In this episode of the Pin Drop podcast, Simon Oldfield interviews Molly Parkin, the legendary Bohemian, painter, novelist and journalist, who became most notable for her work on Nova magazine, newspapers and television in the 1960s.

In this episode of the Pin Drop podcast, leading British Actor reads Heart's Last Pass by Douglas W. Miliken from A Short Affair at Tate Liverpool.

Supported by the Arts Council.

Russell Tovery reads Heart's Last Pass by Douglas W. Milliken from A Short Affair by Pin Drop Studio

Pin Drop Podcast: Jacob Fortune Lloyd reads Civilisation by Will Self from A Short Affair by Pin Drop Studio

Listen to Gwendoline Christie reading Sunbed by Sophie Ward, live at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Sophie Ward won the RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award 2018 for Sunbed, an original short story.

About Gwendoline Christie

Gwendoline is best known for portraying the warrior Brienne of Tarth in the HBO series Game of Thrones since 2012, and the First Order Stormtrooper Captain Phasma in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). It has recently been announced that she will be starring in Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History Of David Copperfield.

About Sophie Ward

Sophie Ward is an acclaimed actor and writer from North London. Her short stories have been published in the anthologies, Finding A Voice, Book of Numbers and The Spiral Path, and The Gold Room. Her book, A Marriage Proposal; the importance of equal marriage and what it means for all of us was published by The Guardian short books in 2014. She has published articles in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Spectator, Diva and Red magazine.

About the Award

The RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award is an annual non-profit, open-submission writing prize, staged by Pin Drop Studio in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts. It offers a platform for new writing open to published and unpublished writers from anywhere across the globe to showcase their short fiction. Past winners include Bethan Roberts, Claire Fuller and Cherise Saywell for their extraordinary stories, which have been narrated for our podcast series here by Stephen Fry, Juliet Stevenson and Dame Penelope Wilton.

This year’s award also marked the publication of A Short Affair, Pin Drop’s first anthology of original short fiction featuring bestselling authors alongside past winners and shortlisted stories from the RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award with artworks by artists from the Royal Academy Schools. Edited by Simon Oldfield with a jacket by Eddie Peake and a foreword by Tim Marlow. Published by Scribner on 12th July.

Critically acclaimed British actor, Russell Tovey took centre stage at Hauser & Wirth Somerset earlier this summer to read Heart's Last Pass by Douglas W Milliken, a story from A Short Affair, the first anthology of original short fiction from Pin Drop edited by Simon Oldfield.

Buy your copy of A Short Affair here - https://amzn.to/2O5Na17

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About Russell Tovey

Tovey is one of the leading actors of his generation. He has starred in award-winning films including The Pass, Pride and Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, and played leading roles in major television shows including Quantico, Looking, Him & Her and Being Human. Tovey is also committed to the theatre and has most recently starred in Angels in America at the National Theatre.

Simon Oldfield is joined by Booker-prize winning author Ben Okri and artist Jessy Jetpacks to discuss A Short Affair, Pin Drop's first anthology of original short fiction for the Monocle 24 weekly podcast, hosted by Robert Bound.

Pin Drop is delighted to welcome back the award-winning and bestselling American author, Lionel Shriver.

To mark the publication of Shriver’s first collection of short stories, she appeared live at Pin Drop, taking centre stage in the theatre at Soho House, Dean Street, to read a new short story, 'The Astonishing Good Fortune of Marigold Castor'

Shriver is the author of numerous novels including the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, which was turned into the critically-acclaimed film starring Tilda Swinton. She is also a master of the short story. In 2014 she won the BBC National Short Story Award for Kilifi Creek, and she has written a new short story for Pin Drop’s forthcoming anthology, A Short Affair, published by Scribner on 12th July 2018.

Lionel Shriver reads an extract from 'How They Turned Out', her fantastic short story which features in Pin Drop's anthology of original short fiction, 'A Short Affair' edited by Simon Oldfield.

'A Short Affair' is published by Scribner. Order your copy here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-Affair-Simon-Oldfield/dp/1471147320

Man Booker Prize-winning author Graham Swift made his long-awaited return to Pin Drop at the Royal Academy of Arts in February 2018.

This very special evening featured a reading of Graham Swift’s short story, Haematology, from his critically acclaimed collection England & Other Stories against the backdrop of the landmark exhibition ‘Charles I: King and Collector’. Haematology draws on the divisions and conflict of the 17th century through the prism of a family torn apart in the aftermath of the execution of Charles I.

Graham Swift is one of the leading short story writers of his generation and the author of numerous award-winning novels including Waterland, Last Orders and Mothering Sunday.

The evening concluded with a conversation and audience Q&A with Swift, chaired by Pin Drop founder, Simon Oldfield.