After having written two unpublishable novels, I am concentrating on making my third one passable. It’s got politics, beasts and cutting-edge evolutionary genetics – so I think it is. And it came runner-up in the City University Festival Competition (next step: an agent).
I’m also working on a play, about how we all must let go of what we thought we knew, and have ditched my collection of short stories. Entitled Theologians: Stories from God’s Funeral, it just didn’t work out, although some of the stories from it were placed in competitions and publications.
In January 2012 I won the StorySLAM Live competition at the Southbank Centre. My story on synthetic biology was shortlisted for the SYBHEL prize and published by SYBHEL. Other short stories have appeared in Smoke: a London peculiar and Nottingham’s 3D anthology. The judge in the 2010 Segora short story competition ranked my entry, which will be included in the Segora anthology, “commendable”. I was shortlisted in the 2010 Earlyworks Press short story competition; my entry was published in the Ways of Falling anthology. Samples of my fiction are listed below. If you’d like to see more, please contact me.
“This is their dance” – a paparazzo and his model girlfriend. Fighting.
“Noah Tucker, the lonely atheist” – one boy sets himself apart. I performed this story at the December 2010 StorySLAM: Live.
“On the Other Side of the Glass Wall” – a newspaper editor considers how to cover the story of his daughter’s murder. This story was commended in the 2010 Segora short story competition. The judge described it as “absolutely riveting and very chilling”.
“Alice for the Weekend” – an old friend sees me through. This story was a live-action contender in the London Literature Festival Story Slam 2010.
“Small Fish Big Pond” – boredom evaporates in a second-hand canoe. This story is published in SMOKE 16.
All works copyright Adam E. Smith.
