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‘Outstandingly strong’ shortlist featuring Patrick and Shamsie announced for BBC Short Story Award
Two of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, Kamila Shamsie (2013) and K Patrick (2023), are on the five-strong shortlist for the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University.
The shortlist was announced on BBC Radio 4’s "Front Row", and also includes Australian novelist and short story writer Cherise Saywell and South African poetry press publisher Nick Mulgrew, alongside bestselling author Naomi Wood for a story from her debut story collection.
The shortlist explores the immigrant experience and the politics of where we call home, the pressing impact of climate change, the way we teach boys to be in the world, how our intimate relationships are shaped by society and the perils of social media and privacy invasion.
The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2023 shortlist is: The Storm by Nick Mulgrew; It’s Me by K Patrick; Guests by Cherise Saywell; Churail by Kamila Shamsie; and Comorbidities by Naomi Wood.
The winning author will receive £15,000, and the shortlisted authors each receive £600 each. The 2022 winner of the BBC National Short Story Award was Saba Sams who won for Blue 4eva, from her debut award-winning collection Send Nudes (Bloomsbury). The 2023 winner will be announced live on BBC Radio 4’s "Front Row" on Tuesday 26th September 2023.
The five stories will be broadcast in turn at 3.30 p.m. on Monday 11th to Friday 15th September on Radio 4 and will be available to listen to on BBC Sounds. The readers of this year’s stories include British-Pakistani actor Zoha Rahman (“Spider-Man: Far From Home”) reading Churail; star of Netflix’s “You” Charlotte Ritchie reading Comorbidities; South African actor and comedian Cokey Falkow reading The Storm; “Swimmers” actress Nahel Tzegai reading Guests; with actor, writer and theatre-maker, Ell Potter completing the line-up reading It’s Me. The shortlisted stories will also be published in an anthology by Comma Press.
BBC News journalist and presenter Reeta Chakrabarti, chair of the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award judging panel, said: “My huge congratulations to the five authors who have made the shortlist on this highly competitive award in an outstandingly strong year. The short story leaves the author absolutely nowhere to hide, it demands discipline and precision. We on the judging panel read many top-class entries, and these five were the most glittering – topical, challenging, and beautifully-calibrated.”
Chakrabarti is joined on this year’s judging panel by novelist Jessie Burton; Booker Prize-winning Irish writer Roddy Doyle; award-winning author and Creative Writing lecturer at Lancaster University Okechukwu Nzelu; and returning judge, Di Speirs, books editor at BBC Audio.
Speirs, who has been a judge of the award since its launch, said: “The short story is the perfect vehicle to reflect and refract the way we live now with the speed of reportage but the glancing light of fiction – this year’s superlative shortlist does that brilliantly.
“From the climate crisis to migration, the online world to the protection of our most precious loved ones, five original, international stories provide new perspectives on a shared world. Reactive short fiction is always an exciting part of BBC Audio’s output and the vitality and relevance of these stories exemplifies just why it’s great to listen to and important to write and read.”
