In just over two weeks I’ll be reading at the first ever London Short Story Festival. The event is called The Weird and Wonderful World of Short Stories and will take place at 11am on the 21st June at Waterstones Piccadilly. Tickets cost £8 and you can find full details and booking on the Spread The Word website. I am delighted to say that I will be appearing alongside Adam Marek, Robert Shearman and Tania Hershman, three writers whose stories have engaged and inspired me over the last few years.

The London Short Story Festival 2014 takes place over the 20th-22nd June 2014. The line-up features a genuinely astounding list of authors: Jackie Kay, Clare Wigfall, Alex Preston, KJ Orr, AL Kennedy, Helen Simpson, Stella Duffy, Mary Costello, Claire Keegan, Roshi Fernando, Lisa Blower, Alison Moore, Stuart Evers, Claire Shanahan, Di Spiers,Vanessa Gebbie, Nicholas Royle, Colin Barrett, and many more, in a host of discussion events, workshops and interview session. Loads of great reasons for any lover of short fiction to attend.

The full programme of events can be found on the London Short Story Festival website.

You can also get involved and vote for the best short story written by a British author. The brilliant Stella Duffy will be closing the festival with a reading of the winning story and one lucky voter will win a year’s Laureate Friendship with Spread the Word, worth £150.

You can join in the conversation on Twitter #LSSF and @LSSFest

I can’t wait to spend a day in London talking short stories and hearing some of my favourite writers read from their work.