Horsenden Lane Farm Festival sign

"Horsenden Lane Farm Festival Event Open 1st October As Usual" road sign on a suburban footpath near the junction of Ennismore Avenue and Horsenden Lane North.

Our strapline used to be "yesterday's news tomorrow", so in keeping with that: how did it go? 

Other straplines of the past: the perplexing "tomorrow's news yesterday"; the JLP-style but oddly off-putting "never knowingly scooped"; "since 1894" - there was a newspaper with the same name about then; the unlikely hilarious "pray for the repose of the soul of Colin Di Limonade" etc. etc.

New Short Stories 12 - first look

From Willesden Herald Books, an imprint of Pretend Genius Press

The best of the Willesden Short Story Prize 2020

New Short Stories 12 cover flat

Short fiction by David Butler, Helen Harjak, Catherine McNamara, Andy Mead, Jackie Morris, Diana Powell, Peter Newall, Anju Sharma, Lui Sit, Zakia Uddin 

With an introduction by Jarred McGinnis

Launch: The Performance Space, Willesden Green Library, 8 November 2022, from 7pm

Results event and book launch, Willesden Green Library, Nov 8

Entrance to the new Willesden Green Library Centre, London NW10

The Performance Space, Willesden Green Library

Tues. 8 November 2022, from 7pm to 8:30pm

Who will take the one-off mug inscribed “The Willesden Short Story Prize 2022”? We’re going to have fun along the way with excerpts from stories, saving the results till last. With Katy Darby and Liars’ League.

This is also the book launch of New Short Stories 12. So there will be books [I hope – Ed.] A night to remember.

Event listing on Facebook

Short list for the Willesden Short Story Prize 2022

The ten stories shortlisted for the Willesden Short Story Prize 2022 in alphabetical order by author

• Shoes by David Butler
• Remembering Not Forgetting by Helen Harjak
• Vevey by Catherine McNamara
• Haircut by Andy Mead
• Cuckquean by Jackie Morris
• My Last Journey with Baron Baldanders by Peter Newall
• Empathy by Diana Powell
• Things we see, things we don't by Anju Sharma
• Forecast for Rain by Lui Sit
• Hotline by Zakia Uddin

Thanks to all who entered for making our selection task so difficult with the high standard of writing. The total number of entries was 371. It was painful having to leave out many outstanding short stories.  

There will be a special event to announce 1st prize short story and runners-up and to launch the anthology, New Short Stories 12. Details to follow. 

The one-off mug inscribed "The Willesden Short Story Prize 2022"

Short story competition: Closing date Wednesday 31 August

The one-off prize mug inscribed “The Willesden Short Story Prize 2022” standing on a black electric piano with a metronome, a tambourine and learner's music book open at "Broken Chords" etc.

We're back with a competition for inclusion in Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 12. Closing date will be August 31, 2022. Entry fee £5. 10 prizes: 1st £300, 2nd £200, 3rd £100 and 7 x £50, plus copies of the book. (The prize details have been updated.)

August 29, Monday. Good morning! The total number of short stories in the inbox as of this morning stands at 279. [Ed.]

• Read all about the competition on WordPress

2022 Writers, Don't Let Me Down! Ed.

Your forebears could hunt an epiphany through the great forest of Um without breaking a twig and spear it with words sharpened on the soles of their feet. Arise, put on your leotards and send in your short stories, ye of this century…(Enough, thank you. Get to the music. Ed.)

Links 

• Submit via Submittable.com  
• Willesden Herald New Short Stories website on WordPress

Short Story of the Month, July 2022

A guest story to cool the air this summer. Sean Brijbasi has kindly lent us this far out story as a reprint from his unknowed book of the same name. Sean is one of the unknowed people behind the Willesden short story competition. Please do not write in to tell us that unknowed is not a word! (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

July 2022: The Unknowed Things by Sean Brijbasi

… To my surprise, I received a response, stating that a vice admiral couldn’t be blamed for the consequences of my ingratitude. Such a knowing people, I thought. It was true. Lily had given me everything even when I didn’t ask, appearing with unexpected gifts even when I deserved nothing. She told me the most beautiful stories that I, in turn, told to others as if they were my own …

Sean Brijbasi

Sean Brijbasi lives in America.

Sometimes he writes.

“You get the feeling that NO ONE CAN SEE THE WORLD I LIVE IN by Sean Brijbasi is the kind of book inspired by people who will most likely never read it.” –Rail Drinks Magazine (?)

Grove Farm - smart new sign

The new information board for Grove Farm at the Whitton Avenue West entrance

The old signboard. Some helpful person added pointers for "Harrow 2 miles and Wembley 2 miles".

The Willesden Herald has mentioned before that groups of men hanging around or sometimes standing in groups among the trees and drinking, near the Greenford Road entrance are not conducive to more community use of this wonderful nature reserve. A lone woman was murdered there a few years ago. Not sure what more can be done about that, as a "no drinking zone" has been tried but doesn't seem to have made much difference. If you walk in from Greenford Road on the path to the David Lloyd sports centre, you will see mountains of beer cans and bottles piled in ditches and under bridging parts of the road. There is a small stream that runs down by the old IBM/Kellogg Tower, which has now been redeveloped into flats. Further development is planned in an adjacent site but Grove Farm is not set to be affected. It's a site of special interest for rare trees and plants. Of its nature, it must remain wooded with hills and obscure paths. So best suggestion, a permanent warden service, someone uniformed and tasked with keeping a watchful eye and combatting litter etc. No, we can't afford a warden because we're so modern and sophisticated, so rich? Question to Ealing Council. (Ed.)

Another great Spitalfields Life feature

Charles Dickens in Shadwell & Limehouse. Superb photo essay with supporting quotes in the redoubtable Spitalfields Life. A must for devotees of Charles Dickens and old London, as indeed is the whole journal.

It's polling day in the local elections (May 5 2022)

New! Cassetteboy vs The Tories May 2022. (contains a swear) pic.twitter.com/3y0Dl4HLLU

— Cassetteboy (@Cassetteboy) May 4, 2022

It's a nice day in London for kicking the Tories out of office.

Long time, no shops

Launderama - Laundry, Dry Cleaners, Alterations

Maya Pub

"Lobsters Fish Bar" Fish & Chips

Random shops from the marvellous Shaftesbury Circle, Harrow, a wonderful shopping parade. The circle's architecture is wonderful and deserves its own dedicated report by someone far better at this than me. (Ed.)

The indomitable spirit of Ukraine

Little girl singing "Let it go" in a shelter#UkraineRussianWar #Ukraine #UkraineUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/6gfcUoiwJJ

— Ankita Jain (@Ankita20200) March 6, 2022

➽ Links to Donate
– Disasters Emergency Committee (UK)
– List of organisations providing support Ukraine

Jarred McGinnis to judge Willesden Short Story Competition 2022

Jarred McGinnis

We are pleased and excited to announce that novelist and short story writer Jarred McGinnis has agreed to judge the Willesden Herald Short Story Competition 2022. An American abroad, his debut novel The Coward (Canongate, 2021) was a BBC Radio 2 Book Club recommendation. It is also about to be published in the US as well as France, Italy and Spain later this year. He has many strings to his bow, including short fiction for BBC Radio 4 and much more besides, which you can read all about on his website. He is no stranger to our competition, having had a short story in New Short Stories 4. [Ed.]

Call for Submissions: New Short Stories 12

Willesden Herald short story competition 2022

We’re back with a competition for inclusion in Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 12. Open to international entries. Closing date will be August 31, 2022. Entry fee £5. There are ten prizes, as follows:

• 1st prize: £300 + one-off inscribed Willesden Herald mug
• 2nd: £200
• 3rd: £100
• 7 x £50
• Plus you get a copy of the anthology when it’s published.

Judge: Jarred McGinnis (updated 20 Feb. 2022)

Please visit our submittable.com page for full details and to Submit. 

The Obscure Object of Desire (inscribed mug)

Photo: One-off Willesden Herald mug inscribed "Willesden Short Story Prize"

Wood End Library and Children's Centre demolished (photos)

Update 8 Feb 2022, the scene today

Before

After

Whitton Avenue West

According to this website presentation, Ealing Council's proposed plan for the site includes a block of 11 new "affordable homes" and a community library.

"View of the current, emerging proposal" (from the linked site above)

Short Story of the Month, February 2022

Greetings to our friends in Ukraine and also in Russia. Here's a wish that your differences may be settled by diplomacy and not more war. I have to say something constructive when I'm about to share with you a short story in which a young woman asks, "Have the Russians won everything yet?" Ed.

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

February 2022: Triple Axel by Yelena Furman

"In the Soviet Union, with its ritual of daily obstacles and anti-Semitism, the U.S. had seemed a haven, a far-away hope of her life’s opposite. She was young when the exodus of Jewish refugees, as they were officially called, started in the 1970s, mostly to North America and Israel. Suddenly, everyone knew someone, or was someone, who was leaving. Her mother’s coworker. Her father’s cousin. The girl who sat behind her in school."

Yelena Furman

Yelena Furman lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches Russian literature. Her fiction has previously appeared in Narrative.

Short Story of the Month, January 2022

"He took a deep breath and punched the picture of the chocolate cupcake..." I mean you have to read a story that has that in it, don't you? Ed

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

January 2022: Boardwalk Oracle by M. E. Proctor

“...Even in the fading light of the day that concealed the worst scars of decrepitude, the seediness of the place could not be ignored. Many shops were boarded up and metal curtains were down on those that weren’t. The coin-operated machines were battered, nicked and banged metal, flaked-off paint. Relics from the early age of automation..."

M. E. Proctor

M.E. Proctor lives in Livingston, Texas. After forays into SF (The Savage Crown Series), she’s working on a series of contemporary detective novels. Her short stories have been published in Bristol Noir, The Bookends Review, Beat to a Pulp, All Worlds Wayfarer, Shotgun Honey and others. On Twitter: @MEProctor3

Another useless cartoon

TYPICAL! YOU WAIT AGES FOR A RHOMBUS...

(probably been done before?)

Cartoons by Zoz, by jingo

 A homemade slideshow of cartoons by Zoz, aka Smoran. Now with added pleasant music, courtesy of YouTube Studio, credit unspecified.

Petticoat Lane, London, c.1900 (film)

Men and women around an east end market in London, possibly Petticoat Lane (Middlesex Street) around 1900 at this time a predominantly a poor Jewish working class area.
Credit: Huntley Archives pic.twitter.com/qtW523br9t

— Historygirl (@janeyellene) November 28, 2021

Wonderful scenes down Petticoat Lane market in the East End of London, circa 1900. Does that sort of joy even exist anymore? (Ed.)

Tim Berners-Lee Cried

The DotCom’s connected to the WordPress
The WordPress ’s connected to the Facebook
The Facebook’s connected to the MySpace
Now fear the bulletin board

The MySpace ’s connected to the WayBack
The WayBack’s connected to the NewsNet
The NewsNet's connected to the Archive
Now fear the bulletin board

Dem zones, dem zones, dem wry zones
Dem moans, dem moans, them shy moans
Dem groans, dem groans, dem sly groans
Now fear the bulletin board

The Archive’s connected to the Lib-’ry
The Lib-’ry’s connected to the Psal-ters
The Psalters connected to the Bi-ble
Now fear the bulletin board

The Bible’s connected to the proph-ets
The prophets connected to Ezekiel
Ezekiel’s connected to the toe bone
Now fear the bulletin board

Dem bones, dem zones, dem shy moans
Dem knowns, dem pomes, dem high tones
Dem’s flown, dem’s gone, dem’s by-gones
Now fear the bulletin board
Now surf the web of the Lord

--

Stephen Moran

Short Story of the Month, December 2021

Not much sign of mystical religious experience in contemporary short stories, is there? We are here to remedy that with another unusual story of the month. Prepare to be conveyed to the boundary between the here and now and the ineffable beyond. Ed.

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

December 2021: Not Like a River, But a Tree by James Roderick Burns

“Seated again, he closed his eyes. Now and then he had sampled High Anglican services (had, in fact, dragged along both Maureen and the children) where the priest broke out the censer, smoking the pews like a beekeeper gently rousing his charges, but he preferred things here in the cathedral: high enough, quite solemn to be sure, but musical and slightly imperfect; human, somehow, and all the better for it. Sometimes he’d invited people from the office."

James Roderick Burns

James Roderick Burns’ short story collection, Beastly Transparencies, is due from Eyewear Publishing in 2022. He is the author of three collections of poetry – most recently The Worksongs of the Worms (2018, haiku) – and a short fiction pamphlet, A Bunch of Fives. His work has appeared in a number of journals and magazines, including The Guardian, Modern Haiku, The North and The Scotsman.

Short Story of the Month, November 2021

Give your mind a workout with a short story that I, for one, will not forget any time soon. Ed.

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

November 2021: The Blood of Our Virtue Smells Like Dirt

Her mouth is wide and painted royal blue, her teeth stark white in comparison as she bares them at the ceiling in thought. She can pass for a corpse pulled cold from the salty water of the ocean outside her window, frail and blue and perfectly preserved.

“What do you want to be?” She asks me.

Jessica Fogal

Jessica Fogal lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest (USA), where she’s a full time legal assistant, amateur street photographer, and author. She’s been published in The Ilanot Review and has had many prints showcased in art galleries such as Terrain Spokane, and continues to use her lifelong passions for performance, visual, and literary arts as an inspiration for her creative writings.

The fight for the soul of Spitalfields

Save Brick Lane - BBC London News https://t.co/Lkpq0z2DnT

— Spitalfields Life (@thegentleauthor) September 14, 2021

"Tonight, Tuesday 14th September, Tower Hamlets Council’s Development Committee makes its decision upon the Truman Brewery’s controversial planning application for a shopping mall with four floors of offices on top, as the first step in the redevelopment of the entire brewery site into a corporate plaza." (More)

Short Story of the Month, October 2021

We're back with all new stories. Here's something to think about because, you know, nothing at all is happening in the world these days, is it? Read the whole story before you make up your mind about this one. It might not be just what you think. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

October 2021: How They Do by Jack R. Johnson

“Al Nash kept the dark secret of his hair loss hidden under his favorite blue canvas Navy cap, and pulled it even lower as he told his son, Troy Nash, about Robert E. Lee …”

Jack R. Johnson

Jack R. Johnson is a monthly columnist for North of the James Magazine in Richmond, Virginia; an editor of The Alliance for Progressive Virginia blog and a contributor to Style Magazine. His published works include short stories, articles and the novel, An Animal’s Guide to Earthly Salvation. His latest novel, In Black and White, is scheduled to be published by Propertius Press in 2022.