Frances Gapper’s previous short story collections are Absent Kisses, Diva Books 2002; and The Tiny Key, Sylph Editions 2009. Her next collection In the Wild Wood will be published in 2017 by Cultured Llama Press.

Frances’s stories have been published in numerous anthologies, including (back in the day) two by Onlywomen, who also published Cherry Potts of Arachne Press. More recently, she’s had stories included in Short Fiction journal 1 and 7, The Moth, the London Magazine online and the Reader’s Digest. Frances is one of 21 authors featured (along with Cherry again) in the forthcoming Refugees Welcome Anthology.

Competition-wise, 2015 has been a good year for her: she won first prize in the SaveAs Writers Writing the City competition, while her story The Moustache Maker’s Daughter reached shortlists of six in the Short Fiction competition and the London Story Prize (judged by Kevin Barry and Jon McGregor) and another story was highly commended by Patricia Duncker in the Ilkley Lit Fest competition.

Frances was shortlisted in the 2014 Solstice Shorts competition, and now she features in the second Solstice Shorts Festival, Longest Night, her story What He Doesn’t Know, is based on a local folk rhyme and features women who carry out a ritual to appease an angry river, and a surprising use for bread dough.