Critically acclaimed Cumbrian author to launch new collection at Words by the Water Festival

An author from Cumbria, dubbed “one of Britain’s finest writers”, is set to launch his latest

short story collection at a celebrated Lake District literary festival.

June marks not only the anticipated return of Words by the Water festival in Keswick, but

also the launch of Chrisopher Burns’ collection, Mrs Pulaska and Other Stories.

Chris, who lives in Whitehaven, was on the committee for the literary festival for a number of

years – but as it returns, after a year hiatus, the acclaimed author will be discussing his own

journey mastering short story form, led by Cumbrian author Elizabeth Stott, on June 7.

“I’m looking forward to it – it will be nice to get some audience interaction,” he said. “The

collection is a rather representative display of what I can do, and hopefully I can do it well.

It's typical of the material that I write.”

Salt Publishing agreed to publish the collection just two days after its submission, and it pulls

together some of Chris’s best work over the past two decades.

Chris said: “Mrs Pulaska – the title story – was a very successful story that was on BBC

Radio years and years ago, read by David David Horovitch. It got a large amount of

audience approval, a lot of people found it very emotional.

“For the audience, it's not just a formula that they are listening to. It's something that

stimulates their own imagination, their own reactions, and sometimes their own lives.

“Every now and then I get letters about it. I got one letter that said, ‘Where can I get a copy

of this? I've been looking for it for years and years.’ And that was one of the triggers where I

thought: Yes, that story should really be back between covers.”

Mrs Pulaska and Other Stories is set for publication on June 15, with guests at Words by the

Water to have an exclusive delve into the skillful collection. The seventeen-story collection is

made up of works that have previously appeared in the likes of Best British Short Stories,

Critical Quarterly, and Granta Shorts.

His intelligent but conflicted characters face their decisive moments across wide ranges of

time and place, each action reshaping their futures and redefining their pasts.

Interplaying with these choices are locations that underpin and define each story, such as a

desert outcrop where a daughter vanished, a winter barn in which a silent refugee works

without explanation, and a Parisian suicide that echoes down far more than a century.

Salt Publishing

Words by the Water launched over 20 years ago, and has previously brought more than

16,000 people to Keswick. This year will see it return from June 5 to June 9 at Theatre by

the Lake, in partnership between independent Keswick bookshop, Bookends, and Words by

the Water organiser, Leah Varnell.

You can join Chris at the launch of Mrs Pulaska at Circle Gallery on Friday June 7 at 3pm.

Tickets are on sale at £6. For more information, please visit: