Kicking off our programme for Leeds LitFest 2026 is an essential event for all readers, writers and lovers of the short form. Join writer and Senior Librarian Stu Hennigan and a panel of multi-award-winning writers as they discuss what makes a great short story, and talk about some of their favourite examples and practitioners. There'll be plenty of time for audience questions too so writers, don't miss out on this opportunity to come and get tips from some of the very best in the business.
Alice Jolly’s most recent novel is The Matchbox Girl published by Bloomsbury in 2025. Her novel Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile was runner up for the £30,000 Rathbones Folio Prize and she has also won the Pen Ackerley Prize, the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize and an O. Henry Award (20 best short stories in the US). She taught creative writing at Oxford University for sixteen years and reviews for The Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement.
Naomi Booth is the author of the novels raw content, Exit Management and Sealed, and the short-story collection Animals at Night. Her first work of fiction, The Lost Art of Sinking, emerged from her PhD on the literary history of swooning and won the Saboteur prize for Best Novella. Her novels have been books of the year in the Guardian and the White Review; her stories have been listed for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the Galley Beggars Short Story Prize, and the Edge Hill Prize—winning the 'Reader's Choice' award. Her story, Sour Hall, first published in the anthology Hag, has been adapted into an Audible Originals drama series. Naomi grew up in West Yorkshire and now lives in York. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Durham University.
Nicholas Royle is the author of six short story collections – Mortality, Ornithology, The Dummy and Other Uncanny Stories (Swan River Press), London Gothic, Manchester Uncanny and Paris Fantastique (Confingo Publishing) – and seven novels. He has edited more than two dozen anthologies and is series editor of Best British Short Stories for Salt, who also published his books-about-books, White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector, Shadow Lines: Searching For the Book Beyond the Shelf and Finders, Keepers: The Secret Life of Second-hand Books. In 2009 he launched Nightjar Press, which publishes original short stories in the form of limited-edition chapbooks. The name of the press reflects the mood of the stories it was founded to champion: dark, strange, uncanny and – sometimes – experimental.
Stu Hennigan is a writer, poet and musician from the North of England. His book Ghost Signs (Bluemoose, 2022) was shortlisted for two major literary prizes including Best Political Book By A Non-Parliamentarian at the Parliamentary Book Awards in 2023. His debut novel, Keshed, was published in February 2026 with his next book, Disappear Here: Bret Easton Ellis' America forthcoming in 2027, both with Ortac Press. His short fiction, essays, poetry and criticism have been published widely in print and online by Tangerine Press, Prospect, 3:AM, minor literature[s], Broken Sleep Books, White Rabbit, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Visual Verse and many more. He plays guitar in the rock band Kamien, and also works as Senior Librarian For Stock and Reader Development with Leeds Libraries
Tickets for this event are Pay What You Can Afford, with a suggested minimum donation of £6.00
