck. Those are the ideas that led to me starting Fictions of Every Kind and later, the Northern Short Story Festival.

A photo of my cat for no real reason.

In all of this, one thought that's guided me is something that the much-beloved and much-missed Archie once said to me at a house gig: that if you're doing something voluntary led, that if you're trying to provide something that exists outside of the mainstream, that's not an excuse to do it badly. "If you're trying to provide a true alternative," he said, "You should always try and do something better than what's out there in the mainstream." Do it with everything you've got, and do it to the best of your ability, and that's what I've always tried to do.

Running a voluntary arts organisation is sort of fun, in a weird sort of way, and it's definitely something that you need a particular mindset and set of skills to do. Having said that, anybody can learn skills, given the guidance and opportunity. There are lots of different ways to be an arts organisation, and arts organisations do lots of different things. You can be a charity or a registered company, or you can have no formal structure at all (though if you want to do bigger things and apply for funding, this last one's a no-goer.) You can run no-budget things, or you can spend time applying for funding, and run some-budget things. Either way you'll forever be teetering on the edge of having no funding, and wondering how you're going to manage, because there's no money, and not enough time. Again, this is something I'll write about in more detail another time.

FYI, the NoSho does a mixture of no-budget and some-budget, and we are extremely grateful to arts@leeds and to our supporting organisations for helping keep going. We pay every single writer who appears at one of our events. Fictions also pays authors, but it is much more locally-based. As an organisation, Fictions is pretty much no-budget, so we rely on our door take at events to pay authors. Another time, I'll write a bit more about running low-budget vs. no-budget organisations, and what the hurdles are. Warning: expect ranting.

Currently reading

On the Beach - Neville Shute
Fresh Complaint - Jeffrey Eugenides 

2016: A Year in Pictures

Well, I think we can all agree that this year hasn't been one of the best. We've lost Prince, David Bowie, Terry Wogan, and Carrie Fisher, among others, and politically, it's been one of my least favourite years yet.

Despite that, I've kept busy with plenty of projects this year. The arts are so important in upholding values of decency and inclusion, and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to work on projects that uphold those values this year.
Here's my review of the year in pictures.

Riot! My Chariot of Fire publication

Riot! My Chariot of Fire publication

This summer, an artwork called The Aftermath Dislocation Principle by Jimmy Cauty, came to Leeds. Housed in a shipping container, it's a scale model artwork of a small British village in the wake of some mysterious civil unrest.

To accompany the visit of this artwork to Leeds, I put together a publication of some local writers and artists responding to the theme 'Riot'. We had some great writing and poetry in there from writers like Ian Harker, Gloria Dawson, Jennifer Isherwood, Boff Whalley and Lisa Bristow, among others. Copies were available free from The Chemic pub in Leeds, where the ADP was situated.

Gloria Dawson reads from the Riot! My Chariot of Fire Publication

Here's my friend Rachael Rix-Moore invigilating the ADP exhibition.

There were plenty of other performances going on during the ADP's visit to Leeds, including a performance by the Commoner's Choir, readings, and noise workshops. It was a joyful and celebratory few weeks, and I was glad to have had the opportunity to be involved.

Teaching for First Story 

One of the things I was really excited about doing this year was teaching for First Story. They are a literature charity who place writers in residency in schools in the UK.

First Story anthologies

This year I started a Residency in Leeds White Rose Academies Trust, which will result in an anthology just like one of the ones pictured above.

It has been such a huge privilege and joy to work with the young people at the school. They constantly surprise me with their bravery and inventiveness. One of my students even got shortlisted in the First Story National Six-Word Story Competition!

Remembering Oluwale: an Anthology 

Writer Catherine Vallely at the Remembering Oluwale Book Launch. Photo by Raj Passy

Towards the end of 2015, Max Farrar of the Remember Oluwale charity got in touch to ask whether I'd be interested in helping them put an anthology together in memory of David Oluwale.

Oluwale was a man who came to the North of England from Nigeria in the late 50s; he spent a great deal of his time in Leeds sleeping rough, where he was repeatedly victimised by two police officers, who assaulted and taunted him. He was later found floating dead in the River Aire. (You can read more about his story in Foreigners by Caryl Phillips, or The Hounding of David Oluwale by Kester Aspden.)

The Remember Oluwale Charity works to keep his memory alive, and to campaign to make the city of Leeds one which is more inclusive and welcoming. It's a great charity.

A writing competition resulted in an anthology, which was launched as part of the Northern Short Story Festival. The book is out now and available from Valley Press books.

Poet Cherie Taylor-Battiste at the launch of the Remembering Oluwale anthology. Photo by Raj Passy

Writer David Cundall at the Remembering Oluwale book launch

Remembering Oluwale: an Anthology, available now from Valley Press

The Northern Short Story Festival

2016 saw the launch of the first ever Northern Short Story Festival: a day of talking, reading, discussing, and workshopping, short stories.

We were lucky to have some amazing writers taking part in this year's festival. Avril Joy, Clare Fisher, Anna Chilvers, and many more, all took part.

Carys Bray talks to Richard Smyth at the Northern Short Story Festival 2016

The Northern Short Story Festival 2016 was a huge success - we saw all of the workshops sell out, and lots of positive comments on social media afterwards. Plenty took us up on our offer to talk small publishing with editors from Comma Press, Valley Press, and Tartarus Press; this kind of event is quite rare in the North of England, and it was clear that people wanted the opportunity to talk about short stories, and to find out more about the publishing world.




It was an exciting day, and afterwards we were all glad to get to the afterparty to have a drink to wind down. Boo Owl (from the Big Bookend) got a bit excited and rowdy. Here he is, having a go on a ukulele that doesn't belong to him.

Boo Owl plays the ukulele

I'm pleased to say that, after winning a grant from Leeds Inspired for next years' festival, there will be a Northern Short Story Festival in 2017 too - so watch this space for more news!

Fictions of Every Kind, and Writing on Air 

Fictions of Every Kind at Writing on Air. L-R: SJ Bradley, Claire Stephenson, Jenna Isherwood

One of the really fun things I got to get involved with this year was the Chapel FM Writing on Air festival. Every year, the folk at Chapel FM invite writers and writing groups into their (frankly amazing) space, to come and broadcast a festival of live spoken word events.

Organising our programme is something I can't take credit for - Jenna Isherwood (pictured above, on the right) did most of the hard work. It was great to be involved and we're planning to take part again in 2017.

Jenna was also responsible for buying gifts for any brave participants who took part in the open mic at Fictions of Every Kind this year. It was she who was responsible for buying these majestic mug cakes, which were one of the highlights of my year:

Fictions of Every Kind Mug Cakes

Now I look back on it all - whew, it seems to have been quite a jam-packed year! I was glad to have the mug cakes on hand to keep me going.

Other things that were good this year were: I found a shop near me that sells old Ladybird books.

I saw this cool little boat and harbour while in Northern Ireland over Christmas:

Two of my own short stories were published this year: The Gordon Trask, on Disclaimer Magazine, and Maps of Imaginary Towns, on Litro.

I'm also looking forward to working on some more exciting projects next year. Here are some (just some!) of the things I'll be up to in 2017:

February to July - teaching a Comma Press Short Story Writing Course at Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds. There's some more information about the course itself here, and you can book your place online here.


February 27th - hosting Fictions of Every Kind: Treats, with short story writer Lara Williams and poet Suzannah Evans. If you're lucky, there will be more mug cakes. More information here.

March 2017 - taking part in the Chapel FM Writing on Air Festival.

3rd June 2017 - the second Northern Short Story Festival; programme and ticket information to be announced.


Late June 2017 - the release of my second novel, Guest, from Dead Ink Books. Details, launch events and readings to be announced. Watch this space for more information!

Happy new year, everyone!


Currently Reading


Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg
Radio Sunrise - Anietie Isong

The End of All Things Podcast

Or listen on Soundcloud by following the link here:

 After Rob (the presenter) left my house, I found his list of questions. He'd left them behind on my desk.

I didn't have time to answer those questions in the podcast, so I'll answer them here on my blog instead.

"Do you make enough money to survive?" No I don't, not from writing. I won't go into exact numbers, but the most I've ever made from writing didn't even pay my share of the council tax bill that year. (FYI, our place isn't on Council Tax band Y, or whatever it goes up to. It's on the lowest possible one.)

 "So what do you do to get by?" I have a day job. Not a particularly glamorous or exciting one, but it's one that I love. My day job is in the public sector, and involves helping people. It is nothing to do with literature development or writing or "The Arts" and I think that's good. It means I get to spend a lot of my time interacting with actual people, and that's one of my favourite things about it.

"Do you get Arts Council funding and if so, how does one do that?" No, I don't get Arts Council funding. I have never had Arts Council funding for my writing, or for any of my projects - except for a small pot of Northern Accent funding, which we used for the Northern Short Story Festival. Fiona (of Leeds Big Bookend Festival) and Linzi (at the Carriageworks Theatre) helped me access this. I wouldn't have been able to access it on my own, because it's tied to the venue (The Carriageworks) and also because I don't know how to get Arts Council funding for things.

The thing is, I've been taking writing seriously for about 7 years now, and I still have no idea how the Arts Council works, or how it distributes funding, or how even to apply to it. I think the Arts Council should make it easier for people like me to get money to support their work. Applying for any sort of funding at all seems to require a level of knowledge that most artists / writers don't have. I think the Arts Council could make applying for arts funding much more accessible, especially for writers & artists in the North. Being able to apply for arts funding seems to be a discipline in and of itself, and it's not something many writers are good at (and why should they be? Learning to be a good writer is a full-time occupation in itself.)

(Note: there is a writing development agency in the North which does distribute literature development funding in the North, but most of its efforts seem to be focused on the Sunderland / Newcastle / Durham area. It doesn't seem to run or support projects based in West Yorkshire - I'm not sure why this is, though it's possible that West Yorkshire isn't within its remit. I'm also not sure who to ask about this, or how to apply to said writing development agency to run a project in West Yorkshire myself. You see? Complicated!)

So that just about sums it up! I hope you enjoy the podcast and I look forward to hearing your comments on my thoughts.

Currently reading

Winter Dan Grace 
The Wave Lochlan Bloom