Blackwell's are thrilled to once again invite you to Short Stories Aloud. Listen to actors perform short stories written by Jessica Andrews and SR Masters. Afterwards, author Sarah Franklin will be interviewing both authors about their latest publications, Saltwater and The Killer You Know before taking questions from the audience.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Candice Carty-Williams is no longer able to be part of this event.

This event is part of the Blackwell's Mental Health Festival (20th-26th May 2019), where the panel will also be exploring how mental health features within their novels.

Saltwater by Jessica Andrews

When Lucy wins a place at university, she thinks London will unlock her future. It is a city alive with pop up bars, cool girls and neon lights illuminating the Thames at night. At least this is what Lucy expects, having grown up seemingly a world away in working-class Sunderland, amid legendary family stories of Irish immigrants and boarding houses, now defunct ice rinks and an engagement ring at a fish market.

Yet Lucy's transition to a new life is more overwhelming than she ever expected. As she works long shifts to make ends meet and navigates chaotic parties from East London warehouses to South Kensington mansions, she still feels like an outsider among her fellow students. When things come to a head at her graduation, Lucy takes off for Ireland, seeking solace in her late grandfather's cottage and the wild landscape that surrounds it, wondering if she can piece together who she really is.

Lyrical and boundary-breaking, Saltwater explores the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, the challenges of shifting class identity and the way that the strongest feelings of love can be the hardest to define.

Jessica Andrews writes fiction and poetry. She grew up in Sunderland and has spent time living in Santa Cruz, Paris, Donegal, Barcelona and London. She has been published by the Independent, Somesuch Stories, AnOther, Caught by the River, Shabby Doll House and Papaya Press, among others. She teaches Literature and Creative Writing classes and co-runs literary magazine The Grapevine, which aims to give a platform to under-represented writers.

The Killer You Know by SR Masters

Summer 1997. When Will jokes about becoming a serial killer, his friends just laugh it off. But Adeline can't help but feel there's something darker lurking behind his words.

Winter 2015: Years later, Adeline returns to Blythe for a reunion of the old gang - except Will doesn't show up. Reminiscing about old times, they look up the details of his supposed murder spree. But the mood soon changes when they discover two recent deaths that match.

As the group attempts to track Will down, they realise that he is playing a sinister game that harks back to one they used to play as kids.

Only this time there are lives at stake . . .

SR Masters studied Philosophy at Girton College, Cambridge. He is a regular contributor to UK short fiction anthology series The Fiction Desk, having won their Writer’s Award for his short story Just Kids. His story Desert Walk was included in Penguin Random House USA’s Press Start to Play collection, published last year, and he continues to have short fiction published in a variety of magazines. When not writing, Simon works in public health in Oxford, where he lives with his wife, Helen. The Killer You Know is his first novel.

Tickets cost £5. The doors will open at 6:45pm. There will be a bar with a selection of drinks to purchase throughout the evening. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.