DeScribe

From the site: "The Newstead Short Story Tattoo is a celebration of the short story form, being the only short story festival in Australia. Australian writing has a great tradition of short story writers. Writers from near and far will be converging on Newstead on May 15/16/17 to read and tell their stories.

Events contained in the program are: Sleazy Stories (with live Burlesque performance) starring Josephine Rowe, Sean M Whelan, Paul Mitchell, Neil Boyack and others, Crimes and Crucifixions, starring Lucy Sussex, Eric Dando, Annie Gleeson, George Ghio and more, The Fictitious Woman, starring the magnificent Carmel Bird, Cate Kennedy, Janet Barker and many more, Local legends will feature locals from here and there, Fire Stories (stories the old fashioned way around the bonfire at the Newstead Racecourse, with surround sound), The Hard Ball starring Paul Daffey from The Footy Almanac, Martin Flanaghan (to be confirmed), Rob Blackhirst and many others.

There will also be an accompanying exhibition of illustrations that have supported stories throughout a range of publications including the great Torpedo series of anthologies. It is hoped this will include artists from Marvel comics - comics of course being a legitimate short story form. There will also be a market on the Sunday encouraging all Newsteadians to dust off old books and wares and sell them in the stall set up in the NCC. There will also be readings at this event.

Primary schools in the Mt Alexander shire will also be invited to encourage students to submit stories to competitions (50 word, 100 word and 200 word story categories). Many community groups such as the Historical society, the recreation reserve, Pocket Gallery, footy club, The Echo, RTC as well as other groups and businesses within our community will have the opportunity to benefit financially from the visitors to own town and district."

I'm reading there on the Saturday afternoon as part of the Crimes and Crucifixions event (upstaged as always by John Safran), but my real mission will be to gush uncontrollably every time I see Cate Kennedy.

Details: http://www.nsst.org.au/