WELSH Short Story Network presents Mary-Ann Constantine, Maria Donovan, Matthew Francis and John Lavin reading their stories at the Performance Studio at Aberystwyth Arts Centre Wednesday 6 November 7.45pm.

The reading has been organised by the Welsh Short Story Network, a new body which aims to promote the short story in Wales. The form has a strong tradition in Wales, including such notable practitioners as Caradoc Evans, Rhys Davies, Kate Roberts and Dylan Thomas. This year’s award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Canadian short-story specialist Alice Munro has once again drawn attention to a form that has sometimes been overlooked.

Four writers from the Aberystwyth area will be reading their work. Mary Ann-Constantine studies Romantic period literature, with an emphasis on Wales and Brittany, at the University of Wales and has published widely in these fields since 1996. Her short stories have appeared over a number of years in the New Welsh Review and Planet. She has published two collections of stories, The Breathing (Planet, 2008) and All the Souls (Seren, 2013).

Maria Donovan is the author of a book of short stories, Pumping Up Napoleon (Seren, 2007), and one of short-shorts, Tea for Mr Dead (Leaf Books, 2006). She has lived in other countries, speaks fluent Dutch, and has been a factory worker, nurse, gardener, magician's assistant, busker, student and university lecturer.

Matthew Francis lectures in creative writing at Aberystwyth University and has published five collections of poems and a novel, as well as his collection of short stories Singing a Man to Death (Cinnamon, 2012), which was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year Award.

John Lavin holds a doctorate in creative writing from Trinity St David’s University, and is Deputy Editor of Wales Arts Review and Co-founder and Advisory Editor of Lampeter Review.

To book contact Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 01970 62 32 32 or visit www.aber.ac.uk/artscentre