Three-time nominated Lucy Caldwell has won the sixteenth BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) with ‘All the People Were Mean and Bad’, a story taken from her 2021 collection, Intimacies. The news was announced live on BBC Front Row by 2021 Chair of Judges, James Runcie. Caldwell, a multi-award-winning writer from Belfast, was previously shortlisted in 2012 and 2019.
BBC Radio 4 National Short Story Award 2021
Tag: Competitions
David Butler wins the Benedict Kiely Short Story Prize 2021
“Unless He Is Born Again” by David Butler was our Story of the Month for August, 2020
Congratulations to David Butler on winning this competition, which is part of the Omagh Literary Festival, and named in honour of the great Irish short story writer Benedict Kiely. It’s always gratifying to see past contributors making more waves. (Ed.)
Vote for Writing.ie Short Story of the Year 2020
Caine Prize for African Writing 2020 – Short List
The Caine Prize for African Writing is one of the world’s major short story prizes. The prize is for a published short story, between 3,000 and 10,000 words, by an African writer.
Bookriot
Society of Authors awards shortlists 2020
It is gratifying to see two former Willesden Herald New Short Stories contributors, namely Carol Farrelly and Diana Powell, short-listed for this year’s ALCS Tom Gallon award for a short story.
Prospect: Read Beetleboy by Ursula Brunetti
“Each year, Prospect partners with the Royal Society of Literature to award a fiction writer working in short stories. This year’s winner Ursula Brunetti weaves a tale about an unlikely friendship” ()
Prospect Magazine
Before Beetleboy came Satellites by Ursula Brunetti in New Short Stories 11
Successes in 2019 for New Short Stories contributors
2019 Highlights
November 11: V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize 2019 goes to Ursula Brunetti for “Beetleboy”.
October 2: BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2019: “The Invisible” by Jo Lloyd
September 27: Out Now: “The False River” short story collection by Nick Holdstock
September 20: Double chapbook launch. “Past contributors to WH New Short Stories, Brian Kirk and Jill Widner, enjoyed a double win at the Cork International Short Story Festival 2019.” (See also Feb. 15)
September 12: Danielle McLaughlin takes The Times/ Audible Short Story Award 2019
August 24: Book launch: “Like Water and Other Stories” by Olga Zilberbourg
July 3: Book launch: “Chalk Tracks” by Gina Challen, twice contributor to New Short Stories
March 13: Danielle McLaughlin receives Windham-Campbell award
Feb 15: Friends of Willesden Herald take both Southword fiction chapbook awards 2019
Latest
Willesden Herald New Short Stories 11 is available from Book Depository, Amazon (UK), Amazon.com and other booksellers. Link: More details including author pictures and profiles.
V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize 2019 goes to Ursula Brunetti for “Beetleboy”
The Royal Society of Literature’s prestigious V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize for 2019 has gone to Ursula Brunetti for her story “Beetleboy”. By a happy coincidence, our soon-to-be-published New Short Stories 11 also contains a story by Ursula. 2019 is something of a golden year for writers in New Short Stories, when it comes to winning major prizes. (Ed.)
BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2019: “The Invisible” by Jo Lloyd
“WELSH WRITER JO LLOYD WINS THE 2019 BBC NATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD WITH ‘TIMELESS’ AND ‘DEEPLY TENDER’ STORY INFLUENCED BY BREXIT, SOCIAL DIVISION AND FOLKLORE” (BBC Radio 4)
“Welsh writer Jo Lloyd has won the fourteenth BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2019 (NSSA) for ‘The Invisible’, a distinctive and compellingly original story. Inspired by the life of an 18th Century woman from Carnarvonshire called Martha who claimed to be friends with an invisible family living in an invisible mansion, Lloyd discovered her story by chance in the online Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Set in a close-knit community, the story is both timeless and universal, and resonates profoundly in an age where fear of outsiders and social division is rife.”
Listen: Aimee-Ffion Edwards reads “Jo Lloyd’s hypnotic tale about the fantasies people embrace to make life bearable” The Invisible by Jo Lloyd.
Read: “Welsh writer takes £15,000 prize for The Invisible, based on a real 18th-century woman who spread tales in her village” Guardian report including the text of the short story.
Interview: Jo Lloyd on Winning the 2019 BBC National Short Story Award (Wasafiri)
This news continues a series of successes this year by previous Willesden international short story prize winners. Jo Lloyd won the Willesden in 2009 with her story “Work”, which you can read in New Short Stories 3.
Cork International Festival: Short Fiction Chapbooks Launch Event
As we previously reported, past contributors to WH New Short Stories, Brian Kirk and Jill Widner, enjoyed a double win at the Cork International Short Story Festival 2019. The garlanded stories are set to be launched in chapbook form at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 26th at Cork City Library.
