Edge Hill Prize unveils all-female shortlist featuring Miller and Booth

The 2023 Edge Hill Short Story Prize has unveiled an all-female shortlist of Rebecca Miller, Naomi Booth, Rosemary Jenkinson, Jane Campbell and Bernie McGill.

The annual prize seeks to highlight the diverse voices and exceptional talents of contemporary short story writers, celebrating both emerging and established authors. The winner, to be announced in January, will be presented with an award of £10,000.

The shortlisted collections are: Total by Rebecca Miller (Canongate); Love in the Time of Chaos by Rosemary Jenkinson (Arlen House); Cat Brushing & Other Stories by Jane Campbell (Riverrun); Animals at Night by Naomi Booth (Dead Ink Books) and This Train is for… by Bernie McGill (No Alibis Press).

The prize is run by senior lecturer in creative writing Billy Cowan, who said: “We’re excited to celebrate five fantastic female-authored collections through this year’s shortlist. It’s been another successful year for small independent publishers who continue to support the short story form and it’s great to see some previous shortlisted writers in the mix again, along with new entrants to the Edge Hill Prize.”

A £1,000 Reader’s Choice Award will be presented to one of the shortlisted authors, as well as a £500 prize for the best short story submitted by an Edge Hill MA Creative Writing student. The judges of the 2023 prize are last year’s winner Saba Sams, C&W literary agent Lucy Luck and Edge Hill’s own Andrea Ashworth, short story writer and lecturer in creative writing.

Now in its 17th year, the Edge Hill Prize is the only annual UK-based award to recognise excellence in a single-author short story collection.