Toby Wallis
In May 2000, in the last few weeks before I graduated from art school, I was sitting in the college cafeteria wondering what I should do with the rest of my life. For the first time, I had no idea what I was going to do next, no goals, no direction, no plans. I made two decisions that day. First, that I would become a writer. The second, that I would also get a job so that I wouldn’t starve.
My short stories have had some success in contests. In 2016 I won first place in Glimmer Train’s short story award for new writers, and have been shortlisted for The Bridport Prize, The Raymond Carver Short Story Contest and The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story prize. My fiction has been published in a number of places, both online and in print (see the Writing tab for links).
My particular love is for quiet, softly spoken literary fiction that is honest, warm and sympathetic. Some of my favourite writers are Tom Drury, Natalia Ginzburg, Jeffrey Eugenides, Ali Smith, Annie Proulx and Haruki Murakami. Like all writers who have achieved a certain level of cliché, I am never happier than when I am sitting in coffee shops with a notebook or walking around one of my local bookshops hunting for new writers and wonderful novels.
Thanks for having a look at my little website. There are links to my stories and if you take the time to have a look, I hope you enjoy them.
toby wallis 