As part of the 2025 City of Culture celebrations, Bradford Council has collaborated with Comma Press and the BBC Contains Strong Language programme to publish The Book of Bradford: A City in Short Fiction. This collection takes the form of a print book by professional authors from the Bradford district, as well as a separate e-book which features short stories written by local people.
Including work from such luminaries as Bill Broady, Saima Mir, Marjorie ‘Malachi’ Whitaker, Sairish Hussain and BBC National Short Story Award winner, Ross Raisin, the print book was launched at the Loading Bay in Bradford in September 2025. And now comes the turn of its sister e-book publication, which was developed from the Writing the City course that was held at Bradford City Library earlier this year, and which I participated in.
Writing the City
This face-to-face course was taught by David Barnett, an adopted Yorkshireman and versatile writer, who also contributed a short story to the printed anthology. The course covered place writing as the stories had to be set in the Bradford district, as part of the City of Culture brief.
Over the course of six sessions, we learnt what constitutes a short story: how to show familiarity and sense of place, so that readers will recognise that it is set locally; how to structure stories using, for example, one incident in a character’s life as a basis – and fashioning that all-important ending! We were encouraged to visit the places featured in our stories and look for inspiration in the local area, such as the Bradford City victory parade, which was held outside the library in City Park, where we mingled with the fans to celebrate the club’s promotion!
Each person was then asked to create three short stories of up to 5000 words long, giving a strong sense of the locality in our writing. The course attracted participants from all across the local area, some with previous experience, and others who had never written a story before.
How to read The Book of Bradford
The 16 stories in the e-book anthology take place right across the district, from Bradford City Centre to Keighley’s historic Cliffe Castle museum. Some are set in the modern era, others hark back to Bradford’s past as an industrial powerhouse. Some feature social deprivation, while others delight in magical realism – and no Bradford short story collection would be complete without the Cottingley Fairies!
The Book of Bradford e-book is available to download and buy for the very reasonable sum of 99p. It’s a small price to pay to learn more about the UK’s reigning City of Culture – a place which is unique but often misunderstood. Hopefully, artistic endeavours such as this will help improve Bradford’s reputation nationally.
For readers without a Kindle or similar device to access the e-book, an ePub reader can be downloaded free of charge.
The print edition can be purchased directly from Comma Press and it is also available from booksellers.
BBC writing opportunity for 2026
If you’re interested in creative writing and you’re based in the Bradford district, then the BBC has an opportunity for you. The City of Culture celebrations are not over just yet. Our national broadcaster will be returning to Worstedopolis (one for the oldies there!) in the spring to launch Write Across Bradford, an eight-week development programme designed to support emerging writers and creatives from the district.
The launch event will be held at Pictureville Cinema, within the National Science and Media Museum on Princes Way, Bradford City Centre on Tuesday 3 February 2026 from 6.30pm. Submissions will open at the same time and will close on Wednesday 4 March 2026 at midday. Tickets are available to book for the event, which is free.
This an excellent way for aspiring writers from the local community to get their work developed nationally, as the programme involves creating stories for television and aims to demystify the commissioning process. Writers will also have the chance to forge relationships with industry creatives to help achieve their career aims.
The programme will run from July to September 2026 and will include a mixture of sessions held in-person in Bradford, as well as online. There is no better time to be a resident of this great city, it seems!
So, get your thinking caps on over Christmas – and be ready to wow those BBC judges!
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