Faber seizes 'beautifully crafted' short story collection by Caldwell

Faber has seized Openings, a new short story collection by Lucy Caldwell, winner of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award.

Publishing director Angus Cargill bought world all-language rights from Peter Straus at RCW. Publication is scheduled for 16th May 2024, when Faber will also publish a special exclusive edition for No Alibis bookshop in Belfast.

The synopsis says: "From a passionate affair in Blitz-era London, to a highly charged Christmas party in Belfast, to a trip to Marrakech which could form a new family, the 13 striking stories of Openings pulse with possibility and illuminate those fleeting but recognisable moments of heartbreak and hope that can change the course of a life. In this much-anticipated third collection, Caldwell continues her exploration of the contemporary female experience, as she delves deeper into motherhood and marriage, love and longing."

Cargill said: "Lucy has had an exciting couple of years, as her writing goes from strength to strength. With Openings she has once again delivered a beautifully crafted collection of stories – continuing and developing the themes of her two previous collections. She has hit such a rich seam, which readers will love and cherish."

Caldwell is the author of four novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, and two previous collections of short stories, Multitudes (Faber) and Intimacies (Riverhead Books). She won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2021 and her other awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the George Devine Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and most recently the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for These Days (Faber).

She is the winner of the 2022 E M Forster Award and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018 and was the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber).

Caldwell said: "I think the short story is the most magical of forms. Reading and teaching stories, and deepening my own practice, has been central to my life for the past couple of years with my masterclass series at the Faber Academy. It continues to be one of the great privileges of my writing life to work closely with Angus, and it’s a dream to be publishing a third collection with Faber."