I am thrilled, honoured and generally cock-a-hoop to have been shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award! The news has been a gorgeous burst of sunshine in these strange days.
The Tom Gallon Award celebrates single short stories and runs alongside other prizes such as the Betty Trask Prize for novels and the Eric Gregory Award for poetry. This year’s judges are the brilliant Michèle Roberts and Stuart Evers.
My story, ‘High Water’, is keeping company with some great talent in this year’s shortlist: Lynda Clark, Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, Diana Powell, Wendy Riley and Catriona Ward. Previous winners and runners-up include two of my most loved short-story writers: Carys Davies and Lucy Wood.
Sadly, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no awards ceremony in London this year, but there will be an online bash on the 18th June. Looking forward to it. In the meantime, I’m just hanging out with that sunshine…
I’ve come to the end of my Bridge Awards Short Story Mentorship. It was a joy.
Here’s my little interview on the Bridge Awards website.
All I’d add is how necessary awards like this are, which nurture short-story writers and the glorious, gorgeous short-story form.
‘Short stories consume you faster. They’re connected to brevity. With the short story, you are up against mortality. I know how tough they are as a form, but they’re also a total joy.’ — Ali Smith
Garsdale have just released their programme for next year. A veritable feast of poetry and fiction retreats. If you’re in need of a writer’s haven, check it out…
Ness Book Fest is fast approaching and I’m delighted to be on the line-up.
I’ll be reading a snippet from a new short story as an introduction to Sarah Fraser’s event on Saturday 5th October. We’re both exploring past lives. I’ll tell the tale of two women accused of very different thefts; while Sarah will discuss her historical biography, ‘The Prince Who Would be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart’, a TLS book of the year.
Short stories are my first love. When I first went to an evening writing class—led by the wonderful Helen Lamb, a master of the short story—I wrote short stories. My first ever thrill of publication was for my story, ‘In the Museum’. When I received the news, I did a lumbering bear dance around the bedroom.
I’ve written many stories since and I’ve also worked on two novels. I relish the world-building of novels, and I especially love living through so many experiences with my novel characters. I know and understand my novel characters better than I know and understand many people. Often, however, I feel more comfortable, and more excited, when writing short stories. And it’s not about the shorter time required to write: I don’t think short stories necessarily are quicker to write. I’ve taken years whittling away at some of my stories. It’s the intensity of the short story that I love, as both reader and writer. The closing-in on a moment that matters. Recently, I received the most astute and helpful feedback on a short story: ‘keep your character in the room’. Don’t let her slip out that door, literal and metaphorical, until she’s confronted the truth. This , for me, sums up the delight and challenge of the short story form. As William Trevor said, ‘it should be an explosion of truth’.
I was delighted, then, when I first heard of a new opportunity offered by The Bridge Awards: a Short Story Mentoring Award, working with Cherise Saywell. It would be such a good thing to have a mentoring scheme specifically for short-story writers—who so need, and appreciate, nurture in a publishing culture that still favours novels.
So, to discover I have won this award is thrilling! Cue another lumbering bear dance. I’m already looking forward to working with Cherise on my short stories. Feedback from a writer like her is manna. With this support, I hope to shape and gather them into a collection. Thank you, Bridge Awards.
I’m thrilled that For Books’ Sake have featured my short story, ‘Light Moves Like Water’, as their current ‘Weekend Read’: a fantastic showcase of stories written by women. Every Friday, they’ll send a jewel of a story to your inbox and also publish online. Previous writers include Ann Patchett, Daisy Johnson, Alison Moore, Sophie Mackintosh, Elizabeth Reeder…
As this was one of my first ever stories to be published and then broadcast on radio, it’s a treat to have it out there again for a little while… And also because it’s set in a place I adore: Venice.
I am delighted to be a guest reader at The Garsdale Retreat this August. The novelist and playwright Hannah Vincent is leading a residential fiction course, The Blank Page: Novel Writing for Beginners—and I’ll be popping down to this beautiful part of the Dales to read one of my short stories to the writers.
Poet Paul Deaton has described The Garsdale Retreat perfectly: ‘a northern sanctuary for writers across the UK.’ Their programme offers fiction, memoir, poetry, playwriting and songwriting courses, tutored by writers such as Janice Galloway, Ian Duhig, Willy Russell, Jo Bell and many more… And the food, the bountiful food, is mouthwatering.
Callooh! Callay! My novel, This Starling Flock, has made the shortlist for the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize 2018.
Now it its eighth year, the competition seeks out unpublished novels by debut women writers. And the prize, sponsored by the Peter Fraser and Dunlop literary agency, has proved a wonderful catalyst. Previous winners and finalists include Gail Honeyman, who went on to publish the glorious Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Catherine Chanter, author of The Well, and Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott whose novel Swan Song will be launched this summer.
More information on the six shortlisted writers is available here. I am delighted to be in such talented company.
Carol Farrelly 