Tag: Competitions

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

It’s our own trumpet, we can blow it if we want.

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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”

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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

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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.

Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize 2019: Deep Heart by Kandace Siobhan Walker

Deep Heart by Kandace Siobhan Walker beat almost 200 others to win the £1,000 award set up by the Guardian and 4th Estate in 2015. The Guardian report describes the story as “a poignant exploration of kinship and community.”

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Kandace Siobhan Walker

“We are always barefoot. I try to explain this to the police officers who arrive from the mainland. We’re quieter this way and we need to be quiet when we’re stalking wild animals in the pine forest. …”

Read “Deep Heart” by Kandace Siobhan Walker in full in Guardian Online.

Danielle McLaughlin takes The Times/ Audible Short Story Award 2019

“The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award is the richest prize for a single short story in the English language, worth £30,000 to the winner.”

Danielle McLaughlin
Danielle McLaughlin

London, September 12: Congratulations to Danielle McLaughlin, whose short story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets is the calling card of a world-class young writer.

We’re well chuffed here because Danielle won the Willesden Herald prize in 2013, as chosen that year by David Means, for “Holidaying with the Megarrys” (New Short Stories 7.)

Earlier this year, we reported on Danielle McLaughlin receiving a Windham-Campbell award for 2019. On a roll!

Maggie Gee’s comments on New Short Stories 5 (video)

Frankly, we’re sharing some past glories here to encourage writers to submit and entrust us with their short stories for New Short Stories 11. (Submit)

Distinguished author Maggie Gee was the judge for the Willesden international short story prize in 2011. We were honoured when she came to our results event in the Willesden library centre events studio to announce her verdict. Maggie was also generous with her comments, referring to each of the stories in turn before revealing the winner.

And if you’ve reached the end of that video and want to see what happened next, here’s the answer. The charming Mary O’Shea, all the way from Cork for the night, graciously accepts her first prize award.

“Out of Season” by Mary O’Shea is included in Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 5. Maggie Gee’s latest novel is “Blood” (Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones etc.).