Alan Beard's site

STORIES     GOOD NEWS (stories accepted)   BAD NEWS (Rejection Blog)

Hi, I'm Alan Beard a 54 year old bloke from Birmingham, UK, who writes short stories. I had a collection published by Tindal Street Fiction Group but they are all sold out now. After some excellent reviews Picador re-issued it in 1999 - it's called 'Taking Doreen out of the Sky'. Picador pulped it (without telling me!) but you can still get second hand copies from amazon. (Second hand copies of the Tindal one are available too, at a cheaper rate here). You're probably thinking that if it was pulped it must be crap and it's true not many were sold, but as well as good reviews, the title story won the Tom-Gallon award for best short story and all but two were published in well known literary magazines, anthologies and/or broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Recently I have had a second collection accepted by Tindal Street Press. Some of the stories featured have been posted on webzines, links here; others have appeared in print journals and anthologies. For more information see Good News.

I am a member of Tindal Street Fiction Group (TSFG) in Birmingham (UK), and I'm grateful for its existence as I have met many fine writers and friends through the group. Indeed TSFG were the initial publishers of my collection, and its (critical) success was instrumental in setting up the Tindal Street Press , a separate organisation that has published many wonderful novels and collections of stories including three that made the Booker longlist (this year fellow TSFG member Gaynor Arnold did so), Orange listed, Costa and Betty Trask prizewinners etc. In 2003 TSFG celebrated 20 years of existence and I was privileged to edit a collection of stories to mark this occasion. Called 'Going the Distance' it is, of course, available from amazon.

I work as a librarian at Birmingham City University (UK) and am married with two beautiful and smart teenage daughters - just to give you a slightly fuller picture of me. Here's an actual picture of me (from a few years ago):

When I first started writing seriously (although I've had the bug since i was 9) I looked like this! (in 1973).

That's what a life trying to write does to you. It took me another twelve years to get my first story published in a national magazine (great day that in May 1985 when I got an acceptance from Alan Ross at London Magazine). It took another twelve years (1997) to get out my first collection  The second one will be coming out in 2010. I'm hoping the third one will be quicker.