Hello you!
The Substack wizards and marketing gurus say this is where I’m supposed to upsell Writing Talk. Define your offer, they say. Crystallise your USP. Bring to the table your wheelhouse, trim the fat, and move the needle by getting your ducks in a row. Or something.
Well screw that. Writing Talk is not a shiny superstore, but a quirky cornershop, with guidance and inspiration and thoughtful opinions (gleaned and honed from 12 years as a published author), plus a corner where I share some creative writing of my own. The sort of place where you stop and chat, because this writing life is so much better when it is done in the company of others - learning, supporting and sometimes having a shared grumble.
If you want specifics, then Writing Talk is something like this:
For Free Subscribers
A monthly longform piece on an aspect of writing craft, musings on the nature of success, failure, rejection, and persistence, or ideas on creativity and mindful writing practice.
The Art of Awareness: A monthly short creative non-fiction essay.
The Bits In Between: Regular short pieces, which might be writing inspiration, examples of Positive Procrastination, or useful information and support for working class and marginalised writers.
For Paid Subscribers
Craft Insights: Pithy and inspiring writing exercises and prompts.
Microdosing Fiction: Read better to write better analysis of short fiction stories
Other bonus content.
Who am I?
I’m a late bloomer, an award-winning author, a proud working class writer, and a creative writing tutor. I live in the UK and write fiction as KM Elkes. My debut short fiction collection All That Is Between Us (Ad Hoc Fiction) was shortlisted for a Saboteur Award. I’ve been longlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award and individual stories have won, or been placed, in international writing competitions including the Manchester Fiction Prize, Royal Society of Literature VS Pritchett Prize, Fish Publishing Prize, and the Bridport Prize.
My short stories and flash fiction have been widely published, appearing in more than 50 literary anthologies and literary journals. And my work has featured on school curricula in the USA, India and Hong Kong.
Major flash fiction competition wins include: Bath Flash Fiction Award, Fish Publishing Award, and the Reflex Flash Prize. I was featured in the Best Microfiction anthology series and I’m a Best Small Fiction and Pushcart Prize nominee.
I teach creative writing too - through my own online writing courses with attendees from across the globe. I’ve also run writing workshops at literary festivals in the UK and guest-lectured Bath Spa, Bristol and Sheffield Hallam Universities.
I hold an MA in Creative Writing (Distinction) from Oxford Brookes University.
I am a writer from a rural working class background, and my work often reflects themes around transience, isolation and family trauma.
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