New fiction at festival

Cumbrian audiences will be the first to hear new cutting edge fiction specially commissioned by Cumbria County Council. The works are being read in public for the first time at the Words by the Water literature festival in Keswick on March 19. Ali Smith and Christopher Burns were asked to create new stories to be read aloud at the festival. Both were given the subject of water as a starting point and their imaginations took them in very different directions. Ali Smith has published two novels (Like and the Orange- and Booker-nominated Hotel World) and two collections of short stories (Free Love and other stories and Other Stories and other stories). Her new collection, The Whole Story and other stories, is published in April. 

Cumbria's own Christopher Burns is the author of a collection of short stories and five novels, most recently Dust Raising. 

Also available at and after the event will be Under Water - the two short stories published in a designer limited and numbered edition of 250 copies, priced £5. 

Tickets for the event at 2.30pm on Wednesday March 19 are £5 from Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, on 017687 74411. 

Also appearing at Words by the Water, which runs from Tuesday March 18 to Sunday March 23 at the Theatre by the Lake are: Reginald Hill, Sarah Waters, Ruth Padel, Hugo Williams, Sarah Hall, Barbara Trapido, Juliet Barker, Carol Rumens, John Murray, Sue MacGregor, Penelope Lively, Sophie Dahl, Michael Holroyd, Blake Morrison, Polly Toynbee, Kate Adie, Sheridan Morley and more.