Litriviature Quiz
CANCELLED
CANCELLED
Litriviature Quiz
CANCELLED
€5.00
Litriviature Quiz
July 2nd
CANCELLED
19h30-21h45
We’ll pick back up after the summer!
We’re bringing back a literary quiz that got the DL team through the Pandemic.
New, improved, and Covid-free!
PLEASE NOTE: we’ll be capping entries at 30…no sales on the door!
€5 / ticket
Bring your own booze!!
Pure silliness guaranteed!
Out of stock
Complete the look
-
The Full Whammy:
Eleven Stories, Literary Prize
Eleven Stories 2018 – 2025
(the .pdfs)€10.00Get the bundle of all seven current editions of Eleven Stories in .pdf format, bringing together the shortlist from our seven previous short fiction prizes.
Don't forget, you get €2.50 reimbursed if you enter the prize, just use the promotional code in the receipt!Only the best in contemporary experimental fiction...
ABOUT THE COLLECTIONS:
‘Generous, soulful distillations. A tasting flight of prosaic kerosene. Each story ignited a flare in a forsaken corner of my mind. I can’t wait to experience more from these voices.’—Henry Hoke, 2025 Judge
‘Wonderful: some very subtle, intimate and beautiful, others wildly imaginative and deeply thoughtful.’—Ottessa Moshfegh
‘There is such energy in these stories. Such pulse!’ —Tiffany Tsao, 2023 Judge
‘Reading these stories made me feel glad for the future of short stories.’ —Anton Hur, 2022 Judge
‘In these rich and vibrant stories, the language surprises and delights. From surreal mouse proposals to the catharsis of visible grief, via the uncertainty of memory and perception, each of these stories creates a new, engrossing reality while shedding light on our own.’ —Natasha Brown, 2022 Judge
I loved reading the shortlist selection which realizes the Desperate Literature team’s ambition to reimagine and diversify contemporary writing. The stories represented are inquisitive, irreverential, critical, and fully committed to their respective creative projects. I’ve never been more hopeful for the future of fiction, and the Desperate Literature Prize plays no small part in this.’ —Waidner, 2021 Judge
‘I thoroughly enjoyed reading these submissions, which surprised me with their honest poise, their integrity, and their understated adherence to the values of literature. In the hands of some of these writers, the story form was brought to bear on the modern scene in new and astute ways.’ —Rachel Cusk, 2020 Judge
'The 2019 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize has once again produced a memorable collection of diverse, dynamic short stories. It was a joy to read.' —Claire-Louise Bennett, 2019 Judge
‘The 2019 Desperate Literature Prize has produced an incredibly impressive shortlist of stories. It’s an exciting, powerful and original selection. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.’ —Holly Faulks, Literary Agent at Greene & Heaton
*PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS WE HAVE REMOVED JOANNA WALSH'S SHORTLISTED STORY FROM THE 2018 PDF.YOUR DOWNLOAD WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE RECEIPT PAGE AFTER PURCHASE
Additional information
| product: | ENTRY, ENTRY + BOOK |
|---|
Structure & Form
a one-day workshop
with Victoria Gosling
Events, Literature September 5th 10h30-18h00
Structure & Form: Finding the right shape for your story This one-day workshop explores one of the central challenges of creative writing: structure. Ideas often arrive in fragments: a dream, an image, a question, a voice, or a character who refuses to leave us alone until their story is told. But how do we transform these raw materials into a compelling piece of writing? How do we shape our ideas so that we don't get lost? How does plot work and how interested in it are we? And around which factors can we organise our material? Through discussion, close reading and writing exercises, we will investigate a range of approaches to storytelling, from classical principles to contemporary experiments with form. We'll touch on ideas from thinkers and writers as diverse as Aristotle, Kurt Vonnegut and Carmen Maria Machado, using their work as a springboard to develop our own. Together we'll examine the many different ways writers organise stories. Whether you're working on a novel, short story, memoir or are simply curious about how stories function, this workshop will provide you with strategies to help you organise your ideas and move your writing forward with confidence. Expect a lively, open and supportive environment with plenty of opportunities to ask your questions. The workshop is suitable for writers of all levels of experience. The day will include:- Morning session 90 minutes
- Break for coffee
- Late morning session 90 minutes
- Long lunch break
- Afternoon session 120 minutes
€80.00
Sold out
Feral Nature
a one-day workshop
with Joan Fleming
Events, Literature
March 21st
In this one-day writing workshop, award-winning author Joan Fleming will lead playful and generative exercises that invite absurdity, indecorum, and the ridiculous into your writing, via our focus on the natural world.
Expect to spend the day doing close-readings of marvellous short texts across fiction, poetry, and non-fiction; engaging in dynamic group discussion and brainstorming; and going inwards periods of quiet, focussed writing where you respond to a series of prompts designed to get you thinking differently about the possibilities of the page – and the possibilities of our fragile, strange, entangled connections with everything on earth that isn’t us.
The day will include:
€75.00
- Morning session 90 minutes
- Break for coffee
- Late morning session 90 minutes
- Long lunch break
- Afternoon session 120 minutes
€75.00
Sold out
Alejandro Zambra (SIGNED)
GIFTS, Hotcakes, LiteratureTo help raise funds for our imminent move, this month we're selling our signed Alejandro Zambra translations. There's the added bonus of the copies also being signed by Zambra's translator, Megan McDowell!
There's a limited amount, so get them while you can!
...and of course we'll throw in some merch for good measure... ALL EDITIONS IN ENGLISH
€20.00
‘Eleven Stories 2025’
.pdf + print edition
Eleven Stories, GIFTS, Literary Prize, Literature 'Generous, soulful distillations. A tasting flight of prosaic kerosene. Each story ignited a flare in a forsaken corner of my mind. I can’t wait to experience more from these voices.' —Henry Hoke
‘Wonderful: some very subtle, intimate and beautiful, others wildly imaginative and deeply thoughtful.’ —Ottessa Moshfegh
Eleven Stories 2025 collects the shortlist from our eighth short fiction prize and is available in either: DON'T FORGET: YOU GET €2.50 OFF ENTRY TO THE 2026 PRIZE...- PDF - €2.5
- PRINT + PDF - €11 / a limited edition copy and the PDF to boot. **shipping is by Spanish postal service and doesn't carry tracking, which can be added for €15 on demand via email!
One of our most exciting selections yet, our 2025 shortlist covers a spectrum of experimental and boundary pushing fiction. From a Faulknerian river story to the lushest, queerest body horror — from cross-country feminist malaise to cross-border love — prophets, mothers, labourers — a tedious apocalypse, post-capitalist hope — these eleven stories are brimming with magic, longing, and humour. Including work by:
Shastri Akella (WINNER), Swithun Cooper (RUNNER-UP), Alisha Dietzman (RUNNER-UP), Chloe Agar, Sohini Basak, Shelley Hastings (EU SALON PRIZE), Miguel Arroyo, Matthew Kinlin, Iseult de Mallet Burgess, Fox McGlasson, and Juan Fernando Villagómez (DL RESIDENCY PRIZE) ABOUT THIS YEAR'S WINNING STORY: ‘Tender... and haunting’ —Ottessa Moshfegh PLEASE NOTE: for orders over 5 copies, please contact us at hello@desperateliterature.com
€2.50 – €11.00