Raise Your Voice with Litro

For five years now, Litro Magazine has been London’s premier short story publication, championing literature and culture across the capital and making voices heard. Our aim has always been to boost further the appreciation of literature and culture in the UK through fiction and poetry.

Now we want you to help us spread the word. Whether you’re a die-hard fan of ours or just a casual literature lover, we want to hear what you’ve got to say.

Grab your LitroPhone or design your own, upload a picture of yourself raising your voice for all to see and send us a link on twitter, facebook , tumblr or myspace for the chance to win a year’s subscription to Litro and a pair of tickets to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

It’s really easy to make your LitroPhone, all you have to do is click here, print it off, cut along the dashes and fold it all together.

Camera shy, or prefer to remain mysterious? You can still raise your voice with Litro using Audioboo. Record a shout out saying “Raise your voice with Litro! (or your own personalised message) using a computer microphone or smartphone and sent it to us!

And if you really want to get in our good books, you can become our friend and subscribe to Litro. At just £17.99 for a year’s subscription (or £32 for two) you gain access to a beautifully designed print copy of each issue upon its monthly release, discounted entry to our live events and, for this month only, the chance to win a pair of tickets to this years’ Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

We do hope that you are all enjoying the first day of August (and hopefully a return to real summer weather)!

First of all, thank you to those who attended our Litro Live! Summer Party a couple of weeks ago. We always aim to have an eclectic, interesting and talented line-up to satisfy all sorts of tastes, and hopefully we delivered that once again.

As you may already know, issue 97 is now online. We’ve got the cover art up as well (shown left), in addition to all the stories, including pieces from prizewinners Louise Stern and Clare Wigfall, and our summer events listings, courtesy of Alex James. The print magazine will be out very soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

The deadline for the Litro and IGGY International Young Person’s Short Story Award also closed a couple of weeks back.  A big thank you to all the young people that voted – we’ve very pleased at the number of entries that have been sent in and the overall standard of work that has been produced. The entries are now with the judges and so far their feedback has been very positive as well. It may prove to be a tough choice, but the judges’ shortlists will be published on the 16th August, with the announcement of the overall winner on the 30th September. Good luck to all those who entered and keep your eyes out for that shortlist announcement on the 16th!

Additionally, if you’ve been considering becoming a Friend of Litro but haven’t made up your mind yet, our prize draw for new Friends ends on Friday 6th August – less than a week away. The prize? We’re giving away five pairs of tickets to one of the mainstays of the artist calender, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, to new Friends. All you have to do is sign up and then you will be entered into the prize draw to win tickets. You’ll also get the magazine delivered direct to you (so you’ll never miss an issue), discounted Litro Live! tickets and other offers, all of which are good things indeed for lovers of short stories and live performance.

Events

Small Wonder: THE Short Story Festival

23rd-26th September, Charleston, Firles, Lewes, East Sussex

We’re always glad to see people praising and encouraging the (often underappreciated) art that is the short story. Therefore we’re very pleased to see Small Wonder -the only festival in the UK devoted to the short story form -  not only thriving, but going into it’s seventh year this September.

Small Wonder: THE Short Story Festival is running this year between 23rd-26th September and promises that it will go “digital, interactive, dramatic, musical, cinematic, classical and contemporary’ in their search for the ‘essential’ short story, all from the best practioners of the art. The impressive and varied line-up includes A.S. Byatt, Alain de Botton, Joseph O’Connor, Patrick Gale, Alexel Sayle and Salley Vickers. There  are also talks on D.H. Lawrence, cutting edge New York fiction and the tradition of the Irish short story; a creative writing workshop; family events and a special screening of Tom Ford’s acclaimed film, A Single Man, and more. There will also be the opportunity to sample their exclusive Small Wonder beer.

If this all sounds rather intriguing, then head on over to www.charleston.org.uk/smallwonder to have a look at the full programme and to book tickets.

Regular readers of Litro online may remember us urging the talented writers amongst you to enter the Grant Museum’s recent short story competition, which was based on the theme of ‘Pandora’s Box’. The winner of the contest has now been chosen and the winning entry is now available to read online here.

With the concept and theme of the competition being as intriguing and original as it was, the entries promise to make for interesting reading!