summer writing games

Storyjacker Summer Games 2014

This summer, we will be hosting collaborations with acclaimed authors and aspiring talents. Interested?


Whether you're a published or aspiring writer, you can get involved in the games running between June and August 2014. Participating writers will be offered partners and times to play Storyjacker with others from across the UK and internationally as part of a summer of game-inspired collaborations.

These online showcases will feature Storyjacker games Bamboo and Twisted.

The full calendar of writer games will include bouts with acclaimed novelists and fiction writers. Some of the writers confirmed are listed below along with the emerging programme of events.
Ross Raisin

Ross Raisin's first novel, God's Own Country, was published to great acclaim in 2008 and was shortlisted for nine awards including the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, Waterline, was first published in 2011, was a Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and was described by Alan Warner in the Guardian as 'a work of grace: a human being rendered by a triumph of ventriloquism and empathy'.

In 2009 Ross was named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and in 2013 he was included in the Granta list of 20 best young writers.

Ed Hogan

Edward Hogan is a graduate of the MA creative writing course at UEA and a recipient of the David Higham Award. His first novel, Blackmoor, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize and won the Desmond Elliot Prize. Edward's first young adult novel was published in 2012 and his second novel Hunger Trace came out in March 2014 and was described by Catherine Taylor in the Telegraph as a 'soaring, unconventional book'.

Tiffany Murray

Tiffany Murray's first novel Happy Accidents and her second, Diamond Star Halo were both short-listed for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award. Tiffany's writing has appeared in The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian. She is Senior Lecturer at The University of Glamorgan.

David Whitehouse

David Whitehouse's first novel Bed was the inaugural winner of the To Hell with Prizes award in 2010. His second, MOBILE LIBRARY is due to be published early next year. David's journalism has appeared in the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Independent, Esquire, Time Out, and the Observer Magazine. His first short film, 'The Archivist', produced by Warp Films and the BBC, opened the BBC Electric Proms in 2008 and screened at film festivals including Seattle and Munich.

Jenn Ashworth

Jenn Ashworth's first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, was published in 2009 and won a 2010 Betty Trask Award. On the publication of her second novel, Cold Light, in 2011, she was featured on the BBC's Culture Show as one of the UK's 12 best new novelists. In 2013 her third novel, The Friday Gospels, was published by Sceptre.

Her short stories have appeared in the MIR 9, The Manchester Review, Dogmatika, Beat the Dust, Jawbreakers and Bugged, among other places. She also reviews fiction for The Guardian.

(Image: Tim Power, Gonzopix)

Mez Breeze

Mez Breeze is a writer and artist whose works reside in Collections as diverse as The World Bank and the PANDORA Electronic Collection at the National Library of Australia. Mez is also an Advisor to The Mixed Augmented Reality Art Research Organisation and is currently Senior Research Affiliate with The Humanities and Critical Code Studies Lab.

Her awards include the 2001 VIF Prize (Germany), 2002 Newcastle New Media Poetry Prize (Australia) and the Burton Wonderland Gallery Winner 2010 (judged by director Tim Burton).

Josh Reynolds

Josh Reynolds has been a professional author since 2007, and he has written and sold a number of novels in that time, some relating to media tie-in franchises, including Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 lines and Gold Eagle's Executioner line. He has also published a number of shorter fiction pieces, including short stories and novellas.



2014 PROGRAMME

Date Authors Story
JUNE
17th, 1pm Ross Raisin, David Whitehouse and Tiffany Murray NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH (PT 1)
JULY
Friday 4th July, 2.30pm (POSTPONED) NEW DATE: Tuesday 22nd July, 1pm Ross Raisin, David Whitehouse and Tiffany Murray NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH (PT 2)
Wednesday 9th July 10.30pm Jenn Ashworth, Edward Hogan and Mez Breeze ArpÈge on the Landing
AUGUST
TBC Josh Reynolds and others TBC -

There are a few details still to update, but you can get the latest notifications by following @storyjacker and #SJSummerGames. You can also sign up for a monthly newsletter.

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Storyjacker games

Bamboo

Two players write what goes next. Only the best stays in.

Play Bamboo

Twisted

Pick a story. Take the challenge. Set a new one.

Play Twisted

Versus beta

Write 100-word stories. See them ranked against others.

Play Versus