Seymour wins FutureBook audio competition

Author William Seymour has won The Future AudioBook Originals competition with his short story "Interviewing".

The piece has now been adapted into a 30-minute audio title, by Heavy Entertainment, featuring actors Elliott Fitzpatrick, Sandra Duncan, and David Timson, and will be released ahead of the FutureBook Conference on 25th November by audio publisher and distributor Bolinda.

In total 30 short stories were submitted for the prize, with judges Alice Lutyens agent at Curtis Brown, David Roper founder of Heavy Entertainment, Bolinda's Ellis Moore, and Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, praising the imaginative approach of many of the writers to writing for listeners.

Jones said: "We very quickly picked out a shortlist of five stories, with the winner emerging because of its potential for audio: the idea to bring in three actors to voice the transcript of 'Interviewing' was inspired, with the recorded version taking the story to a whole new level."

Seymour, who attended the production, will now join the panel at FutureBook Live to discuss the process of writing for audio, as well as how it felt to see his work take on a new form. The judges will talk about how they arrived at their decision, and what the process tells us about how future original audio works can be fashioned.

To buy tickets for FutureBook Live or to view the programme, visit theBookseller.com/futurebook-conference.