Happy and Peaceful Christmas to all

Fiction: “The Rest is Silence” – Rwanda 1994

An engaging, longish story by Brecht De Poortere, set in the Rwanda of 1994. It begins "Our son Lucas had come home from nursery that day in a lot of pain."

The Hudson Review: “The Rest is Silence” by Brecht De Pootere

… Up until the phone call, it had been peaceful outside: nothing but familiar sounds you barely notice unless you focus on them: the singsong of cicadas, the crackling of a radio, the barking of the neighbor’s dogs. …

Fiction: “Knock Knock” by Lily Hyde

 

To knock, стучать: to inform on someone (Russian slang)

A disturbing Stranger’s Guide, a longish short story about Life in Crimea, when you’re surrounded by paid informants and people who are torn between making a living or making a stand or going away. Read Knock Knock by Lily Hyde.

Our Short Stories of the Year 2024

Willesden Herald Short Stories of the Year 2024

• January: Cranes by Alex Barr
• February: My Yellow by Amanda Huggins
• March: Outlaws by Neil Brosnan
• April: With Every Choice Something is Lost by Mike Fox
• May: At the Hotel Swinburne by Cath Barton
• June: New Moon by Michael Howard
• July: The River by Pia Quintano
• November: I O U by Robert Stone
• December: The Man on the Train by Sarah Turner

Thanks for another lovely lot of short stories this year, though we only managed to find some for nine out of the twelve months.

Here’s wishing everyone a peaceful and happy new year. (Ed.)

Short Story of the Month, December 2024

The trouble about helping strangers is you just never know what you're getting into and you don't know what other strangers there might be when you get into it. The clue is in the word "strangers". (Ed.)

Short Story of the Month - December 2024

The Man on the Train by Sarah Turner

“I’d speculated about the man even before we spoke; he interested me as soon as I saw him on the station platform that afternoon, in his long tweed coat and beaten-down, once-formal shoes. He caught my eye and paced towards me with a focused look that made me think he was about to ask me something.”

Sarah Turner's short stories have been/are due to be published by Shooter Literary Magazine, The Sonora Review, J Journal, The London Magazine, Epoque Press, Fictive Dream, Litro, LEON, The Phare, and others, and in 2023 one of her stories was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize Short Story Award. Some of her published work can be read at www.scturnerfiction.com.

Short Story of the Month, November 2024

We've just arrived back to civilisation and found a great short story of the month for November. It's a "read twicer". Did anything happen while we were away? Ed.

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

November 2024: IOU by Robert Stone

… When Brett left, Bill hadn’t realised she was going. Her drink was unfinished. And when she was gone the others didn’t seem to miss her or to take the opportunity to talk about her and that surprised him and taught him a lesson …

Robert Stone

Robert Stone was born in Wolverhampton. He works in a press-cuttings agency in London. He has been a teacher and the foreman of a London Underground station. He has had stories in 3:AM, Stand, Panurge, The Write Launch, Confingo, Eclectica, Punt Volat, HCE, The Decadent Review, Heirlock, Lunate, Main Street Rag, Clackamas and Wraparound South. Micro-stories have been published by 5×5, Third Wednesday, The Ocotillo Review, Star 82, deathcap and Clover & White. He had three stories published in the Nightjar chapbook series. A story has been included in Salt’s Best British Stories 2020 volume.

Short Story of the Month, July 2024

In Pia Quintano's 29-page short story of the month for July, we're in New York, the capital of the world. Unless that is London or Paris or actually there is no capital of the world. It is though (U.N.). But what lies beneath the sheen of its river water, behind its apartment doors and in the minds of people you've grown up with? A child is missing. We're going into that water. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

July 2024: The River by Pia Quintano

"It felt like they were mining the East River, as if the heavy machines they were using to dredge it could easily unearth a car or the core of the planet. I could feel the FDR tremble under my feet but suspected that the heavy barges with their mysterious cargo would be undisturbed, as the men stretched apart the river’s seams..."

Pia Quintano

Pia Quintano is a New York City based writer/painter who often writes about characters who have experienced a loss that they have never been able to integrate. She spent a winter at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and has had her fiction published in Havik, Lunch Ticket and Landlocked. She enjoys sharing her small apartment in New York with a demanding cocker spaniel and two lively parakeets.

Short Story of the Month, June 2024

Is it June already? There's a cold northwest wind blustering through rainy London, so I said to myself, let's go to Vietnam for a while, meet some interesting people, and see what happens. I'm still there. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

June 2024: New Moon by Michael Howard

"…He almost never shut the doors giving onto his balcony and when he did it was only for a few minutes at a time—half an hour at the most.

That’s how Tram came to know these things…"

Michael Howard

Michael Howard's writing has appeared in Mekong Review, New World Writing, Paste Magazine, Gordon Square Review, Creative Loafing, Hypertext Magazine, The Forge, and others. He lives in Vietnam.

Short Story of the Month, May 2024

I think I remember a line from The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor, "Things can go wrong in an empty house." Also in a seemingly empty hotel and arguably an empty relationship, perhaps. Intrigued? Read our Story of the Month for May by Cath Barton to find out what happened. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

May 2024: At the Hotel Swinburne by Cath Barton

When we returned to our room after breakfast on the fourth day of our holiday, Arnold told me he didn’t like the mirrors in the hotel.

‘Really? We can cover that up if it bothers you,’ I said, pointing at the full-length one opposite the end of our bed. ‘I suppose some people get a kick out of looking at themselves performing.’

‘For goodness sake, Marie,’ he said.

Cath Barton

Cath Barton is an English writer who lives in Abergavenny. Her novella The Plankton Collector won the New Welsh Writing AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella in 2017, was published by New Welsh Review the following year, and is due to be republished by Parthian Press later in 2024. Subsequent publications are In the Sweep of the Bay (2020, Louise Walters Books), Between the Virgin and the Sea (2023, Novella Express, Leamington Books) and The Geography of the Heart (2023, Arroyo Seco Press). Her most recent publication is a pamphlet of short stories, Mr Bosch and His Owls (2024, Atomic Bohemian).

Short Story of the Month, April 2024

This is a story that will linger in your mind and make you think about people past, present and future. They are out there. Ed.

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

April 2024: April 2024: “With Every Choice Something is Lost” by Mike Fox

“She was there most days, though it took me a while to realise. Still and unobtrusive, I began to notice her small figure, always in a white blouse part-concealed by a faded grey mac, standing in what seemed to be contemplation. Before long, as I passed through the churchyard, I found myself looking in the hope of seeing her.”

Mike Fox

Mike Fox has co-authored a book and published many articles on the human repercussions of illness. Now writing fiction, his stories have been nominated for Best of Net and the Pushcart Prize, listed in Best British and Irish Flash Fiction (BIFFY50), and included in Best British Stories 2018 (Salt), His story, The Violet Eye, was published by Nightjar Press as a limited edition chapbook. An illustrated collection of new stories is being prepared for publication by Confingo Publishing in 2024. www.polyscribe.co.uk

Short Story of the Month, March 2024

I love a story where you have to ask yourself "What is happening here?" And by the end you think you might know. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

March 2024: Outlaws by Neil Brosnan

It’s bizarre; four women travelling together and not a single word being exchanged between us. It’s not as if we’re not all acquainted: his sister is driving, my sister is the front-seat passenger, and the driver’s daughter is sitting beside me in the back – doing something on her iPhone.

Neil Brosnan

From Listowel, Ireland, Neil Brosnan’s stories have appeared in both print and digital magazines and anthologies in Ireland, Britain, Europe, Australia, USA and Canada. A Pushcart nominee, he has won The Bryan MacMahon, The Maurice Walsh, and Ireland’s Own short story awards, and has published two short story collections.

Short Story of the Month, February 2024

For February we have a story that touches on respect for local history and traditions and aspects of behaviour at home and abroad and people who are wonderful. So for once I have nothing funny to say in this intro. But I can assure you that it has nothing to do with interior design. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

February 2024: "My Yellow" by Amanda Huggins 

... Avril shakes her head. ‘I understand the thinking behind it – I know they don’t want Davy to be frightened of the sea – but sending the young bairn out there in this weather isn’t quite the same thing as getting back on a horse after being thrown. And the clothes? He’ll catch his own death dressed like that.’
I turn away from her for a moment, clenching and unclenching my fists as I try to hide my irritation. ...

Amanda Huggins

Amanda Huggins lives near Leeds and is the author of two novellas and several collections of short stories and poetry. Her work has appeared in, among others, Harper’s Bazaar, Mslexia, Tokyo Week-ender, The Telegraph, the Guardian, and on BBC radio.

She has won several awards, including the Kyoto City Mayoral Prize, the Colm Tóibín Short Story Award, the BGTW New Travel Writer of the Year, and three Saboteur Awards. She has also placed in the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Com-petition, the Costa Short Story Award and the Fish Short Story Prize, and been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.

Short Story of the Month, January 2024

Our first Story of the Year 2024 is about a quest, a journey in a narrowboat over days and months, meeting a cat and people known and unknown along the way and asking them a question. Not the cat, the people. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

January 2024: Cranes by Alex Barr

Fidler took early retirement and spent a year restoring a narrowboat, but when the year ended was filled with emptiness and horror.
  His daughter came to stay and was shocked.
  ‘You look terrible, Father. You’re not yourself.’
  ‘Who am I then?’
  ‘Why aren’t you out on the boat on the canal? Why restore a boat if not to use it?’

Alex Barr

Alex Barr’s recent short fiction is in Tears in the Fence, The Lampeter Review, The Interpreter’s House, New Welsh Reader, The Last Line Journal, Otherwise Engaged Journal, Sixfold Fiction, Mechanics Institute Review, Litro Magazine, Feed Literary Magazine, Reflex Press, Samyukta Fiction, and Streetlight Magazine. His short story collection ‘My Life With Eva’ is published by Parthian in Wales, where he lives.

You might be interested to know that Alex Barr is a previous contributor to Willesden Herald publications, having provided the story “Homecoming” chosen by Maggie Gee as a prizewinner for New Short Stories 5. His poem “Southernmost Point Guest House” also became the eponymous title for that anthology of poetry. (Ed.)

Willesden Herald Stories of the Year 2023

• January: This One-Trick Town by Amanda Huggins
• February: The Rings by Marion Urch McNulty
• March: The Paradox of Fossils by Michelle Christophorou
• April: Dr Takotsubo, and My Heart by Mike Fox
• May: Against the Grain by Anita Goveas
• August: Notes on a ‘Masterpiece’ by Ian Critchley
• September: Fresh Blows the Wind Homeward by Jaki McCarrick
• October: Living a Little by Jackie Morris
• November: The House on the Rio de San Polo by Georgia Hilton
• December: Shimmer by Alan McCormick 

Short Story of the Month, December 2023

Having personally had a sad experience among the delirious people who speak in tongues that sound a lot like jazz scatting and are big into the laying on of hands, I can relate to this gripping tale of sex, mass hysteria, hallucination and snake oil. Oh, and love. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

December 2023: Shimmer by Alan McCormick

… I’d just dropped out of university – thankfully no question of ever going back home after that – when shag-a-rent landlord Nick spoke to me in my bed and hooked me in: ‘You ought to come and hear him speak. He’ll make you feel good about who you are, and help you do things you never thought possible.’ …

Alan McCormick

Alan McCormick lives in Wicklow. He’s trustee of InterAct Stroke Support who read fiction and poetry to stroke patients. He was recently awarded an Irish Arts Council Literature Bursary to work on a collection of memoir essays. His writing has been published in The Stinging Fly, Southword, Banshee, Best British Short Stories, Confingo, Sonder, Popshot, Exacting Clam; and online at 3:AM Magazine, Fictive Dream, Dead Drunk Dublin, Words for the Wild and Époque Press. His story ‘Fire Starter’ came second in 2022’s RTÉ Short Story Competition, and ‘Boys on Film’ was runner-up in this year’s Plaza Sudden Fiction Prize. www.alanmccormickwriting.wordpress.com

Short Story of the Month, November 2023

We didn't set out to unveil a ghost story for Halloween, one simply - now what is the word? - materialised. Or did it? You can decide for yourself and see what happens when a bow wave of that bittersweet feeling of "good friend doing very well for herself while I languish" coincides with an invitation to Venice. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

November 2023: The House on the Rio de San Polo by Georgia Hilton

"...And he set off through the airport concourse with long strides, while Sylvie and I scurried behind him, like two country mice on our first excursion to the big city. 

At the dock, we could see the long queues of tourists waiting for a vaporetto. The water was inky black, and nothing was visible out in the lagoon except for bobbing lights in the distance. A mineral smell rose up out of the dark water. Engine noises were some way off. ..."

Georgia Hilton

Georgia Hilton is a poet and fiction writer originally from Limerick, Ireland, now living in Hampshire. Her short fiction has been published by Lunate Fiction, Fictive Dream, Acid Bath Publishing, and for National Flash Fiction Day. Georgia has two books of poetry both published by Dempsey and Windle (2018, 2020), and is also co-author of a poetry anthology published by Nine Pens Press (2022). She lives with her husband and three children and can be found on X/Twitter @GGeorgiahilton.

Short Story of the Month, October 2023

"I often think of Larkin’s poem, Afternoons, and the young mothers and how ‘something is pushing them/to the side of their own lives’. This feeling informs Living a Little. That and my memories of growing up on a Birmingham Council Estate and the sense of having escaped a ‘life less lived’ when I left home." (Jackie Morris)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

October 2023: Living a Little by Jackie Morris

‘Seems like only yesterday me and your Daddy were coming over on the ferry. Love’s young dream. You should have seen your Daddy then,’ Mam exhaled her cigarette. Smoke drifted over the children’s heads. ‘Your Nana had him down to be a priest, but I couldn’t have him going to waste like that.’

Jackie Morris

Jackie Morris’s stories are online at Brilliant Flash Fiction, Free Flash Fiction, Micro Fiction Monday, Retreat West the National Flash Fiction Day 2022 anthology and the National Flash Fiction Flashflood 23. She came third in the Willesden Herald Short Story Prize, 2022. She can be found on Twitter @JackieMMorris and on Bluesky @jackiemmorris.bsky.social.

Short Story of the Month, September 2023

"Frisch weht der Wind / Der Heimat zu, / Mein Irisch Kind". Is this what billows my sails? Is it anything to do with Prigozhin? No, it's the joy of reading a marvellous story about people and places and the lives lived today, in all their complex history and entanglements. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

September 2023: Fresh Blows the Wind Homeward by Jaki McCarrick

Emily stood at the window and looked down at the illuminated town. It was Saturday night and she could hear sirens.
“What is it?” Jo said.
“Police, I think. In the distance. Something must have happened.”
“Exactly,” Jo said, “in the distance. Come to bed.”

She looked eastwards, away from the passing police cars, and to where she could make out a cargo ship, inching its way across the Irish Sea. …

Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction. Winner of the Papatango Prize for New Writing for her play Leopoldville, Jaki’s play Belfast Girls was developed at the National Theatre Studio, London and has been staged many times internationally. Shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the BBC Tony Doyle Award, Belfast Girls made its New York premiere at the Irish Repertory Theatre in 2022, and opens in Buffalo, NY, in 2023. Her play The Naturalists premiered in New York in 2018.

Jaki McCarrick. Photo © Bobbie Hanvey

Jaki’s plays have been published by Samuel French, Routledge and Aurora Metro and have been translated into Swedish and French.

Her debut fiction collection The Scattering was shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Prize and includes the Wasafiri Prize-winning story, “The Visit”. In 2020 Jaki was shortlisted for the An Post Book Awards Short Story of the Year Award (Ireland) for her short story ”The Emperor of Russia”. Jaki was Writer in Residence at the Centre Cultural Irlandais in Paris in 2013 and at the University of Leuven, Belgium, in 2022. She has written critical pieces for the Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Examiner, Poetry Ireland Review and other publications.

Longlisted in 2014 for the inaugural Irish Fiction Laureate, Jaki is currently working on a novel, a second collection of short stories and the screenplay of Belfast Girls.

Short Story of the Month, August 2023

A fascinating insight into the process behind producing calm, unbiased, understated, yet admirably generous text online concerning topics that make your blood boil and steam come out of your ears. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

August 2023: Notes on a ‘Masterpiece’ by Ian Critchley

“… despite the fact that I’ve long dabbled in song-writing, it’s rare I discuss music. Today, though, I’m going to make an exception for Whistling in the Dark, the new album by indie flavour of the month Christ’s Cavalcade.”

[I could say more about my song-writing, I suppose, though probably nobody’s interested]

Ian Critchley

Ian Critchley is a freelance editor and journalist. His fiction has been published in several journals and anthologies, including Neonlit: Time Out Book of New Writing, Volume 2, The Mechanics Institute Review #15, Structo, Lighthouse, Litro and Storgy. He has won both the Hammond House International Literary Prize and the HISSAC Short Story Prize, and been shortlisted for the Exeter, H.G. Wells, and Plaza short story competitions. His journalism has appeared in the Sunday Times, Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review. He can be found on Twitter @iancritchley4, and his website is iancritchley.wordpress.com.

Short Story of the Month, May 2023

Intriguing. You might find yourself wondering what exactly happened in this short story. Don't look at me. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

May 2023: Against the Grain by Anita Goveas

“She expects to get caught and almost confesses every Friday. But if there’s anything her father talks about, it’s tradition and family and maybe the way he sustains that is by only looking at what he wants to see.”

Anita Goveas is British-Asian, London-based, and fuelled by strong coffee and paneer jalfrezi. She was first published in the 2016 London Short Story Prize anthology, most recently by the Cincinnati Review. She’s on the editorial team at Flashback Fiction, and is a submissions reader for The Selkie. She tweets erratically @coffeeandpaneer. Her debut flash collection, ‘Families and other natural disasters’, is available from Reflex Press, and links to her stories are at https://coffeeandpaneer.wordpress.com