Sams wins £10k Edge Hill Short Story Prize for debut collection Send Nudes

Saba Sams has won the £10,000 Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her debut collection, Send Nudes (Bloomsbury). 

The prize, now in its 16th year, is the only national literary award to recognise excellence in a published, single-authored short story collection. 

Sams said: “When I was trying to get a book deal for a short story collection, everyone told me short stories don’t sell. I feel really quite lucky to have written this at a time when short stories are having a resurgence. The rest of the shortlist was amazing and people seem to be eating up short stories. It’s about being at the right moment in time when your stories can say something about what’s happening in the world right now.  

“I’m completely blown away to win this award. People think of short stories as the beginning of your career because you’re learning but actually, when you look at the previous Edge Hill prize winners, they still write incredible short stories. I think that’s amazing and I really hope to follow that trajectory.” 

The award comes on the heels of winning last year’s BBC national short story award for “Blue4eva”, taken from Send Nudes. 

Prize organiser Billy Cowan, senior lecturer in Creative Writing, said: “Saba’s collection is thematically cohesive and sensitively written. With humour and pathos it gives us glimpses into what it’s like for young women navigating this complex early 21st-century world. 

“For such a young writer, the voice is assured and the tone pitch-perfect. It also includes one of the best, most moving, Covid stories I have read so far.” 

Wendy Erskine scooped the £1,000 Readers’ Choice Award for His Mother, while Edge Hill MA Creative Writing student John Brady was crowned winner for the best short story submitted by a student.