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Press Releases
The 91Èȱ¬ National Short Story Award 2008
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The 91Èȱ¬ National Short Story Award is launching its third year and
announces headline sponsorship from the 91Èȱ¬, one of the award's founding
partners on its launch in 2005.
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The annual award, known in previous years as the National Short Story
Prize, is one of the world's most prestigious for a single short story
with the winning author receiving £15,000, the runner-up £3,000 and
three further authors £500 each.
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Broadcaster Martha Kearney will chair the panel of judges for 2008,
which also includes Alexander Linklater, one of the award's founders
(Prospect Magazine), Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively and Di Speirs (Radio 4).
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The shortlist will be announced in June 2008, with the
five stories broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4 each weekday before the winner is
announced.
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Aimed at highlighting the importance of the short story after many years
of neglect, the award stands at the heart of a UK-wide campaign – story – that also launched alongside the award in 2005.
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The ambition of both
award and campaign is to expand opportunities for British writers,
readers and publishers of the short story.
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The award aims to honour the
country's finest authors in the form, with James Lasdun securing the
inaugural year with An Anxious Man and Julian Gough winning in 2007
with The Orphan And The Mob.
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Other authors shortlisted in previous
years have included Jackie Kay, Hanif Kureishi, Rose Tremain and William
Trevor.
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Radio 4 is the world's leading broadcaster of short stories and a
staunch supporter of the form, showcasing a story on air every weekday.
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The 91Èȱ¬ hopes that the award can continue to serve as a reminder of the
power of the short story in a literary environment dominated by the
novel.
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Mark Damazer, Radio 4 Controller, said:
"The 91Èȱ¬ Short Story Award on Radio 4 allows us to showcase the very best
of short story writing in the UK.
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"Over the last couple of years we have
had two wonderful weeks of programmes, linked to the prize, devoted to
this precious literary form.
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"As in those years we will again be running
the shortlisted work at 30 minutes length – and expect to have a
glittering treat for Radio 4 listeners." Ìý
Alexander Linklater, founder of the award, said:
"Last year's winner, Julian Gough, said that winning the prize had saved
his writing life.
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"Now the prize has been subtly renamed as an 'award',
emphasising that this is not a game of competing entries, so much as
national recognition for our finest new stories.
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"The award can't itself
revive the British story, but it will guide the spotlight onto the
writers who can."
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Notes to Editors
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 The 91Èȱ¬ National Short Story Award is funded by the 91Èȱ¬, and is
administered in partnership with the Booktrust and Scottish Book Trust.
It was formerly known as the National Short Story Prize.
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The award is open to authors with a previous record of
publication, who are UK nationals or residents, aged 18 years or over
only.
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Entries may be stories published during 2007, or previously
unpublished. The story must not be more than 8,000 words.
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Entrants must
submit original work that does not infringe the copyright or any other
rights of any third party.
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Entrants must have a prior record of
publication.
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Entries are limited to stories written in English and only
one will be accepted per author.
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The story entered must either be
unpublished or if published then first and only publication must have
between 1 January and 31 December 2007.
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For full details, entry
criteria and an entry form see bbc.co.uk/radio4 or send a stamped
addressed envelope to
The 91Èȱ¬ National Short Story Award, Room 316, 91Èȱ¬ Henry Wood House, 3 & 6
Langham Place, London, W1A 1AA. Ìý
The panel will select a shortlist to be announced in June 2008.
The shortlisted stories will be broadcast on Radio 4 to precede the
final announcement of the award winner and runners-up.
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For information on story, the national campaign to celebrate the
short story, please visit www.theshortstory.org.uk. This site includes
interviews with writers, agents and publishers, events, competitions and
projects listings, and features tips for writers and readers and a
selection of classic and contemporary short stories.
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Radio 4 is the world's biggest single commissioner of short
stories. There is a story broadcast every weekday, with over a million
listeners tuning in each week.
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Forty per cent of Radio 4's short stories
are special commissions, mainly from leading authors, and at least 35 per
cent are from already published material – contemporary and classic – and include stories broadcast to coincide with publication. Unsolicited
stories and those not published by mainstream publishers make up at
least a further 25 per cent of output. Ìý
Booktrust and the Scottish Book Trust exist to bring books and
people together.
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The story campaign is their first major collaboration.
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Booktrust is an independent national charity, working to encourage
people of all ages and cultures to discover and enjoy reading.
Booktrust's family of websites provides information about books for
adults and children, as well as news about the book world. Booktrust
also administers a number of prizes and projects, and runs the Bookstart "books for babies" scheme.
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The Scottish Book Trust is Scotland's
national agency for readers and writers. It aims to create a confident,
cultured and articulate nation through engagement with literature in all
its forms by providing key services to readers, writers and the
education sector. See www.booktrust.org.uk and www.scottishbooktrust.com
for more information.
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