MLF is delighted to present two of the leading exponents of the short story form. SF author Chris Beckett’s acclaimed collection The Turing Test won the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2009. His fantastic fictions explore alien worlds, strange planets, genetic manipulation and virtual reality but their focus is on the individual rather than technology, and deal with love and loneliness, authenticity and illusion, and what it really means to be human. James Lasdun’s third collection It’s Beginning to Hurt is full of haunting and richly humane stories, including An Anxious Man, which won the first National Short Story Award in 2006. His stories have been adapted for the films Besieged and Sunday, which won Best Feature and Best Screenplay awards at Sundance. He is also the author of two novels, The Horned Man and Seven Lies, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry, and currently teaches poetry and fiction workshops at Princeton.

This event is taking place at Friends Meeting House.