APPLICATIONS are now open for this year’s Northern Short Story Festival Academy.

Over the last two years the Academy has developed 12 short story writers living in Yorkshire, and is now searching for the next intake.

The Northern Short Story Festival Academy is a development programme that promotes writing excellence and helps writers take their work to the next level.

Participants will join a monthly workshop critique group led by writer Anna Chilvers where they read and critique each other’s stories.

Previous participants include include a Pushcart nominee, national prize winners, the winner of the Walter Swan Writing Prize, and a Best of British Short Stories anthology author.

Applying is free. Applicants must be aged at least 18, live in the Yorkshire region, and have demonstrable evidence of their short story writing.

Fiona Gell, director of the Leeds Big Bookend and Northern Short Festival, said: “We are excited to be able to support a new intake of short story writers to the Academy which exists to help writers develop their critical and professional skills and become better writers. Our current intake of 12 writers are proof that the Academy process works.”

The Academy is funded through Arts@Leeds, Leeds City Council and the Walter Swan Trust.

Visit bigbookend.co.uk/nssf/northern-short-story-academy-short-story-writers for further information.