No Alibis Press Podcast

Lots of advice for writers here from Louise Farr as she discusses early inspiration, the discipline required to write and the importance of finding a supportive online community. Louise discusses the genesis of her tragicomic story 'Sing to Me', which she reads in full.

Laura-Blaise McDowell’s ‘Balloon Animals’, from Still Worlds Turning, was shortlisted for the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year Award at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2019. Here she chats to us about inspiration and how a story comes together, and reads the story in full.

'I like what happens to the reader when you present something as not entirely untrue.' Joanna Walsh discusses her autofiction and creative nonfiction, including Break.up and Seed, and reads from 'Fine' (Still Worlds Turning).

‘The stories I like to write tend to be set in a world that’s maybe a step or two to the left of the world that we are familiar with. I like to write about what’s in the shadows, what might be lurking in the background perhaps.’ Mandy Taggart discusses her writing and reads ‘Burn’, an otherworldly tale of the demonic visions and euphoric reinventions of destitute drinker Billy McLaughlin.

Writer and artist Niamh MacCabe discusses life dictating form and the undemanding love of baby magpies. Niamh reads her story ‘Lullula’.

Jan Carson (aka NI’s leading Casualty expert) on glimpsing odd things through windows and transforming cul-de-sac stories. Jan reads ‘The World Ending in Fire’.

Writer Dawn Watson talks about mapping the places 'where [poetry and prose] meet, where they connect', and reads 'The Seaview Hundred and Fifty-Two' (Still Worlds Turning), a story set in the early 1980s about a North Belfast pupil with OCD and how they confront one of the era’s many bogeymen.

How do writers move between composing long and short fiction? Where do stories come from and how are they carried to completion? Sam Thompson discusses form and practice before reading ‘Seafront Gothic’ (Still Worlds Turning), his story about the uncanny, sibling rivalry, and the unknowability that underpins human relationships.

Author Wendy Erskine (Sweet Home, Stinging Fly, 2018) and David Torrans (No Alibis) discuss writing, and Wendy reads her short story 'NOTES FOR THE ATTENTION OF THOSE WORKING IN THE XANADU NIGHTCLUB, THE HENNESSY COURT HOTEL, BELFAST, 1983, found in the pocket of an old handbag when clearing a roof space, 2018' (Still Worlds Turning, No Alibis Press, 2019).

June Caldwell (Room Little Darker) introduced the anthology Still Worlds Turning (No Alibis Press 2019) with an essay on making and breaking the rules of short fiction. Here she discusses the form of the short story with anthology editor Emma Warnock.

Music by Ruby Colley.

Edited by Stephen Sexton.