Congratulations again to all authors shortlisted for the Bath Short Story Award 2017. The titles of their wonderful stories, together with their pictures and biographies are listed here in alphabetical surname order. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Local Prize, Acorn Award and commended writers, chosen by our shortlist judge, senior literary agent Euan Thorneycroft, are listed separately on the winners’ post. We look forward to seeing all the stories in print in our forthcoming 2017 anthology, which will be launched in Bath this autumn. Euan’s comments on the shortlist are below:
“What a challenge? But an exciting one. The standard of the shortlist was very high and I would like to congratulate all the authors who made that list. Short stories are strange beasts – one day, a particular story might get under your skin. But on rereading, leave you a little cold. A detail that you passed over on a first read might make itself apparent to you on a second. I could only choose five winners but rest assured, they all left a mark.”
‘Speak no Evil’ by David Butler. David is a multi-award winning novelist, poet, short-story writer and playwright. The most recent of his three published novels, City of Dis (New Island) was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, 2015. His second poetry collection, All the Barbaric Glass, was published in March 2017 from Doire Press. Literary prizes include the Maria Edgeworth (twice) and Fish International Award for the short story, the Scottish Community Drama, Cork Arts Theatre and British Theatre Challenge awards for drama, and the Féile Filíochta, Ted McNulty, Brendan Kennelly and Poetry Ireland / Trocaire awards for poetry
‘Hollow’ by Bridgitte Cummings. Bridgitte was born in the UK but is now resident in Australia. She has had short stories published in both the UK and Australia, including publication in the Australian Big Issue Fiction Edition 2016. She is currently working on her first novel.
‘Paid in Full’ by Catherine Finch During her 30 years in teaching, Catherine wrote lovely stories, plays and musicals for children and tedious documents for school inspectors. Although reluctant to leave the village school where she was head teacher, she is delighted to have found space in her life for some real writing. She has been shortlisted and placed in a number of competitions, including Flash 500 and TSS, and has completed two novels. Catherine is married with two grown-up children. She divides her time between Lancashire and South West France, and is indebted to the Parisot Writing Group for their enthusiasm and encouragement.
‘Laughing and Turning Away’ by Patrick Holloway. Patrick is an Irish writer who currently teaches and writes in Brazil. His stories and poetry have been published by Overland, Bath Flash Fiction, Poetry Ireland Review, among others. His bilingual book of poetry was published in 2016. He’s been shortlisted for many awards including the Manchester Fiction Prize. He would like to dedicate more time to reading and writing but enjoys the better things in life, which require a little bit of money, therefore he divides his time between teaching, writing and travelling. He misses Ireland, a lot. Not so much the weather.
‘Nico and Moliere’ by Alexander Knights. Alexander spent 10 years as a travel guide editor and loves writing stories inspired by places. His London tales come out of a fascination with the city he has lived in for most of his adult life and he also blogs about this great labyrinth at www.londonimagined.com He has an MA in creative writing from Birkbeck and has published short stories in Litro Magazine, Riptide Journal and The Mechanics’ Institute Review
‘Into the Looking Glass’ by Shannon Savvas A New Zealand writer living in Cyprus, Shannon has had one story called The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Woman, published in Headland’s inaugural issue January 2015, was short-listed in the Page & Blackmore short story competition 2017 and long-listed in the Bath Flash Fiction competition 2017. Has failed miserably at writing her novel, re-writes in double figures, but lives with hope.
‘Big Bones‘ by Harriet Springbett. Harriet lives in rural France with her French partner and teenage daughters. Her debut novel, Tree Magic, was published by Impress Books in March 2017 and she is now seeking representation for her second novel. Harriet grew up in West Dorset and qualified as a manufacturing engineer before fleeing to France in 1995 to escape machines and numbers. She studied French at Pau university but only became bilingual when she met her partner, who taught her slang and rude words.
‘Seen/Unseen’ by Colin Walsh. Colin was born and raised in Ireland. He has lived in Scotland, France and Quebec and currently lives in Belgium, where he started writing fiction in 2016. ‘Seen/Unseen’ will be his first published story.
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‘Hunger in the Air’ by Judith Wilson. Judith is a writer and journalist. She has won the Retreat West Short Story Contest, 2016 and 2nd prize for the inaugural Colm Toibin International Short Story Award 2016; her stories have been longlisted for the Ink Tears Short Story Contest, 2016 and commended for the Cinnamon Press Annual Short Story Prize, 2016. Judith is also the author of 14 non-fiction books on interiors. She’s a Faber Academy Alumna and is putting the finishing touches to her first novel. When not in London, she’ll usually be found in Cornwall, close to the sea. www.judithwilsonwrites.com