Q & A with novelist and short story writer, Tessa Hadley

 

The past book jacket

Over six novels and two collections of stories Tessa Hadley has earned a reputation as a fiction writer of remarkable gifts, and been compared with Elizabeth Bowen and Alice Munro.

Jude did a short email Q & A with the wonderful short story writer and novelist, Tessa Hadley, Professor in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, in March 2013 and the BSSA team loved her pithy comments about writing, which we have now re-posted below.

Biography. Tessa Hadley has written six novels, Accidents in the Home, published by Jonathan Cape in February 2002, and by Holt in the US (this was longlisted for the Guardian First Book award); Everything Will Be All Right, Holt 2003, Cape 2004 (shortlisted for the Encore Award); The Master Bedroom, Cape and Holt, 2007 (longlisted for the Orange Prize and the Welsh Book of the Year award); The London Train, Cape and Harper Collins in the US, 2011 (longlisted for the Orange Prize); Clever Girl, Cape and Harper Collins, 2013. Her latest novel, The Past was published in 2015. She has stories published regularly in The New Yorker, and also in Granta and the Guardian; a collection, Sunstroke and other stories, was published in January 2007. (This was shortlisted for The Story Award in the US.) A second collection, Married Love, came out in January 2012 (longlisted for the Frank O’Connor prize).

Her story ‘Bad Dreams’ was shortlisted for the BBC short story prize in 2014.

Q & A with Jude, from March 2013

  • You are well known for writing both novels and short stories. Can you tell us a little about your life as a writer in both genres and whether you have a preference?

Stories seem like a delicious interval of irresponsibility alongside the serious commitment of writing a novel. This isn’t because stories are anything less than a novel.

  • What do you think are the essential ingredients of a good short story?

I don’t know until I see it. Each story comes entangled in its own requirements, its own laws. It has to have something to tell which is worth hearing, I suppose – at the minimum

  • What traps do you think short short story writers should avoid?

Cliched language, tired perceptions, moralising.

  • Do you have any advice for writers on entering short story competitions?

Keep doing it – once you feel your stories are saying something and have some power and traction. It’s a really useful way to push yourself on, give yourself a deadline. And wonderfully rewarding if you win something too.

  • Who are your favourite short story writers?

Kipling, Checkhov, Joyce, Beckett, Borges, Mansfield, Eudora Welty, Heinrich Boll, John McGahern, Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant, many others.

  • Do you think a good title is important for a short story, or doesn’t it matter?

Yes, a title clinches something, it crisps the story up and seals it like a top on a bottle.

Opportunities to work with and listen to Tessa Hadley in March at the Bath Literature Festival.

We recommend you take the opportunity of working with Tessa, who is leading a workshop, ‘Bringing Words to Life.’ at the Bath Literature Festival on Wednesday 2nd March from 2.30 pm-5.30 pm. She is a wonderful teacher and speaker.

Booking is now open at the ticket office or online Here’s the description of the event: “Somewhere in the heart of fiction writing, there’s the desire to capture the sensations of experience in words. In this workshop, Bath Spa University’s Tessa Hadley will be concentrating on that effort, working to find fresh words to make the world come alive on the page.”

Tessa is also talking about her latest novel, The Past, alongside Deborah Moggach who is sharing her new novel, Something to Hide at an hour long event chaired by  The Independent newspaper’s Arifa Akbar on Tuesday 1st March

Interview with short-story writer and novelist, Anthony Doerr

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Jude interviewed Anthony Doerr in March 2013 and we’re re-posting his interview here for 2016 entrants to read. He’s written some great tips on writing short stories and we highly recommend reading his wonderful prize-winning novel and his story collection,

Anthony Doerr is the author The Shell Collector, About Grace, Four Seasons in Rome, Memory Wall,  He spent ten years writing his most recent book, ‘All the Light We Cannot See’  which was  published by Scribner in early 2014 and became an instant New York Times bestseller.  It was one of four finalists in the US National Book Awards, in November 2014 and went on to win the Pullitzer prize for fiction in the US in April, 2015.

Doerr’s short fiction has won four O. Henry Prizes and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, and The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction. He has won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, the Rome Prize, the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, the National Magazine Award for Fiction, two Pushcart Prizes, the Pacific Northwest Book Award, three Ohioana Book Awards, the 2010 Story Prize, which is considered the most prestigious prize in the U.S. for a collection of short stories, and the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, which is the largest prize in the world for a single short story.  His books have twice been a New York Times Notable Book, an American Library Association Book of the Year, and made lots of other year end “Best Of” lists. In 2007, the British literary magazine Granta placed Doerr on its list of 21 Best Young American novelists.

Interview

  •  I was bowled over by your short story collection ‘Memory Wall’, which was recommended to me by UK short story writer Tania Hershman. Your stories range over a wide span of history and give the point of view of  characters of different ages, genders and cultures. They  focus on profound human dilemmas and experiences. Can you say more about how you came to write these stories?

When I was in high school, my grandmother developed Alzheimer’s disease and came to live with us.  Over the course of months, we watched her mind disintegrate; she forgot who we were, where she was, where her bedroom was, even how to bathe herself.  But she remembered curious things, too: her childhood telephone number, the date of her wedding, etc.  She got to the point where she had no idea who I was, but could beat the pants off of me at gin rummy.  So the readiest answer I have is that my own memories of my grandmother informed my work on the stories in Memory Wall—I had learned, at a young age, just how fragile our personal histories are.  And I suppose, in a way, I was trying to rectify my own self-absorption when I was seventeen and eighteen, watching my grandmother lose her identity, and failing to understand the pain my parents were enduring.

As for imagining different places, histories, and individuals, I’d argue we write to learn what we don’t know; we write toward the mysteries, the things we can’t articulate but believe are there, feel are there.  Maybe we start with what we know, but then we work in the opposite direction, away from the things that are comfortable, familiar known.  Otherwise we’re not learning, and if we’re not learning, why bother?  So that’s why I often choose subjects and characters whose experiences, on the surface at least, are quite different from my own.

  • Your  stories in ‘Memory Wall’ are long – the title story is 85 pages and still  works very well as a short story, in my view. Do you think important themes can be developed in a much shorter text and do you have any thoughts or advice about writing to a word limit? The Bath Short Story Award is limited to 2200 words.

I love working on short stories for a lot of reasons, but one stands out: they’re short.  When I’m working on a story, even an inordinately long one like “Memory Wall,” there are usually about 10,000 words I have to comb through before I start adding new material. So it’s short enough that I can read through the entire piece, make some revisions, and add new material in a single day.  Here’s an easy metaphor: I’m able to keep the paint wet in all the corners of the canvasI really think that helps make a narrative feel whole to a reader. A novel, on the other hand, quickly gets too large and unwieldy.  Sometimes there will be passages in your novel that you haven’t reread in a year. The canvas is so large that you are never able to visit all of it in one day (or several weeks) of work.

As for a word limit, I tend to prefer reading and writing stories that are longer than 2,200 words, but yes, of course, I think stories of that length can achieve a great deal.  Look at Peter Orner’s work in Esther Stories, or many of Stuart Dybek’s short stories, or Jamaica Kinkaid’s “Girl” or Isaac Babel’s “My First Goose” or Joyce’s “Araby.”  Look at Tobias Wolff’s “Say Yes.”

  • Which other short story writers have influenced your writing? Can you say why?

Maybe two more than any others: Amy Hempel, because of her compression and playfulness with language.  And Alice Munro because of what she can do with time.  Munro can skim through a decade in a paragraph, or trawl through a single decision for several pages.

I also love story writers who pay attention to the natural world: Annie Dillard, Nadine Gordimer, Andrea Barrett, Sarah Orne Jewett…  I’m an amateur naturalist at heart, a person who is most comfortable outdoors looking for creatures, looking for beauty, weather, light, water.  And I love to render the things I see into language–only by writing it out, I think, can I make it real to myself.

  • What editing advice would you give to writers who are considering entering our competition?

Reward the generosity of your reader! Try to examine every single word in your story and ask yourself: Is it a lazy choice? Does this adjective/article/noun/verb absolutely need to be there?  If someone is nice enough to spend a half-hour reading something you’ve written, try to make your prose absolutely worthy of his or her time. Make the dream that unfolds inside your sentences so persuasive, seamless and compelling, that your reader won’t put it down.

2016 Award now closed

Thank you to everyone who entered BSSA 2016.  Initial judging is now underway. Subscribe to receive news of longlist announcements

Shortlist Judge: BBC Radio 4 producer Mair Bosworth

Prizes:

  • 1st £1000
  • 2nd £200
  • 3rd £100
  • Local prize: £50 voucher
  • The Acorn Award for unpublished writers of fiction : £50

With thanks to Mr B’s Emporium of Books, Bath for sponsoring the local prize.

A selection of twenty winning, shortlisted and longlisted stories will be published in the 2016 anthology  in digital and print format. (publication likely in October, 2016).

Follow us on Twitter @bathstoryaward and subscribe to our email list and posts to receive the latest news and competition updates.

2015 anthology

To read the winning, shortlisted and a selection of the longlisted stories from last year’s award,  buy the 2015 anthology officially launched 19th November 2015 in Bath, on this site  for £6 (inc p & p). (UK residents only). If you live overseas, the anthology is available digitally and in print from Amazon.

 

2015 – Thank you to all our supporters

Thank you to everyone who entered the 2015 Bath Short Story Award, followed us on social media, shared our news and bought our anthologies. We like to motivate you, but we  appreciate the energy you bring to the Award. It makes it all so much fun.

This year, over one thousand people entered the  2015 Award. There was a high standard of entries and it was hard to whittle down the long list to send a short list to our judge, literary agent, Carrie Kania.

Highlights  included:

  • Ringing up the winners – we all love doing this!
  • compiling the 2015 anthology and receiving it from the printers
  • the anthology launch, and having a two page spread on the evening in The Bath Chronicle
  • Our two events – the workshop with Paul McVeigh on Writing a Killer First Page and the Evening of Readings with Paul, and authors Rachel Heath and Sarah Hilary.

Our reading team is poised for the initial Big Read for 2016. Entries are coming in steadily from around the world. We hope you would like to enter. We close on 25th April – just over 16 weeks time. Not long really. Keep checking our countdown timer on this site and sign up to receive posts  and regular emails from us.

Have a great Writing New Year.

Jude, Jane and Anna

BSSA 2015 anthology launch

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The BSSA 2015 anthology launch took place on 19th November at Mr B’s Emporium of Books, Bath. Mr B sponsors our local prize and his shop was recently voted one of the ten best bookshops in the world by The Guardian. We think it’s the bee’s knees too – a must go if you are visiting Bath. Reading spas, reading years, bibliotherapy…

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Nic, Mr B himself, with Jane.

 

 

 

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We were thrilled that ten of the twenty authors in the anthology were able to come along to read short extracts from their stories  to a packed house of partners, friends and short-story-loving guests. Two of the authors, Sara Collins and Emily Devane are pictured on the left.

 

Sara, Jude Anna etc

It was a fabulous evening. All the authors who attended read brilliantly from the beginning of their stories and left listeners longing to find out what happened next.  Here you can see Jude, Anna and others, spellbound by Sara Collins reading her story.

 

 

Jerry and Sue

Our first prize winner, Safia Moore, was unable to attend as she lives in the United Arab Emirates. After Anna’s introduction and thanks to all,  Jane’s friend Jerry pictured here on the right with Sue, who took a lot of the photographs, started off the readings with an extract from Safia’s story, ‘That Summer.’ Click on video clip to see Jerry reading some ofthat extract. The recording starts a few seconds into the reading.

 

 

Garry Alex and Douglas

Gary and Douglas from The Self Publishing Partnership who published our high quality book under their Brown Dog imprint, came along and here they are with Alexandra  Wilson, from Writing Events Bath, who in 2015 sponsored the Acorn Award for an unpublished writer, this year won by Lucy Corkhill with her story.’Last Rites’.

anthology copies smallerOur anthology cover was again designed by the very talented artist and writer Elinor Nash who unfortunately wasn’t able to come along. We sold all the books pictured here during the evening. People  love the colour of the anthology this year – many saying how festive it is – just right for Christmas presents.

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In between batches of readings, there was time for people to mingle, chat, buy books drink wine and eat  ‘nibbles’.

 

KM Elks

On this post, we’ve pictures  of all the authors reading, plus the first few lines of their stories to inspire you to buy the anthology –  available from this website, Mr B’s, The Big Green Bookshop, London and  via Amazon in digital as well as print format.

To the right, there’s a picture of K M Elkes our local prize winner reading from his story, ‘The Three Kings’.

“It was Friday night, our wages were paid – we were set for the dance down Kilburnie. There were three of us – me, Frances and Robbie – living cheap over McAdams the butchers where a yellow stink of fat pooled at the bottom of the stairs”.

 

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Lucy Corkhill, winner of the Acorn Award for an unpublished writer of fiction reading from the beginning of her story ‘Last Rites’. Click here to see a  Youtube video clip of Lucy reading the extract. She also tells us how she entered the competition at 11.47 pm on the last day!

“Rose Cullen. Eighty-eight years of age. Two daughters themselves pensioners: Violet and May. Three grand-children; one great-grandchild. A marriage, mercifully short, to Charles…”

 

 

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Sara Collins reading from her shortlisted story,  ‘Lilith’.

“We have nowhere else to go, so he puts me on all fours like a cat on the back seat You’re as jumpy as a cat and all,’ he tells me. ‘Stay still.’

The old Bentley’s back window is filthy like always. The doors are locked.The amber beads of the rosary swing side to side from the mirror.  ‘There’s a trick to surviving it,’ Lilith always says…”

 

 

EmmaSeaman

 

Emma Seaman reading from her shortlisted story, ‘The Ends of the Earth’. Watch a video clip of Emma reading the extract.

“‘I’ve wanted to do this for years,’ my father tells me. ‘It’s top of my bucket list.’

I didn’t know he had a bucket list, or needed one, but I can hear he’s proud of himself for knowing the term.”

 

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John Holland reading an extract from his story ‘Lips’. Click on the link to listen to a video clip of his reading

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John tells us this is the original ceramic egg and and chips plate

 

 

“At the pottery class, he made a black, iron glazed stoneware urn which she admired. She made a blue glazed earthenware plate with yellow and white glazed fried eggs, orange glazed beans and brown glazed individually cut chips, which he didn’t comment on…”

 

 

EmilyDevane

Emily Devane reading from her story ‘Ruby Shoesmith, click, click,click’. Click here to listen and watch a video clip of this extract (starts a few seconds in to Emily’s reading).

1. Ample

‘Your first word is ample.’ Mrs Barker paces between the desks. ‘Ample’ she says again, stressing the ‘p’ sound so that her chest heaves forward unsettling the chain that carries her glasses.

Ample. I know this one. ‘Am-pull – is that it?’…”

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Anne Corlett

 

 

Anne Corlett reading and extract from her story, ‘The Witching Hour’. Click here to watch a Youtube video clip (starts a couple of seconds into Anne’s reading).

“I discover we have a witch on the first night in the new house.

There’s a faint scratching coming from the children’s room and when I open the curtains, she’s there, floating expressionlessly in front of the window, long vague fingers probing at the glass…”

AnnaMetcalfe

 

Anna Metcalfe reading an extract from her story, ‘Sand’. Listen and watch Anna reading it here.  We missed recording the first few seconds but it sounds great.

“They abandoned the truck at the edge of the city and divided themselves between the two jeeps. Seven men in the back of each, shoulders knocking, thighs pressed against thighs. The road soon lost its surface to potholes, boulders and the branches of fallen trees…”

 

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Adam Kurcharksi reading from his story, ‘Mosquito Press’. Click to hear a video clip of some of his story. The clip starts a few seconds in to the reading.

“You know something’s gone too far when you’re sitting here flicking through a deck of cards, trying to decide which of the queens is the prettiest. The phone rings again. It’s probably Castle, drunk in one of the girlie bars without any pesos for a taxi.”

 

FranLandsman

 

 

Fran Landsman reading an extract from her story, ‘Big and Brie’.

Click here to listen to a Youtube video clip  It begins a couple of seconds into the story.

“My name is Big. But I’m not – I’m small. They call me that because my surname is Spender – like ‘Big Spender’ – which is a song. But I’m not a big spender either. In fact, I’ve only got £9.17 to last me till next Thursday.”

 

 

Ten very different compelling stories and ten more to read in the anthology. All of those wonderful too. The authors who weren’t able to attend, apart from our winner Safia Moore, were second prize winner,  Dan Powell,  third prize winner, Angela Readman, commended, Eileen Merriman, commended, Barbara Weeks, shortlisted,Sophie Hampton and Alice Falconer, Fiona Mitchell, Chris Edwards-Pritchard, and Debbi Voisey.

Interview with 2015 1st prize winner, Safia Moore

Safia-Moore-PhotoNow that the 2016 Short Story Award is underway, we thought it would be good to hear from Safia Moore, our BSSA 2015 first prize winner. She’s had more successes since her win in our contest back in July and has some great advice for prospective entrants to this year’s competition. You can read Safia’s winning story ‘That Summer’ in our BSSA 2015 anthology which officially launches in Bath on 19th November. Available from Mr B’s Emporium of Books in Bath or via Amazon

Safia Moore is a writer, editor, and creative writing tutor from Northern Ireland. Her work has been published in various journals including The Incubator, Haverthorn Magazine, Severine, and The Honest Ulsterman.   In 2015 Safia won the Bath Short Story Award, came second in the Allingham Arts Flash Fiction competition and was twice shortlisted for Flash500.

Blog: www.topofthetent.com Twitter: @SafiaMoore

Interview

  • On your blog, you posted a great account of the history of your winning story,’That Summer’. Can you give us a summary of it again here? I am sure  prospective entrants would be interested in how the story came to us.

The essence of my ‘history of a winning story’ blog was that no one should believe there is some kind of magic recipe or even genius involved in writing a great short story, one that could win, be placed, or shortlisted in a major competition like the Bath Short Story Award. Accepting this and realising that all stories, if they are intended for submission to journals or competitions, must be scrupulously edited, re-read, worked on again and again, is of paramount importance. Likewise, if you believe in the merit of your story, you shouldn’t give up. My winning story, ‘That Summer’, had been submitted to two other competitions and had not been successful, so when it came back to me on those two occasions, I re-edited it, worked particularly closely on my choice of vocabulary, and generally made it leaner and meaner. I felt the voice and the overall structure of the story were sound, so it was a case of honing in on the details, the images, and cutting whatever was superfluous, especially in the dialogue. But if you read the full blog, you’ll discover that a little bit of luck in the form of a slow-moving post office queue, also played a part in how ‘That Summer’ came into the hands of BSSA

‘Viennese Whirls and Pineapple Creams’ is based on a few scant details my mother gave me about my maternal grandmother, Maggie Wright, a woman who raised a tribe of children (not all her own), married several times and was widowed for the last time when my mother, her youngest child, was about twelve. I was pleased that the Allingham judge picked up on the social/historical vibes of the piece as they were important to me, but when I initially sat down to write it, I had no idea exactly how I was going to incorporate those elements. As usual, it sorted itself out in the edits and revisions, of which there were many. You can read it on my blog via the link in the title above.

  • Do you write short fiction with a finished length in mind? Or does it just emerge as flash or a longer story?

I definitely sort my ideas into ‘Flash’ or ‘Short Story’ at a very early stage and I can’t think of any that have crossed over during the writing. I think that’s obviously got to do with the scope and depth of the idea, flash fiction being more like a trailer to the short story’s full feature. I wouldn’t write a flash piece or a short story with a particular word count in mind however, although I have occasionally cut a longer piece down in order to satisfy the word limit of a competition or journal. Stretching to fit is something I’d never do to a story.

  • Which short story writers do you return to for inspiration?

I’m tempted to say, none as I think returning to the same writers for inspiration can be quite inhibiting. I’d say it’s much better to spread your net far and wide when it comes to reading material and to keep one eye on what and who is new. Likewise, I feel that if you need to consciously seek out inspiration as a writer, you’re in trouble. Having said that, if I had to name short story writers I would automatically return to for reading pleasure and enjoyment of the craft well-executed, my top three would be Lorrie Moore, Carol Shields, and James Joyce. I rarely read a novel or a short story more than once, because there’s always something waiting in the TBR pile, but Dubliners is a collection I have returned to time and time again as a reader and a teacher. Which brings me on to anthologies. What better way to be inspired than reading a wide range of styles, ideas and techniques such as those found in the BSSA 2015 Anthology?

  • What are your current writing ambitions?

Currently I’m working on two projects and my ambition is to have them both completed by Spring 2016 at the latest. The first is a collection of short stories thematically linked by their Northern Irish setting (as per ‘That Summer’). I’ve planned 3 new stories which will bring it up to around the 40,000 word mark. At the same time, I’m working on what was my first completed novel and re-forming it into a series of free-standing but integrated episodes along the lines of ‘Olive Kitteridge’ by Elizabeth Strout or ‘Starlings’ by Erinna Mettler. This novel is set in Abu Dhabi and Dubai so has a much more diverse flavour than the short story collection. There’s a second novel which is about one-third of the way in, but it’ll have to wait. Finding an agent who loves my work is another ambition, but that’s for after I’m satisfied I can make no further improvements to my short story collection and novel.

  • Can you give us your top tips for writing competition short stories?

My top tips: get the voice right, plan the structure, begin in the middle of the story, keep writing until you get to the end of the first draft, then start working. There is no such thing as too much editing – you must be prepared to constantly read your own work, re-read it, make changes every time, cut anything that adds nothing to the storyline or characterisation, tighten up dialogue and enhance your descriptions with details that sound fresh, not clichéd. And finally, if you’re thinking about entering Bath 2016, start now. All the above takes time.

Interview with Jude, November 2015.

Interview with BSSA 2015 2nd prize winner, Dan Powell

Dan-Powell_headshotDan Powell is a prize winning author of short fiction whose stories have appeared in the pages of Carve, New Short Stories, Unthology and The Best British Short Stories. His debut collection of short fiction Looking Out Broken Windows was shortlisted for the 2013 Scott Prize, long listed for the Edge Hill Prize and is published by Salt. He teaches part-time and is a First Story writer-in-residence. He procrastinates at danpowellfiction.com and on Twitter as @danpowfiction

 

Dan wasn’t able to attend our  BSSA 2015 anthology launch on 19th November, in Bath and we are delighted to interview him here. In Jude’s interview with him below, he tells us more about his second prize-winning story Dancing to the Shipping Forecast, his influences, current projects and tips on writing short stories. You can read his story in our BSSA 2015 anthology available from this site, Mr B’s Bookshop in Bath, The BigGreen Bookshop in London and from Amazon (print and digital versions).

Interview

  • Your 2nd prize winning story for the Bath Short Story Award, 2015, Dancing to the Shipping Forecast was very powerful  and evocative.  Our short list judge, literary agent, Carrie Kania said “what I admired the most was the building tension and the aching timestamp of a relationship reminding us that every second counts” I agree wholeheartedly with this comment. Can you tell us what inspired you to write it?

The first draft of the story was written during December 2013 and January 2014, a winter of fierce storms and heavy rainfall. Lots of areas flooded and coastal surges destroyed large areas of the coast, damaging both property and the landscape. As the time my family and I were living in an old farmhouse in Lincolnshire and it rained for so long and so hard that water began permeating the brick work. Patches of damp began appearing in the walls, much like those I describe in the story, and it is these patches of damp that the story grew from. This initial setting of an old property, the plaster patched with dark wet stains where the rain seeping in through the drenched brickwork, merged with the images on the TV of coastal waters sweeping up and devouring coastline in seconds. From there I had the coastal location for the story and that was enough to start writing. The voice of my female narrator appeared in the first few lines I drafted and this was one of those rare occasions that the voice took over and led me through the story. Once I knew that this woman had lost someone she had only recently become involved with, the tone and shape of the story became apparent. It’s four part structure mirrored that of the shipping forecast and once I began tying that in by using a forecast for the area in which the story is set on a particularly bad day during that winter, the story came together quickly. It was a quick first draft and slow edit though, hence the twelve months or so spent refining it before I submitted it to the Bath Short Story Award.

  • You have recently been awarded the RSL Brookleaze Grant. Can you tell us more about it, and what it means to  have received it for your life as a writer?

The RSL Brookleaze grants are intended to provide writers with the opportunity to focus on their writing, whether it be funding a sabbatical from work or a research trip that would otherwise be impossible. My award will enable me to remain in part time work for the next few months, effectively buying me three days a week in which to write. I have been enjoying that privilege for the last few weeks, and I am loving being able to focus on my current works in progress in this way. I have also kept a small portion of the funds aside to help pay for a research trip to London in support of my novel. I plan to undertake this trip during Easter, visiting some of London’s Victorian cemeteries and, amongst other locations, the Hunterian Museum. Receiving this award from such a respected institution is fantastic validation of my writing and a great motivator as I make my way through the final third of my novel.

  • You also work as a writing tutor and were recently writer in residence for First Story writer. What do you enjoy about this work?  Have you any up and coming workshops that writers could attend?

I work with writers of all ages I am always in awe of the way both students and adults throw themselves into the writing tasks I set in my workshops. In every session there will be so many moments when a phrase or piece of description the share will have me wishing I wrote it. Writing is usually a solitary pursuit and being able to share the creative experience with like minded people is a genuine pleasure and one that energises me for the return to my own work. Working with First Story is a particular privilege as writers-in-residence get to work for a year with a group of young writers. It’s a pleasure to watch them grow in confidence in their work as the year progresses. At the end of the process an anthology of the students work is published and they attend a book launch. What a great opportunity for a young person, to be a published author while still at school. It’s the sort of thing I would have loved to have done when I was at school.

As for up and coming workshops, unfortunately I don’t have anything lined up for the next month or two as I am busy completing an application to study for a PhD in Creative Writing. Hopefully I will have a few later in the new year that people can come along to.

  • You are successful as a short story, flash fiction and essay writer.  I believe you are also working on a novel. Do you readily move between all forms in your day to day writing and can you tell us more about the novel?

I tend to stick to writing in a particular form rather than jumping between tasks, so I will focus on short stories for a few weeks at a time, rather than move back and forth. With something as long as a novel, I will take breaks from the text to dip back into writing a short story or essay. Though overlaps exist between the different types of writing, I find that each form demands a slightly different mindset and I need to immerse myself in order to produce something of value. Currently I am neck deep in my novel draft. It’s about an undertaker who wakes one day to find that his body has died but he is still conscious within it and somehow able to move. Its part literary existential novel, part body-horror novel. Researching this book has traumatised my web browser.

  • You received a runner up prize for your essay on Norwegian short story writer Kjell Askilden  for last year’s Threshold Essay Contest. Is he a writer whose work has influenced your own prose? Who are the other short story writers that you currently admire and would recommend reading?

Minimalists like Kjell Askildsen, Raymond Carver and Amy Hempel have definitely influenced my work, particularly my more straight-ahead literary fiction stories. Anton Chekhov is a big influence, particularly how he manages to merge the higher emotions and the base in a single story, even a single scene. That level of control is still something I aspire to pull off. My more surreal or weird stories, like ‘Storm in a Teacup’ or ‘Free Hardcore’, also owe something to writers like Adam Marek, George Saunders and Aimee Bender. As for who I would currently recommend, I am savouring the short stories of William Gay at the moment. His collection, I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down, is consistently, story by story, sentence by sentence, one of the most affecting and compelling collections I have ever read. Right now, I am busy being blown away by how good his work is. Soon, I need to start working out how to get that good at this writing thing.

  • How do you think entering short story competitions helps writers?

First and foremost they give you a deadline and force you to finish. If you want to enter you have to finish your story and you have to do it within a time frame. Making commended lists and longlists and shortlist can provide validation to what you are doing but getting there takes time for most writers. First of all you need to write and competitions provide motivation and a goal, not necessarily the goal of winning, but the goal of writing the best story you can and submitting it. If you do that, and keep writing better stories each time, success becomes a matter of time.

  • What  tips would you give writers who are planning to enter the Bath Short Story Award this year?

Read the very best examples of the short story you can get your hands on. Look closely at how good stories work. Then write the story only you can write. Write the story you want to read that no one else is writing. Make it a bold and unique vision which can’t help but stand out when the judges make their selections. Oh, and edit, edit, edit; polish it until it shines

Interview by Jude, December 2015

2016 Judge

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We are thrilled to welcome Mair Bosworth  as our shortlist judge for 2016. Mair is a producer for BBC Radio 4, based in Bristol where she makes Book at Bedtime, short stories, poetry programmes and arts documentaries. She has broadcast work by Kazuo Ishiguro, William Boyd, Owen Sheers, Kate Clanchy and AL Kennedy. She also runs the Bristol branch of ‘In the Dark’, a collective of radio producers and enthusiasts, which brings people together for listening events celebrating the best of radio storytelling. She tweets under @heyheymaimai

  • It’s been said radio is the ideal medium for the short story? What are your thoughts on this?

I’m not sure that there needs to be an ‘ideal’ medium for the short story. I like that short stories can find us in different places; that they can come to us over the air, in an anthology, in a book or in a magazine. I think some stories work particularly well on the radio, but others work better for me on the page. And when judging the BSSA short list I won’t be reading with only a story’s suitability for radio in mind.

Having said that, I do think there is a great fit between radio and short form prose (and poetry too of course). With short stories on the radio we have the pleasure of being told a story, of being read to. This seems to me to be a very primal pleasure; a pleasure set down in childhood. I love that with radio I can get lost in a story while I’m doing the washing up or stuck in a traffic jam. There is something moving and immediate in the intimacy of one human speaking a story into the ear of another.

  • What outlets are there on radio, the BBC or otherwise, for the short story?

Across the BBC’s radio stations we broadcast almost 200 short stories each year, with two a week going out on Radio 4 alone. The vast majority of these stories are brand new commissions for radio or are from newly published collections. Championing new writing and bringing new voices to our audience is really important to us. Radio 4 runs the Opening Lines competition annually, specifically for writers new to radio, and the BBC National Short Story Award for more established writers.

The Book Trust website and the BBC Writers Room are great sources of information on competitions and opportunities for writers.

  • Does the BBC have a submissions policy? What’s the best way to get a story to the top of the radio submissions’ slush pile?

While individual competitions such as Opening Lines will have quite specific submission guidelines, I think it’s important to understand that – in terms of production – ‘the BBC’ is not one monolithic entity. There are currently four different BBC teams and four independent production companies making short readings productions for Radio 4. And within each of those teams are individual producers, with their individual interests and tastes and workloads. For any writers wanting to get their work on radio I would advise listening to as many Radio 4 stories as possible. Work out who is producing the stories you like and approach them.

The other advice I would give is to try to raise your profile. Sometimes BBC producers may put out an open call for submissions, but that is fairly rare. More typically, we will proactively approach writers we admire to invite them to write something for radio. So we need to be able to find you!

I am constantly looking around for writers who are producing exciting work but who have not yet had their first broadcast opportunity on Radio 4. I read short story anthologies, literary magazines and journals. I look at the winners (and runners up) of short story awards around the UK. And I rely heavily on the expert knowledge and opinions of the wonderful people in the short story world – the publishers, agents, critics, teachers and award-givers – who read far more stories than I would ever be able to and have been generous with their advice and recommendations.

I recently commissioned a story from Danielle McLaughlin for example – whose work was first brought to my attention by the amazing Tania Hershman. Thanks to Tania I read a (very) short story of Danielle’s, which appeared in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology and then I tracked down more of Danielle’s pieces in The New Yorker and The Stinging Fly. I loved Danielle’s work and could see that it would work well for radio, so when we had a slot available for a new commission I approached Danielle to ask if she would write for us. Similarly, I was delighted to record one of Kit de Waal’s short stories for radio, after the team behind the Bath Short Story Award told me about her beautiful work.

I am also interested in writers from other fields – poets, screenwriters, journalists, comedians and playwrights – who might bring a fresh take to the short story slots on Radio 4.

  • What do you look for in a story you’re considering broadcasting?

I have to be able to hear the story; to feel it can lift off the page. It also helps if I can ‘see’ the story. (Radio is a strangely visual medium and for me the stories that work best on radio often have a cinematic tendency). I love stories that create a strong sense of atmosphere. I like the economy of what is sometimes called ‘poetic prose’. But most of all I like to laugh and to be moved. I want a story to work on me – to both surprise and connect with me.

  • Could you give us any info on word length, subject matter, voice?

Most of the broadcast slots available for short stories on Radio 4 are around 14 minutes in length, which equates to 1,800-2,200 words depending on pace and delivery. I don’t put any restrictions on subject matter but very strong language or particularly bleak subject matter can cause us editorial challenges.

Stories with a lot of dialogue, lots of different characters or with frequent jumps in time and place can be confusing for the ear to follow. Our budget for short story productions is limited, which can make stories with more than one voice/narrator tricky for us to commission.

  • Which writers inspire you? Whose literary works would be your ‘desert island ‘ companions?

In short story I always go back to Chekhov, and to Raymond Carver. (Sorry to be so unoriginal but it’s true!) I also love Annie Proulx, Kate Clanchy, Lorrie Moore, and Lydia Davis of course.

The books from the last couple of years which have really stuck with me have been Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation, Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams and Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which I only read for the first time recently.

I read a lot of poetry and particularly love Jean Sprackland, Don Paterson, Michael Donaghy, Alice Oswald, Czeslaw Milosz, Kathleen Jamie. I like books that you can’t easily categorise in terms of genre – like Rebecca Solnit’s The Faraway Nearby, or Geoff Dyer’s Out of Sheer Rage. And for comfort reading I turn to John Wyndham, William Boyd, Sarah Waters and Henning Mankell.

  • And finally, any advice to someone entering the Bath short Story Award for the first time?

Read and re-read. Edit, edit, edit. Trust your gut. I’m really looking forward to reading your stories.

Good luck!

Read about our 2015 winners

1st Prize

Safia Moore

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Carrie Kania’s comments:

There are so many things to admire about ‘That Summer’. It’s a snapshot of boyhood curiosity. The narrator’s voice perfectly captures the sense of a small town complete with its own secrets, prying neighbours, worries and tensions. With language true to the characters, yet mature enough for the readers, the author strikes a fine balance. “That summer, no-one wore seat belts” – one single line in the story shows how, in a few words, a whole season can be described. This story stayed with me.

About Safia

Safia Moore is a former English teacher from Northern Ireland who now works as a freelance writer, editor and creative writing tutor to small groups. She has published flash fiction, short stories, reviews and critical articles, with Ether Books, The Incubator, Haverthorn Magazine and The Honest Ulsterman. Safia won the 2014 Abu Dhabi National Short Story Competition with a piece called ‘Turning Point,’ but feels her finest fiction-writing achievement to date is this Bath Short Story Award short listing. She blogs at www.topofthetent.com and tweets @SafiaMoore

2nd Prize 

Dan Powell

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Carrie Kania’s comments:

Loss hits hard in this story set against a crashing sea. And in many ways, water becomes as much a character in ‘Dancing to the Shipping Forecast’ as the narrator. What I admired most about this story was the building tension and the aching, specific time stamp of a relationship – reminding us all that every second counts.

About Dan Powell

Dan Powell is a prize winning author of short fiction whose stories have appeared in the pages of Carve, New Short Stories, Unthology and The Best British Short Stories. His debut collection of short fiction Looking Out Broken Windows was shortlisted for the 2013 Scott Prize, long listed for the Edge Hill Prize and is published by Salt. He teaches part-time and is a First Story writer-in-residence. He procrastinates at danpowellfiction.com and on Twitter as @danpowfiction

3rd Prize 

Angela Readman

Style: "Portrait B&W - high key"

Style: “Portrait B&W – high key”

Carrie Kania’s comments:

A translator’s way with words helps women find ‘love’ in ‘The Woman of Letters’. Editing hopes, she nevertheless – perhaps unrealistically – sets her ultimate matchmaking eye towards her son. Peppering the story with gorgeous metaphors (“lips are strawberries in the snow”), this was a story that transported me and left me with a dual sense of two kinds of dreams – the ones that can come true and the ones that will not.

About Angela Readman

Angela Readman’s stories have been published in Unthology, The Asham Award anthology and The Bristol Short Story Prize anthology. She is a winner of the National Flash Fiction Competition and The Costa Short Story Award in. Her debut collection, Don’t Try This at Home was published by And Other Stories in 2015. It recently won a Saboteur Award and The Rubery Book Award.

The Acorn Award for Unpublished Writers of Fiction

Lucy Corkhill 

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BSSA judging team comments:

‘Last Rites’ impressed us for the strong and original voice of the protagonist and an unusual slant to a traditional theme.

About Lucy Corkhill

Lucy Corkhill worked for ten years as a journalist while writing coffee-fuelled fiction late at night. She’s currently a full-time mum to her adopted son, working on her first novel whenever time allows and running an illustration business. Inhabiting wild spaces makes her feel alive and inspires her creativity; she has lived on a 90 year old wooden boat, in a house in the woods, and in an off-grid cottage perched on the cliffs. She blogs about writing at livingtheedwardiandream.wordpress.com and tweets about books @lucycorkhill

Local Prize and Commended by Carrie Kania

KM Elkes

Ken-Elkes

Carrie Kania’s comments:

A wonderful snapshot of a night out with the boys – the three kings of their town. Pitch-perfect dialogue and a cast of characters you’d likely see up on the big screen.

About KM  Elkes

KM Elkes is an author, journalist and travel writer from Bristol UK. Since starting to write fiction seriously in 2011, he has won the 2013 Fish Publishing Flash Fiction Prize, been shortlisted twice for the Bridport Prize and was one of the winners of the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award, 2014.  He also won the Prolitzer Prize for Prose in 2014 and wrote a winning entry for the Labello Press International Short Story Prize, 2015. His work has also appeared in various anthologies and won prizes at Words With Jam, Momaya Review, Lightship Publishing and Accenti in Canada. Website www.kmelkes.co.uk  Twitter @mysmalltales

Commended by Carrie Kania:

Eileen Merriman

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Carrie Kania’s comments:

A young doctor’s exhausting rounds leads him to a brief encounter with a dying woman. The rush atmosphere of the ER is deftly balanced with the last breaths of life.

About Eileen Merriman

Eileen Merriman writes short stories, novels and flash fiction. She was second runner-up in the 2014 Sunday Star Times National Short Story Competition and has recently received the 2015 Winter Flash Frontiers writing award. Her work has previously been published in the Sunday Star Times, Takahe, Headland, Flash Frontiers and is forthcoming at Blue Fifth Review. In 2015 she was awarded a New Zealand Society of Authors’ mentorship for work on her novel ‘Pieces Of You’. Eileen works full-time as a consultant haematologist at North Shore Hospital in New Zealand.

Commended by Carrie Kania:

Barbara Weeks

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Carrie Kania’s comments:

The first sentence of ‘The She-Wolves’ gives  readers all they think they  want to know – but the question that first sentence raises is why we read on. The language here allows  readers their own emotional relationship with the narrator. And we are left hoping that after the thaw things end well.

About Barbara Weeks

Barbara Weeks’ writing career began as a columnist for the now defunct ‘Today’ newspaper, telling of ‘life as a teenage mum on a council estate’. She later wrote copy for several other nationals before returning to education and completing an MA in Creative Writing (among other things). More recently, she has taught Literacy, ESOL and Creative Writing in community education.

With a passion for history, she was runner up in the Jerwood Historical Short Story Competition in 2012 and Wells Festival of Literature in 2013. She loves protagonists who are rebels, radicals or outsiders and is currently writing a novel about such women, set in the 17th Century.

2015 Bath Short Story Anthology

2015 anthology

cover design by Elinor Nash

 

The 2015 BSSA anthology was officially launched in Bath on November 19th, 2015  and is available in print and digital formats. If you live in the UK you can buy the print version via paypal on our anthology page for £8.50 per copy  (includes postage and packaging) or if you live elsewhere in the world, via Amazon for £7.99 print (plus p and p) and £4.79 digital.Twenty stories to read from the 2015 award – our winners, shortlisted and some of the longlisted writers. Copies are also available in Bath from Mr B’s Emporium of Books.

“A hot, tragic summer in 1980s Belfast. The loss of love echoed through the Shipping Forecast. A woman writes ‘love’ letters for illiterate girls in the Far East. The Kilburnie Kings hit the town. An old lady makes final plans for ‘moksha’. These winning stories and other selected ones in the 2015 collection, ‘deal with the way we live in all corners of the world; diversity in action and emotion.’ Carrie Kania, literary agent and 2015 Bath Short Story Award shortlist judge.”

We’d  love some reviews from you.

Want to read other winners and selected from previous awards? Digital 2013 anthologies  and 2014 anthologies  are still available.