Saturday 20 February 2010

SUNDAY TIMES LONGLIST

Well, what short story writer has not been waiting to find out how many big names are on the Sunday Times longlist? There hasn’t been much money in short stories, but it looks like things might be changing, with the £25,000 waiting for one of these lucky people. And the list includes several people whose work may be breaking through into the big time thanks to a lot of very hard work!

The full longlist for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award include:
• Richard Beard - James Joyce, EFL Teacher
• Nicholas Best - Souvenir
• Sylvia Brownrigg - Jocasta
• John Burnside - Slut's Hair
• Will Cohu - Nothing But Grass
• Joe Dunthorne - Critical Responses To My Last Relationship
• Petina Gappah - An Elegy for Easterly
• Jackie Kay - Reality, Reality
• A.L. Kennedy - Saturday Teatime
• Adam Marek - Fewer Things
• Charles Mosley - Constraint
• Chris Paling - The Red Car
• Ron Rash - Burning Bright
• Simon Robson - Will There Be Lions?
• Kay Sexton - Anubis and the Volcano
• Helen Simpson - Diary of an Interesting Year
• C.K. Stead - Last Season's Man
• Rose Tremain - The Jester of Astapovo
• Gerard Woodward - Legoland
• David Vann - It's Not Yours

I am particularly delighted to see three names on here. First a writing friend, Adam Marek,
whose work I love, and whose collection Instruction Manual for Swallowing I reviewed a while ago for The Short Review HERE
(Yay! Well done Adam!!! Ahem, I’ll calm down now…)
Second, Kay Sexton whose informative and entertaining blog is HERE and whose work I also (weirdly) reviewed for The Short Review HERE when it appeared as one of the stronger pieces in an anthology called Two Tall Tales and One Short Novel a few years back.

And thirdly, Petina Gappah, whose collection Elegy For Easterly has already won the Guardian First Book Award, and I think this blog has blathered on about her enough! But do a search on her name and you’ll find my review etc.

SUNDAY TIMES ARTICLE HERE
And do I wish I was writing short stories at the moment, not fighting with this novel, just because the market wants something called a novel from me...? YES!!!!! Dear market, please change....

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks V, it's very kind of you to name-check us all!

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Hi Kay. It ain't kind, it is easy. And it comes anyway with thanks for the huge help you were for me a few years back - maybe more than you know, me dear.

I wish you in your three writing personas oodles of success, in triplicate, so all your personas continue to climb higher and higher.