London reading events, north or south of the river, take your pick!

We have not one but two Stories for Homes 2 events this week, both based in London. On Thursday we’re being welcomed by the famous Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green. On Friday we have a pay-at-the-door event at the community run Ivy House in Nunhead, with music from the Sing Eazy choir as well as readings from Stories for Homes authors. All proceeds, as ever, go to Shelter. Details for both events can be found here.

Don’t forget our fabulous auction – most items close tomorrow (Thursday 18th January). We’d love to top £500 in funds raised for Shelter so do please have a look at our eBay page here. There is something for everyone, from signed books and CDs to the original painting created for the Stories for Homes 2 cover and a signed print by Viz artists Barney Farmer and Lee Healey.

 

2.4 million people in the UK are driven into poverty due to their housing costs.

The stats on Shelter‘s website make for horrific reading.

Every 2 minutes someone in the UK someone faces losing their home.

More than 1.7 million households are on housing waiting lists.

On any given night in England 1,768 people are sleeping rough.

The more I think about the craziness of what is going on in the UK with regards to housing the more determined I am to start a landslide of  change!

The stories and offers of help with our book are still pouring in. THANK YOU all.

We have some wonderful writers submitting work for consideration, including:

Kate Lord Brown 

Kate grew up in the wild and beautiful Devon countryside.  After studying at Durham University and the Courtauld Institute of Art, she worked as an international art consultant curating collections for palaces and embassies in Europe and the Middle East.  When the family left London for the orange groves of Valencia, Kate began to write full time, publishing work internationally and gaining a MA Dist in Creative Writing. She now lives in the Middle East with her family, and writes a regular blog for writers juggling their work with family life. Her debut novel THE BEAUTY CHORUS was published by Atlantic in 2011, and this year THE PERFUME GARDEN is being published in seven languages.  http://www.katelordbrown.com/

Tania Hershman

Tania Hershman is the author of two story collections: My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions (Tangent Books, 2012), a collection of 56 very short fictions, and The White Road and Other Stories (Salt, 2008; commended, 2009 Orange Award for New Writers.) She is Writer the ditor of the online journal The Short Review. Her website is www.taniahershman.com

Neil Campbell

Neil Campbell has two collections of short stories, Broken Doll, and Pictures from Hopper, published by Salt, and two poetry chapbooks, Birds, and Bugsworth Diary, published by Knives, Forks and Spoons. Recent stories in the anthology, Murmurations, and on Ink, Sweat and Tears. Also has three stories in Tears in the Fence, one in Short Fiction Journal and another in the Best British Short Stories 2012.

Rebecca Swirsky

Rebecca Swirsky is a London-based writer specialising in short fiction. Her work varies anywhere between 100 and 10,000 words.

Competition success includes winning the A.M. Heath Prize, being shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and Fish Short Fiction Prize, and awarded third prize in Ilkley’s Literature Festival Short Story Competition. Rebecca has read and had her work read at the London Review Bookshop, Bloomsbury; Ilkley Literature Festival; and Liars League, Central London. Her stories and criticism have been published in journals including Matter and the online Royal Academy of Arts Magazine, and she has been commissioned to write for the forthcoming Royal Society of Literature Review. Her current copywriting work includes a regular blog on acupuncture. Follow her on Twitter @rebexswirsky.