In the Vanguard

Start: 6pm • Tickets: £6

Gerard Woodward published several prize-winning collections of poetry before turning to fiction. He is the author of an acclaimed series of novels, August, I’ll Go to Bed at Noon and A Curious Earth. His first collection of short stories, Caravan Thieves, blends the everyday with the surreal. He is joined by Sophie Hannah, whose recent story collection, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets, uncovers the dark obsessions and longings behind ordinary relationships, and Toby Litt, whose latest book of linked stories charts the rise and spectacular downfall of the fictitious Canadian rock band, Okay.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 5pm. For full timetable click here.

Life Changes

Start: 8pm • Tickets: £6

Claire Keegan’s second book, Walk the Blue Fields, and Simon Robson’s debut, The Separate Heart, were hailed as exceptional: ‘…a note-perfect short story is something very few people can produce…Claire Keegan does it …’ (Hilary Mantel) ‘...dip into The Separate Heart for a refreshing draught of how punchy and intoxicating a well-crafted tale can be’ (The Independent). Claire Keegan’s individual stories and her first collection, Antarctica, have won numerous awards. Simon Robson’s theatrical experience, which includes appearing in EastEnders, helps him bring drama into his stories.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 6.55pm. For full timetable click here.

The Future of the Book

Start: 6pm • Tickets: £7

Do e-readers and downloads threaten literature or open up exciting possibilities for short stories? Naomi Alderman, Sara Lloyd, Chris Meade and Kate Pullinger discuss and demonstrate digital opportunities. Novelist Naomi Alderman (Disobedience) was chief writer on the alternative reality game Perplex City; Sara Lloyd is Head of Digital Marketing at Pan Macmillan; Novelist Kate Pullinger (A Little Stranger) is Reader in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University. Chris Meade is the UK founder of if:book – a think-and-do-tank exploring the potential of new media for creative readers and writers.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 5pm. For full timetable click here.

Short Story Slam: Winner takes all - £100!

Start: 8pm - Finish: 10.30pm • Tickets: £7

Adam Foulds, 2008 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, created a buzz with his debut novel, The Truth About These Strange Times, and his verse fiction, The Broken Word. He sets the action in motion with his commissioned story.

How it works: Write a 3-4 minute story to read aloud (around 400 words) title: Reunion. Competitors’ names are picked from a hat. The time limit is strict. The audience votes for the £100 prize winner.

Tips: Practise reading within the time limit. Remember the title. End with a bang.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 6.55pm. For full timetable click here.

BBC National Short Story Award

Start: 12pm • Tickets: £8

This prestigious award – £15,000 for a single winning story – has helped to re-shape the literary landscape by raising the profile of short fiction. Two of the 2008 short-listed writers, Jane Gardam and Clare Wigfall, read from their work and discuss the art of the short story with Booker Prize-winner Penelope Lively and BBC Radio 4 producer Di Speirs, two of this year’s judges. Jane Gardam’s latest collection of stories is The People on Privilege Hill. Her most recent novel is the best-selling Old Filth. Clare Wigfall’s collection of stories, The Loudest Sound and Nothing, was described as ‘a debut of masterpiece proportions’.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 11am. For full timetable click here.

Doyen

Start: 2pm • Tickets: £10

William Trevor, the modern master of the short story and an outstanding novelist, gives a rare public reading. Born in County Cork in 1928 and now living in Devon, he was made an Honorary CBE for Services to Literature in 1977, a Companion of Literature in 1994, and was awarded the David Cohen British Literature Prize in 1999 and the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award in Irish Literature in 2008. His novels include The Old Boys, Felicia’s Journey, The Children of Dynmouth and The Story of Lucy Gault. His 12th and most recent collection of short stories is Cheating at Canasta.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 1pm. For full timetable click here.

Taking Pictures

Start: 4pm • Tickets: £8

‘Enthralling…Reckless intelligence, savage humour, slow revelation, no consolation: Anne Enright’s fiction is jet dark – but how it glitters’ (The New York Times). Anne Enright won last year’s Booker Prize for The Gathering, a moving story about the aftermath and pre-history of a suicide on Brighton beach. Taking Pictures, her subsequent collection of short stories, are snap-shots of people in trouble, told with her characteristic wit, levity, subtlety and poetry. Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she still lives.

She has published a previous collection of stories and four novels.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 3pm. For full timetable click here.

Richard Yates: Revolutionary Road

Start: 6pm • Tickets: £8

Author Lionel Shriver celebrates the work of the unjustly neglected American short story writer and novelist, Richard Yates (1926-1992); and Sam Mendes, director of the forthcoming film of Yates’ masterpiece, Revolutionary Road - starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio - adds some exclusive screened thoughts to our unique preview. Richard Yates’ story collection, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, chronicles Manhattan lives in the fifties. Lionel Shriver won the Orange Prize for Fiction for We Need to Talk About Kevin. The Post-Birthday World is her most recent novel.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 5pm. For full timetable click here.

Edgar Allan Poe: Art of Darkness

Start: 8pm • Tickets: £8

The celebrated horror writer Edgar Allan Poe has been well served by illustrators of the past, but this year artist and author Harland Miller, with White Cube Gallery Curator, Irene Bradbury, created an exhibition of contemporary work inspired by Poe, with pieces by the Chapman brothers, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, amongst others. In the eerie atmosphere of the Charleston barns - complete with bats - Harland Miller shares his fascination for Poe, presents slides of the artists’ responses, and legendary performance poet John Cooper Clarke delivers his commissioned eulogy to the gothic writer of sinister tales.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 7pm. For full timetable click here.

Mervyn Peake: Fantasy and Fact

Start: 12pm • Tickets: £8

Novelist, short-story writer, poet, painter, illustrator and playwright, Mervyn Peake, the author of the much-loved Gormenghast trilogy, was one of the great originals of the twentieth century, whose work frequently reflected his varied life experiences, from childhood in China, adulthood in Sark, the horror of entering Bergen-Belsen as a war artist and literary life in London. His son, Sebastian Peake, gives an insider’s illustrated talk about his father’s life and the genesis of the recently re-issued short stories, some of which were written in conjunction with great literary figures of our time.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 11am. For full timetable click here.

The Other Garden

Start: 2pm • Tickets: £8

Renowned author, editor, critic and journalist, Francis Wyndham discusses his writing and the art of the short story, as well as his influential career in publishing and his intimate knowledge of the literary life and times of the twentieth century, with Booker Prize-winning novelist, Alan Hollinghurst. Francis Wyndham’s short stories are exquisite and haunting examples of the genre, written by one of our great prose stylists, and his Whitbread-winning novel, The Other Garden, is ‘a swiftly-paced gem’ (TLS). Alan Hollinghurst was awarded the Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty, adapted for television by Andrew Davies.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 1pm. For full timetable click here.

Tall Stories

Start: 4pm • Tickets: £8

There are many ways to tell a long story in a succinct manner, one of which is the art of the cartoon. Gerald Scarfe’s controversial career as a satirical cartoonist ranges from Churchill to Brown, domestic posturing to international strife and political ambition to scandal and disaster. His entertaining, illustrated talk coincides with a major exhibition of his work at the Houses of Parliament. Is a Scarfe lampoon both feared and coveted in Westminster? Gerald Scarfe has worked for the The Sunday Times and the The New Yorker for many years.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 3pm. For full timetable click here.

Funny Bones

Start: 6pm • Tickets: £8

‘Ali Smith is a genius, genuinely modern in the most heroic, glorious sense’ (Alain de Botton). ‘Shena Mackay writes like an angel wielding a scalpel’ (The Guardian). Both writers, at the top of their very high form, read from their new collections. Ali Smith is an intellectually playful and innovative author. Her novels include Hotel World and the The Accidental. She has published several acclaimed story collections. Shena Mackay’s stories are infused with laughter mingled with a touch of the blade. She has published four previous collections. Her novels include The Orchard on Fire and Heligoland.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 5pm. For full timetable click here.

E. M. Forster: The Eternal Moment

Start: 8pm • Tickets: £8

Forster’s novels trip off the tongue: Where Angels Fear to Tread, A Room with a View, Howards End, A Passage to India – but he was also adept at short fiction. His three story collections are rich in emotional depth and social nuance. Actors Emma Fielding and Alex Jennings read two stories by the great Bloomsbury master. Emma Fielding is a rising theatrical star who has played at the NT, RSC, Royal Court, in the West End and on screen. Alex Jennings’ roles include major parts with the RSC, NT and in the West End. His films include The Queen and he is currently in the ENO’s Candide.

Shuttle bus for this event leaves Lewes train station at 7pm. For full timetable click here.