Events

Please note: Storyslingers' website has moved! We had many problems using Blogger so we can now be found on Wordpress here:



Please come and visit us at our new home, and update your links and bookmarks!




Here we'll announce any up-coming group events. Please check this page often for updates.


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Author Kate Kelly comes to Storyslingers to talk about her debut novel for children and young adults.




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Storyslingers Fictional Worlds Event & networking party 1st June 3-5pm (with after party from about 5pm).


With thanks to Maxime Plasse, cartographer, for supplying the map/ image for this poster


Storyslingers is putting on a series of mini events on June 1st, culminating in a networking party for creative people. We will be celebrating fictional place and the art of cartography. There will be an informal exhibition of fictional maps created by cartographers from across the world who specialise in the art form known as geofiction: making maps of fictional places. Don’t miss this chance to see some of the best fictional maps in the world, right here in Dorset.

There are three informal events that are open to the public to drop in on any time throughout the afternoon: 
3-4pm Fictional Worlds writing workshop. Creating fictional worlds, thinking about their rules and limitations. Open to all levels. 

4-5pm Open Mic reading event. Share your work with other writers and whoever happens to drop by. All stories must be set in a fictional world/ some new spin on reality. Take us somewhere we’ve never been before. Stories should not exceed 7 minutes or 1000 words. Stories of 3-5 minutes are best (600-800 words). We have short attention spans. Extracts from longer works are welcome. In the case of extracts the focus should be on the fictional world - delight us with a new place we wish we could go to if only it really existed.

5-6pm:  Networking party and drop in session. Writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, cartographers and readers are invited to come along and talk shop. Working on a piece of fiction? Just read the best book ever? Want to talk about it? Come along.  Let’s chat creativity over cakes and wine. 
Also, book swap and stall. If you've ever been handed a world book night book and it's got stuck on your shelves, now is the time to pass it onto someone new. Same goes for any book you have idling that you're happy to pass on. We'll be displaying some of our handmade books too, which will be on sale.  Published writers/ artists are welcome to add their publications/ cards to the stall. 

The announcement of the results of the 2nd Map Making competition will happen sometime during the day - most likely at 5pm (Results will be published online later in the following week.) The maps will be on display throughout the event.

Tickets are on the door and it'll work by a system of paying what you think it's worth in relation to your bank balance, from £1 upwards. All profits will go towards funding a future Storyslingers event: specifically a (roving?) exhibition of the winning and shortlisted maps entered in the map making competition

Come to all or some of the events, pick and choose, drop in and out. Invite your mates along too.

Join the Facebook event page.

1st June 2013 3pm-6ish
The Rutter Room
Bell Street
Dorset


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Storyslingers second fictional map making competition is underway. 
With only one month left before the deadline, it’s time to get drafting!

DEADLINE 21st MAY 2013
 FREE ENTRY
OPEN TO ALL: WRITERS, CARTOGRAPHERS, ARTISTS, ADULTS, CHILDREN, ANYONE.

Every story is set somewhere and it’s the writer’s job to immerse their reader fully into that fictional world. How are we to write convincing worlds if we do not know our way around them?

We challenge writers, cartographers, and/or artists to draw a map of their fictional world.
Please email your map as a jpeg to zomzara@googlemail.com with Map Making Competition as the subject. If you’re interested in the public reading opportunity, please let us know so we have an idea of how many people are potentially interested.

Entry is FREE. This competition is open to all, young or old, artistically brilliant or dysfunctional. If you’re under the age of 16, let us know and we’ll enter you into the kids’ category too.

Have your maps sent to us by the 21st of May. (If you send a day or two late, we’ll probably still accept it, though no guarantees).

An exciting opportunity has arisen for the winners: depending on the quality of the submissions, the Slade Centre gallery in Dorset is keen to put on a short show, giving winning entrants the opportunity to exhibit their maps in one of North Dorset’s leading galleries. Winning entrants will be given the opportunity to publicly read their work in front of a live audience (this is totally optional! We know a lot of entrants won't be writers.)*

The best maps will also be displayed at Shaftesbury Arts Centre in June and here on the blog. A public reading opportunity may arise in Shaftesbury as well (TBC).

* please note that this opportunity is dependent on the artistic quality of the submissions, so it may not happen. As writers, we’re more interested in the imaginative quality, so there might end up being a clash of interest between us and the Slade Centre. Maps will be exhibited at Shaftesbury Arts Centre for sure. 


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Storyslingers launches its first open competition.
deadline: 31st August 2012
free entry. 

Every story is set somewhere and it’s the writer’s job to immerse their reader fully into that fictional world. How are we to write convincing worlds if we do not know our way around them? 


We challenge any budding writer*/ artist out there to draw a map of their fictional world. It doesn’t have to encompass the entire world, it can be a small part of it; a city/ borough/ street, an island, a country or county, a building-plan etc. 

We will be publishing the winning map online, so if your world is top-secret then maybe keep it under wraps for now and submit it next time. 


The world/ location must be your own. We don’t want to see lots of renditions of Hogwarts.


The closing date is Friday the 31st August, so get your colouring pencils out and start drafting! 


Further info:

We don’t take ourselves too seriously, so we don’t expect you to either. We’re not concerned about intricacies of scale or worried over the physics of your world. If it looks cool, we’ll be happy. Inspire us, excite us. 


*Wait, you’re not even a writer? But you like to dream up worlds and make maps? – okay, that’s cool, go for it and submit. Maybe one of us writers will like your world and want to team up with you and write a story set in your world. Our writers are always on the lookout for things that will spark the next story, so we’d love to find a new world to write about. 


More information and examples of already published maps can be found here.


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Shaftesbury Arts & Music Festival
Wednesday 4th - Sunday 9th September, 2012. All rooms.
More details about this event are forthcoming - we'll update this page when we find out more about where Storyslingers will be based during the weekend.



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Storyslingers Short Story Slam
Friday 20th July, 2012.
The Rutter Room, Shaftesbury Arts Centre. 7pm start. The official SAC page is here. 

Storyslingers is hosting Shaftesbury’s first ever Story Slam – THE summer event for emerging writers to showcase their work, and for audiences to engage in fresh local literature.

A story slam is a contest of words, like a poetry slam for prose writers. Each writer has approximately five minutes (or 780 words) to read their story in front of a cosy audience and a friendly panel of judges.

This is an open event, and any writer can register to participate, though please be aware that some content may be unsuitable for children. We have a 60-seat maximum capacity with 10-15 performance slots. If we have any slots free on the night you can register on the door.

There are no set themes—you can read anything you like, from contemporary to fantasy, literary to genre-based fiction. The only restriction is that it's your own work. And it doesn't end there: Stories can even have live musical accompaniment if you want. But please contact us in this case so we can sort out the technicalities beforehand.

If you'd rather not compete you can still read a story during the non-competitive readers’ slots. Just please make clear in advance whether you want to compete or not. If you plan to read out a story email Jennifer K. Oliver at joliverdesigns(at)gmail(dot)com to book a reading slot.

Winner(s) will receive a small prize! And everyone will receive a massive round of applause.

Non-writers please come along and hear fresh new writing from the best local authors. There will be handmade books, zines, bookmarks and postcards for sale – mostly limited edition prints/ books, or one-off Book Art pieces.

Tickets £5 (£4 for SAC members and under 18s).

Bar and coffee-making facilities available.


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