Nell Stevens, author of Mrs Gaskell and Me, has been shortlisted for this year's BBC National Short Story Award for her story, 'The Minutes', detailing the pretentious world of hapless art student activists as they protest the demolition of a South London tower block with art.
Nell is joined on the shortlist by former prize-winner Sarah Hall with 'Sudden Traveller', composer and debut novelist Kerry Andrew for 'To Belong To', Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner and debut novelist Ingrid Persaud for 'The Sweet Sop' and Kiare Ladner for 'Van Rensburg?s Card'. The shortlist of five stories was announced on Friday 14 September 2018, during BBC Radio 4?s Front Row.
Selected from nearly 800 entries (an increase of 28% on 2017), this year?s shortlist is the fifth all-female shortlist in the BBC National Short Story Award?s history. Now celebrating its thirteenth year, the Award is one of the most prestigious for a single short story, with the winning author receiving ?15,000, and the four further shortlisted authors ?600 each. The stories are also broadcast on air and the writers interviewed on Front Row, as part of BBC Radio 4?s short story season in September.
Editor of the TLS, Stig Abell, is joined on this year?s judging panel by short story writer, K J Orr; novelist and one of last year?s shortlisted writers, Benjamin Markovits; Di Speirs, Books Editor at BBC Radio; and poet, Sarah Howe.