The first of these extremely desirable individual short story editions, celebrating 90 years of publishing the best new writing, is due in January 2019 according to Faber & Faber on Twitter.
Month: October 2018
The New Yorker: Backpack by Tony Earley
This week’s story, “Backpack” by Tony Earley, is now online. https://t.co/wZLBmx5gzT
— New Yorker Fiction (@NYerFiction) October 29, 2018
‘Tony Earley has written five books, including the story collection “Mr. Tall.” He is the Fleming Professor of English at Vanderbilt University.’
Story of the Month, November 2018
The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month
November 2018: That New Girl by Brian Kirk
‘Well, what’s she like then?’ I asked again.
She ignored me as she tipped soy sauce into a clean bowl. I turned and stood like a fool with my hands by my sides looking out the front window where I could see the tops of some trees across the street. Our apartment is on the third floor and, even though we’ve been here for over a year, I’m still not used to living above ground level.
Eventually Sara finished juicing a lime and mixing it into the sauce. She turned to me then.

Brian Kirk is a poet and short story writer from Dublin. He was shortlisted twice for Hennessy Awards for fiction. His first poetry collection “After The Fall” was published by Salmon Poetry in November 2017. Recent stories have appeared in The Lonely Crowd Issue 7 and online at Fictive Dream and Cold Coffee Stand. His story “Festival” was long-listed for the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize 2017/8. He blogs at www.briankirkwriter.com.
RTÉ Radio: The Book Show with Nuala O’Connor
Past contributor to New Short Stories Nuala O’Connor is the presenter for this episode of The Book Show on the topic of historical fiction.
The New Yorker: “The Coast of Leitrim” by Kevin Barry
This Writer’s Voice podcast features Kevin Barry reading his short story “The Coast of Leitrim”, from this week’s New Yorker. With Deborah Treisman, Fiction Editor
Granta: Hoarfrost by John Patrick McHugh
How can we resist? What’s that you say, “Quite easily?” Tautly written and explicit.
Granta: “The Sweet Sop” by Ingrid Persaud |BBC NSSA 2018 winner
In partnership with Commonwealth Writers, Granta publishes the regional winners of the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Ingrid Persaud’s ‘The Sweet Sop’ is the winning entry from the Caribbean, and the overall winner of the 2017 prize.
After taking the Commonwealth Prize for “winning entry from the Caribbean” in 2017, Ingrid Persaud’s story The Sweet Sop has just been awarded the BBC National Short Story award 2018, a whopping £15,000 prize.
You can read the story by following the link to Granta from June 2017 and/or you can also follow links from the BBC’s NSSA 2018 winner announcement page to listen to a reading of “The Sweet Sop” as well as the other short-listed stories. You might question how the same story can win prizes in two competitions in successive years but never mind that, let’s just say congratulations to Ingrid and “More power to her elbow.”