Short Stories for BBC Radio

The BBC Radio Drama Readings Unit welcomes submissions from writers new to radio for their annual series, Opening Lines which is broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

The next window for sending in material is: 5th January – 13th February 2015. 

The three successful writers will have their stories broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and be invited to the BBC in London to see their stories being recorded. As well as broadcasting the three strongest stories we publish transcripts of the best stories submitted within this period on the Opening Lines website.

KEY INFORMATION

• Writers who have previously had a story/stories broadcast on network radio or have substantial writing credits in other areas of radio (e.g. comedy and drama) are not eligible for this series.
• One story per writer.
• Please don’t re-submit stories that have previously been considered for Opening Lines
• Stories must be between 1,900 and 2,000 words in length.

Things to bear in mind:

The original short story must work being read out loud i.e. with a strong emphasis on narrative and avoiding too much dialogue, character description and digression. Pay particular attention to how the story opens and closes, the ending would usually link back to the beginning.

Material which explores particularly dark, harrowing themes is not suited to Opening Lines. 

Stories must not contain defamatory, obscene or any other unsuitable material which is likely to cause offence to a wide audience of all ages. 

Link and more details here

Click here to read stories which have featured in recent series.

BBC Radio 4 Seeking 3 Short Stories

Deadline: July 18th.

The Time Being BBC Radio 4 has commissioned Sweet Talk to produce three short stories by new voices for our returning series (TX dates currently scheduled for 11, 18, 25 January 2015). We are therefore inviting submissions.

Sweet Talk is an independent radio production company specialising in readings, drama and short form features. In recent times we’ve broadcast work by - among others - Alison MacLeod, Anita Sullivan, Olga Grushin, Adam Marek, Lynne Truss, Alison Moore, Melissa Lee-Houghton, Jonas Jonasson, Rupert Thomson, Katy Darby, Laura Barton, Jami Attenberg, Nick Walker, Morven Crumlish, Toby Litt, Simon Stephenson, Louise Stern, Andrew Miller, Jesmyn Ward, James Hopkin, Esi Edugyan, Shena Mackay, M.J. Hyland, Scarlett Thomas and former The Time Being contributors Heidi Amsinck and Tania Hershman.

This is the eighth season of The Time Being. The last was broadcast early in 2014.

Writers wishing to submit should be aware of the following:
• This is a week of new voices, so we’re looking for writers who are as yet unbroadcast (and largely unpublished: i.e. having a story in a magazine or anthology here and there is OK, but a track record of novels and story collections in print is not!)
• Please don’t submit stories that have been previously ‘performed’ (e.g. at readings events which have been filmed/recorded and put on YouTube etc.)
• Ideally, stories will not have previously appeared in print or online.
• Broadcast stories will be read by a single voice.
• Stories need to be between 2000 and 2200 words in length.
• Please put full contact details (name, post and email address, phone number) including any alternative contact details for vacations and a word count on the title page of each story.
• No more than two stories per writer, please.
• We are unable provide feedback on unsuccessful submissions.

We are already accepting stories but the closing date for submissions is 18 July 2014. Please email stories to jeremyosborne@mac.com.

Jeremy Osborne
Sweet Talk Productions

Erotic Writing

(I may get some more hits with this title!)

Apropo of nothing much except I just found this while looking for something else, here's a link to a piece I had a good few years agoon Women's House, Radio 4.

Tony Doyle Bursary

Not much notice for this one. First I've seen of it.

Deadline: 4th December 2009

The Tony Doyle Bursary for New Writing is currently accepting submissions. The aim of the bursary is to promote, assist and develop writing for television from Irish writers who are new to the medium and to create links between broadcasters and writers in Ireland.

Entrants are asked to send in either a 60 or 90 minute script for an original television, theatre, film or radio drama in the form of a single drama or the first episode of a two-parter, serial or series. The chosen finalists will then participate in a residential seminar where they will undergo concentrated script sessions with members of BBC Northern Ireland Drama’s development team and various script writers and producers.

The winner of the bursary competition will receive a cash prize of £2,000.

Got a UK address? The Verb

The Verb on BBC Radio 3 is marking Radio 3's Composers of the Year celebrations by inviting (UK) listeners to send a short story of no more than 1000 words which use the names of all four composers- Mendelssohn, Haydn, Purcell and Handel in the most inventive, imaginative and cunning ways possible, from a detective called Mendelssohn to an intergalactic starship called the USS Handel. Sounds like a challenge.

Deadline: May 11th.
Judges: Ian McMillan and Rob Cowan, presenter of Radio 3’s Breakfast will judge a shortlist of entries. (Who'll judge the longlist?)

The winning story will be read out on The Verb on 29th May. See here for details.

YOu can listen to the program for a week online.

Podcasts

There is lots to listen to either online or download and listen to later. I sometimes listen on my PC but usually transfer to my phone (Nokia - love it) which can holds loads and then listen to my podcasts driving around or in the supermarket. It really makes the time pass faster.

Here are ones on my list:
Weekend Blend on Newstalk - a bit frothy but interesting guests
Woman's Hour Podcast
BBC Radio 4 Front Row highlights - always something that sparks the interest
Radio 3 Arts and Ideas podcast can ge ta bit high-falutin'
RTE The Arts Show but I'm still missing the late lamented Rattlebag
Lyric FM Quiet Quarter
Sunday Miscellany, yes even though they repeatedly refuse to acknowledge my brilliance.
Francis MacManus short stories you seem to have to listen to online.
DLR Libraries Podcast page has podcasts of various literary events.

and this new one:
short stories from the New Yorker Check out the great story from Tobias Wolffe, Bullet in the Head.

Also results from the Dromineer Literary Festival Competition

5th Dromineer Literary Festival will be launched and hold its award ceremony on next Friday 3rd Oct at Lough Derg Yacht Club, Dromineer, Co Tipperary. Congratulations to you all.

Prize winners :

Poetry
1st Nollaig Rowan, Dublin 'Making Your Deb's Dress' 500 Euro
2nd Michael Farry, Trim 'I Taught You to Drive' 350 Euro
3rd Tony O'Dwyer, Galway 'A Poem About Something Else' 150 Euro

Short story
1st Andrew King, Dublin 'The Old Guard' 500 Euro
2nd Mari Maxwell, Galway 'Burren Child' 350 Euro
3rd Sarah Cottle, Sligo 'First Impressions' 150 Euro

Festival runs 2nd to 5th Oct. 2008.

This piece was broadcast on BBC7

Know Your Place - The Sandias
A piece broadcast on 'Know Your Place' on BBC Radio 7

Years ago, I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the real South West where cowboys still walked the streets and drove out onto the mesa in dirty pickup trucks with gun racks. The chilli was hot and the buildings made of adobe; it was hot in the summer and it snowed in the winter.

From my window I could see the Sandia mountain range, the tailbone of the Rocky Mountains, the spine of the American Mid-West. In pueblo Indian mythology the mountains were sacred. Dots of ponderosa pine clung to the top ridge like pips in a watermelon. Above the west face swung the tramway, taking seasonal carloads of skiers and walkers up from the foothills to the peak. At 10,000 feet, the altitude stole your breath but the view was worth it; the city stretched out over the Rio Grande and to the desert beyond. The slopes below were protected and home to geckos, rattlesnakes, roadrunners and bears.

I used to drive to work along Tramway, the road that traced the foothills past the tramway station and on through Sandia Indian Pueblo. Some mornings I would glimpse a coyote bounding away or dodge tumbleweed as big as a car blasted along in the spring wind. Driving home again at the end of a long day, the Sandias came into their own. As the sun set, the dark slopes changed slowly from grey and black, through blood red to scarlet and glowing pink.

I think of these times when I cut Sandia watermelon triangles to share with my daughter who was born there that winter. And I think of my daughter when I sit in my hire car on Tramway and watch the colours change one more time.