Tiger, Tiger nominated for Pushcart!

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Tiger, Tiger being published by Amaranth was a real buzz, but now they’ve gone one better: Amaranth have nominated Tiger, Tiger for the 2026 Pushcart Prize.

I had never heard of the Pushcart before – probably because writers can’t apply directly but must be nominated by the publication which published them, from all across the world.

The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honoured literary project in America – including Highest Honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Since 1976, hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in our annual collections. Each year most of the writers and many of the presses are new to the series. Every volume contains an index of past selections, plus lists of outstanding presses with addresses.

I have no idea what my chances are of being selected, but fingers crossed!

Who Goes to the Doctor to Look at the Art?

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My short story A Reconciliation of Trolls was published by Crumps Barn in their collection Home Ground in 2024. Now they have selected another – Who Goes to the Doctor to Look at the Art? – which will be published in the collection Wild Winter on 3rd December 2026.

In the story, a husband and wife sit in a hospital waiting room at the very end of the year. He has come to receive a diagnosis and is expecting the worst. Things have been tense between him and his wife for some time, but when there’s so much they can’t or won’t talk about, what else else is left but to argue about the bad art on the wall opposite? Except that one of the pictures may just hold the key to repairing their relationship…

An anthology of life at the darkest time of the year, Wild Winter is now available to pre-order at Waterstones and on Amazon.

Tiger, Tiger

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It’s always a buzz getting a story accepted, especially after submitting it to so many outlets without success. In hindsight, I can’t believe it took me so long to consider sending a story centred on food to a Food magazine that also published fiction. A lesson learned.

The Tiger is no ordinary chef.

Night after night he circles the city – in complete anonymity – cooking extraordinary meals but leaving death in his wake. Could he be a modern day Flying Dutchman, cursed after committing some culinary crime? Or has he made some Faustian pact in order to achieve gastronomic greatness?

Many are eager to track the Tiger down, desperate to sample his extraordinary cooking, even if it means risking their lives.

Tiger, Tiger has now been published in Volume 5, Issue 2 of the Amaranth Journal, and is available to read (free of charge!) here.

The Garden of Earthly Delights lives again

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My short play The Garden of Earthly Delights was the first piece I ever had performed after graduating from Bath Spa University in 2015. It was produced at the New Venture Theatre, Brighton back in 2015.

The play has now been selected by Umbrellas for Fish – the International Journal of Absurd & Existential Drama and features in their second special issue for October 2026.

It was great fun to write – and to see performed – at the time, and it just goes to show that anything you write can live on, long after you thought (or hoped!) they would.

You can check out the online version here, and even buy it in paperback!

The Gasman Cometh… again.

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My short Play The Gasman Cometh will be performed at the Cotswold Playhouse on 11th October at 14:00.

It’s a dark comedy set in a Crematorium – Andrew and Frida have both come to bury their late spouses… only to recognise each other from a previous traumatic event. Can they keep their secret from their in-laws? Can they use the meeting to begin coming to terms with their loss?

The play was originally performed as part of the Salisbury Fringe back in 2016, but I’ve always liked it, and it will be great to see it performed again. Tickets available here.

Paper Human table read

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My stage play Paper Human will be given an online table read by R Creatives in September, with a possibility of an actual (scratch) performance later in the year. After Bristol Old Vic were so interested in it last Autumn, but ultimately didn’t select it, it’s great to get another chance, especially given how long it’s been in the writing. If you’re interested in listening in, you can get a (free!) ticket here, all welcome!

We live in an age of Algorithms. Paper Human tells the story of the very first one, the wartime use of IBM technology to identify – on racial grounds – the Jews of Holland and France.

Nosferatu

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I’ve recently gone back to working on some short stories, with some success.

Nosferatu, originally developed as one of a series of monologues – each one involving a narrator standing by a gravestone – was published by DoubleSpeak and can be found here.

Square with the House… on the BBC!

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My Radio Play Square With The House is being broadcast on Adam Crowther’s BBC Upload show this week!

The broadcast will be at the following times:
Thursday, 21st August on BBC Radio Gloucestershire & BBC Radio Wiltshire from 6pm and from 7pm on BBC Radio Bristol & BBC Radio Somerset.
Saturday, 23rd August on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Wiltshire, BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Somerset between 6-8pm. You can listen on your radio or via the free BBC Sounds app.

Not only can you hear the play again, but I will also be interviewed by Adam.

In Square With The House brother and sister Jack & Ali arrive at the lake to scatter the ashes of their late father. Having forgotten to ask permission, they must dodge the park staff, confront a crisis in their relationship as well as dealing with their feelings towards their late, estranged father. The play was written/recorded as part of my Virtual Residency at Lake 32 in the Cotswold Water Park, arranged by Dialect, the Stroud-based development network offering learning and publication opportunities to writers in rural and edgeland places. It was wonderful program to get involved with and a lot of fun making it work.

Thanks to Katy Sorensen and Adrian McPherson (of Cirencester Theatre Company) for doing such a good job.

More Destiny of Shoes

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Another radio play The Destiny of Shoes gets another lease of life when it’s broadcast this Saturday evening on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Wiltshire, BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Somerset between 6-8pm. You can listen on your radio or via the free BBC Sounds app.

Grame Bruce Fletcher plays both of a pair of shoes undergoing an existential crisis!