A. J. Ashworth – Writer of realist and speculative short stories

Interview with Carmen Maria Machado

In September 2022, I interviewed American short story writer and memoirist Carmen Maria Machado for the journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice.

Diane Cook interview

Diane Cook: Image from author’s website

I’m very excited to say I’ve just interviewed the American novelist and short story writer Diane Cook for the journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice.

Carmen Maria Machado interview

As part of my role as Associate Editor of the journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, I interviewed American short story writer Carmen Maria Machado recently.

Story published

Very happy to say my story ‘Birthday’ has now been published by Fictive Dream.

New story being published

Delighted to announce that Fictive Dream has accepted a new short story of mine and will publish it in late September.

New services being offered

As well as writing, I’m now opening up to provide appraisal and mentoring services for fiction writers who might need it.

Best British Short Stories 2021

I’m delighted to announce that my short story ‘Leather’ has been selected for Best British Short Stories 2021.

Revisiting rejection

I have returned to the subject of rejection for The Literary Consultancy’s blog this month – thinking about how as writers we can start to try and see this in a more positive light.

I previously mentioned on here that my short story ‘Maybe the Birds’ was shortlisted in the inaugural Short Fiction International Short Story Prize Wild Writing Prize – unfortunately I didn’t win but it’s all good. I’m really happy my work was shortlisted and that my story appeared to resonate with the competition readers, so thank you Short Fiction. It was lovely for my work to be recognised in this way, especially after years of struggling to write new stories.

What doesn’t kill you

I just realised I completely forgot to mention on here that I had an essay published in a book called What Doesn’t Kill You: Fifteen Stories of Survival, from Unbound. The book features a range of essays from the likes of Rory Bremner, Julian Baggini, Cathy Rentzenbrink and many others about issues ranging from depression and eating disorders to alcholism and OCD.