BBC National Short Story Award Shortlist announced
The shortlist for this year’s BBC National Short Story Award once again proves that incredible things come in small packages.
Rose Tremain and Lionel Shriver, who have both been previously nominated for the award, join first time nominees Zadie Smith, Tessa Hadley and novelist and playwright Francesca Rhydderch on a list which will transport readers from the Welsh seaside, to Kenya – and many other places in between.
Twice nominated Tremain is set to publish her fifth volume of short stories, The American Lover, in November and is nominated here for the collection’s title story. Meanwhile Shriver, who is listed for her story Kilifi Creek, will be hoping it’s third time lucky though she faces tough competition, not least from accomplished author Tessa Hadley, nominated for Bad Dreams, who served as a judge on the award’s 2011 panel. The final household name on the list, Zadie Smith, claims she has “only recently become comfortable with the form” after writing The Embassy of Cambodia earlier this year – so she’s presumably very pleased to see her story Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets make the cut.
Francesca Rhydderch may well be set to rock the boat though with her tale of a Welsh seaside town, The Taxidermist’s Daughter. With this year’s Wales Book of the Year Award for Fiction under her belt for her début, The Rice Paper Diaries, she’s certainly not to be underestimated.
The winner, who will receive £15,000, will be announced at a ceremony at BBC Broadcasting House’s Radio Theatre on 30th September – broadcast live on Front Row. The runner up will take home £3,000, and the other shortlisted authors £500 each.
The shortlist in full
Bad Dreams by Tessa Hadley
The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Francesca Rhydderch
Kilifi Creek by Lionel Shriver
Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets by Zadie Smith
The American Lover by Rose Tremain
