Friday 8 January 2010

SALT PUBLISHING - SCOTT PRIZE SHORTLIST


This from Salt's blog:
The shortlist is announced of the inaugural Scott Prize for Short Fiction, an important new venture for Salt as we continue to discover and nurture new talent from around the English-speaking world. The prize forms part of Salt’s commitment to the short story, to debut collections and to our vision of new literature in English as an international endeavour.
From almost a hundred entries and a longlist of 25, 12 full-length collections have been selected and from these, 4 winning titles will be announced next month for publication in the summer. The standard of entries was incredibly high, with authors spanning the spectrum of writing styles and a fascinating range of subject matter. Reading them was a daunting but most enjoyable task; whittling them down to a shortlist almost impossible. However, we are delighted with the outcome, as follows:

1. Ben Cheetham: The Hate Club (UK)
2. Alexandra Fox: Roundabouts (UK)
3. Miriam Hastings: Demon Lovers (UK)
4. Patrick Holland: The Source of Sound (Australia)
5. Sandra Jensen: A Sort of Walking Miracle (Ireland)
6. Laurence Klavan: Family Unit and Other Fantasies (US)
7. Wes Lee: This Animal Kingdom and Other Stories (NZ)
8. Mary McClusky: Gift to the Dark Gods (UK)
9. David Philip Mullins: Longing to Love You (US)
10. Susannah Rickards: Hot Kitchen Snow and Other Stories (UK)
11. Tom Vowler: They May Not Mean To But They Do (UK)
12. Joel Willans: Buy Ma Biscuits or Kiss Ma Fish (UK)


Many congratulations to you all and best of luck as you go through to the next round.


Particular congrats to writers I've worked with at one time or another - Joel Willans, Tom Vowler (blog linked on right somewhere), Susannah Rickards and Ben Cheetham from the old Fiction Workhouse - and Alexandra Fox from my days at Boot Camp.

5 comments:

Alex Keegan said...

Joel was a Boot Camper, too, Van.

Julia Bohanna said...

...ah but Joel was then on the FIction Workhouse. Good luck to all my fellow writers..it's such a thrill to see names I not only know, but respect greatly as writers....

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Aye - credit where tis due... FW had no teaching at all - I just invented a place where writers who were already strong could get stronger by working systematically with other strong writers. NO beginners. terrible, wasnt I?

A Boot camp with no boot. And I was sad to close it after the invsaion of Bloody Bruton and his stealy ways, but am assured it is still going great guns as Fiction Forge. Good for you lot!

Charles Lambert said...

Well I'm delighted to see Mary McCluskey (that's with an 'e') on the list. She's also a fine novelist and deserves more recognition.

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Thank you Charles. I 'think' this is the Mary I met in London a couple of years ago, when Bev Jackson visited. And Wes Lee - her work appears in many top competition lists. Know the name well, and have read her work. Salt have a very vary hard job, I think. I wouldnt want to be the one to decide on just four out of this lot. I'd want to publish them all!