The BBC National Short Story Award 2013 - Softcover

Sarah Hall; Lucy Wood; Lionel Shriver; Lavinia Greenlaw; Lisa Blower

Softcover

ISBN 10: 190558363X ISBN 13: 9781905583638

Publisher: Comma Press, 2013

Synopsis

Edgar Allan Poe once claimed the greatest literary works were those that could be read in one sitting. Brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect, he argued, once the effect has been established, of course. The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 all use brevity with striking results, whether presenting a complex family history through the snapshots of a time-honoured, annual holiday, or using the form of a letter to demonstrate that a life mourned by a solitary woman is worth no less than one mourned by a nation. Each story sparks into life instantly and, like a struck match, leaves a vivid impression of its characters burning on the retina, long after the story has concluded. The landscapes they play out in also make their mark from the panic-stricken streets of New York on 9/11, to the eerie quiet of a wood on the outskirts of a city, the haunted corners of an old Cornish house, to the rubble of a bombed-out office block in a country at war with itself. This year's shortlist was drawn up by a panel of judges that included novelists Deborah Moggach, Mohsin Hamid and Peter Hobbs, as well as BBC Editor of Readings, Di Speirs, and the broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, who chaired the panel and who also introduces the collection.

About this title

About the Author:

Sarah Hall is the author of Haweswater (2003), which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel, a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award, and a Lakeland Book of the Year prize. Her second novel, The Electric Michelangelo (2004), was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia region), and the Prix Femina Étranger, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her third novel, The Carhullan Army (2007) won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tiptree Jr. Award, a Lakeland Book of the Year prize, was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, and long-listed for the Dublin IMPAC Award. Her fourth novel, How To Paint A Dead Man (2009) was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and won the Portico Prize for Fiction. Her first collection of short stories, The Beautiful Indifference (2011) won the Portico Prize for Fiction and the Edge Hill Short Story prize. It was also short-listed for the Frank O Connor Prize. Lucy Wood completed her BA in English and MA in Creative Writing at Exeter University. Her first book, Diving Belles (2012), is a collection of short stories based on Cornish folklore. She has been longlisted for the Frank O Connor Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize, shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize and has received a Somerset Maugham Award. Her story, Of Mothers and Little People was published in the Telegraph. She has also had stories broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra and as one of the Guardian Short Story Podcasts 2013. She is currently working on her first novel, which is called Weathering. Lucy was born in Cornwall and now lives in Exeter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Comma Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 190558363X
• ISBN 13: 9781905583638
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 116
• Editor: Mariella Frostrup