2021 BBC National Short Story Award & BBC Young Writers' Award Launch Press Release

Yes, I know this was announced last Thursday, but couldn't get on my laptop till this afternoon and, though I don't like publishing any posts on the Pewter Wolf Reads at the weekend, I broke it yesterday so let me be a rebel without a bookish cause today! 

**EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.01hrs GMT 14 January 2021***

Novelist JAMES RUNCIE and broadcaster KATIE THISTLETON to chair the BBC Short Story Award panels as submissions open for 2021

Judging panels completed by Booker Prize shortlisted FIONA MOZLEY; award winning writer and poet DEREK OWUSU; critically acclaimed novelist DONAL RYAN; DI SPEIRS, Books Editor at BBC Radio; bestselling YA author LOUISE O’NEILL; singer-songwriter ARLO PARKS; actor and writer ROBERT WEBB; and Guardian Children’s Fiction Award winner ALEX WHEATLE.

www.bbc.co.uk/nssa & www.bbc.co.uk/ywa

The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) and BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University (YWA) open for submissions today at 9am with novelist and former Radio 4 Commissioning Editor for Arts James Runcie chairing the judging panel for the BBC NSSA, an award that has enriched both the careers of writers and the wider literary landscape since its launch sixteen years ago.

James Runcie, Chair of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award Judging Panel, says:

“I am so delighted to chair the 2021 BBC National Short Story Awards. We need imaginative alternatives in these dark times: stories that question and surprise and open up new worlds. They can be short or long. They can take place in the past, present, future, or even all three at once. They can be set in a nutshell or in infinite space. But what I think we’ll be looking for is uniqueness of vision, a distinctive tone, curiosity, intrigue, surprise: an invitation to the reader’s imagination. I can’t wait to get started.”

Chair of the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University (YWA) is BBC Radio 1 Presenter Katie Thistleton. She chairs the judging panel for the teenage award for the fourth time as it opens for submissions for the seventh year. Katie is a writer and the co-host of Radio 1’s Life Hacks and The Official Chart: First Look on Radio 1. The BBC Young Writers’ Award is open to writers between the ages of 14-18 years.

Runcie and Thistleton will be joined by a group of acclaimed writers and critics on their respective panels. For the BBC National Short Story Award: Booker Prize shortlisted novelist Fiona Mozley; award winning writer, poet and winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize, Derek Owusu; multi-award winning Irish novelist and short story writer, Donal Ryan; and returning judge, Di Speirs, Books Editor at BBC Radio.

For the BBC Young Writers’ Award, Thistleton will be joined by bestselling, highly acclaimed Irish YA author, Louise O’Neill; twenty-year old singer-songwriter Arlo Parks; Sunday Times bestselling author and actor Robert Webb; and Guardian Children’s Fiction Award winner Alex Wheatle.

Katie Thistleton, Chair of the 2021 BBC Young Writers’ Award Judging Panel, says:

“I’m really looking forward to chairing the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University again for 2021. As a keen writer myself, and someone who loved entering writing competitions when I was younger, I know how important and exciting this opportunity is. I always love reading the submissions and gaining a perspective on what young people are thinking and feeling at the time and, I imagine, the different world we have been living in recently will be reflected in this year’s stories. This is certainly a unique time, so I have no doubt we’re going to discover some equally new and unique, young voices.”

The BBC National Short Story Award is one of the most prestigious for a single short story, with the winning author receiving £15,000, and four further shortlisted authors £600 each. The stories are broadcast on Radio 4 and published in an anthology by Comma Press. The 2020 winner of the BBC National Short Story Award was Sarah Hall for ‘The Grotesques’, a timeless and unsettling story set against a backdrop of privilege and inequality in a university town. This was the second win for Hall who also won the prize in 2013. Previous alumni of the award include Lionel Shriver, Zadie Smith, Hilary Mantel, Jon McGregor, Ingrid Persaud, Cynan Jones and Jo Lloyd.

The writers shortlisted for the BBC Young Writers’ Award have their stories narrated by an actor and recorded for a BBC podcast and published in an anthology. The winner of the 2020 BBC Young Writers’ Award was Lottie Mills for her story inspired by her experience of disability, ‘The Changeling.’ Both winning stories are available to listen to on BBC Sounds.

Di Speirs, Editor of Books at BBC Radio and judge of the BBC National Short Story Award since its launch, says:
“After a year in which fiction has offered constant balm in troubled times, I am delighted to be calling for submissions to the sixteenth BBC National Short Story Award and the seventh BBC Young Writers’ Award, both with Cambridge University, and very curious to see how writers, experienced and new, respond to the world this year. Last year saw such wonderful variety in tone, style, subject and approach, underlining how strong short story writing is in the UK currently; at a time when we need fiction so much but often struggle to concentrate on it, I can’t wait to be transported, moved, amused, shaken or stirred by this year’s entries.”

This is the first year of a new three-year partnership with Cambridge University, now also including the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Lisa Mullen, University of Cambridge says:

“The University of Cambridge is delighted to be collaborating with the BBC again on these awards, and to support and nurture both new and established short-story writers. Stories are at the heart of our shared human experience, and Cambridge's Faculty of English, Institute of Continuing Education, the University Library and Fitzwilliam Museum all have a special interest in how this dynamic form of fiction responds to a changing world. The standard set by writers entering these competitions is always impressive, and as we embark on the fourth year of our involvement at a time of such upheaval and distress, we look forward again to discovering work which will offer vivid new ways of understanding ourselves, and our contemporary moment.”

KEY AWARD DATES:

• The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University and the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University will open for submissions at 9am (GMT) on Thursday 14th January 2021.

• The deadline for receipt of entries for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University is 9am (GMT) Monday 15th March 2021. The deadline for receipt of entries for the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University is 9am (GMT) Monday 22nd March 2021.

• The shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University will be announced on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row at 7.15pm on Friday 10th September 2021. The shortlist for the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University will be announced on Radio 1’s Life Hacks from 4pm on Sunday 19th September 2021.

• The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University will be broadcasted on BBC Radio 4 from Monday 13th to Friday 17th September 2021 from 3.30pm to 4pm.

• The announcement of the winners of the two awards will be broadcasted live from the award ceremony at BBC Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row from 7.15pm on Tuesday 5th October 2021.

• Full ‘Terms and Conditions’ for the NSSA and YWA are available with submissions accepted online at www.bbc.co.uk/nssa and www.bbc.co.uk/ywa from 9am Thursday 14th January 2021.

  
  

  THE JUDGES ON THIS YEAR’S BBC NATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD PANEL ARE:

  JAMES RUNCIE – Chair of Judges

  James Runcie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of four plays and eleven novels, including The Grantchester Mysteries, currently filming its sixth series for ITV and PBS. He is also a documentary film-maker (subjects include profiles of Hilary Mantel, J.K. Rowling, J.G. Ballard, Umberto Eco, Yasar Kemal and Barbara Pym) and a literary curator who ran the London Library Festival, Words in the Square, with David Kynaston in 2016 and he regularly chairs events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. He was Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival (2011- 2014), Head of Literature at the South Bank Centre (2013-2016) and BBC Radio 4’s Commissioning Editor for Arts from 2016-2020.

  FIONA MOZLEY

  Fiona Mozley’s first novel, Elmet, was shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize, the Ondaatje Prize and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. It won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Polari Prize and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her new novel, Hot Stew, will be published in March 2021. She was born in London, grew up in York, and lives in Edinburgh.

  DEREK OWUSU

  Derek Owusu is an award-winning writer and poet from North London. He edited and contributed to SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space, an anthology exploring the experiences of Black men in Britain, and his first novel, That Reminds Me, published by Stormzy's Merky Books imprint, won the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction in 2020.

  DONAL RYAN

  Donal Ryan is from Nenagh in County Tipperary. His first three novels, The Spinning Heart, The Thing About December and All We Shall Know, and his short story collection A Slanting of the Sun, have all been published to major acclaim. The Spinning Heart won the Guardian First Book Award, the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland), and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards; it was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was voted 'Irish Book of the Decade'. His fourth novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2018. A former civil servant, Donal lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

  DI SPEIRS

  Di Speirs is the Books Editor, BBC Radio. She produced the first ever Book of the Week and has directed scores of Book at Bedtimes and short stories. She now leads the London Readings team and is the Editor for Open Book and Book Club on BBC Radio 4 and World Book Club on the BBC World Service. A long-time advocate of the formidable power of the short story, she has been closely involved in the BBC National Short Story Award since its inception and is the returning judge on the panel. A regular literary judge including for the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017 and the International Dylan Thomas Prize in 2019, she has been a nominator twice for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (Literature) and is a board member of the Edinburgh City of Literature Trust.

  
  

  THE JUDGES ON THIS YEAR’S BBC YOUNG WRITERS’ AWARD PANEL ARE:

  KATIE THISTLETON – Chair of Judges

  Katie Thistleton is co-host of Radio 1's Life Hacks (Sundays 4-6pm) and The Official Chart: First Look on Radio 1 (Sundays 6-7pm). She is an avid writer and reader and literacy campaigner. Katie is passionate about raising mental health awareness and is an ambassador for children's mental health charities YoungMinds and Place2be. During her time as presenter of 'the bits in between the shows' on CBBC for almost 6 years, Katie hosted The CBBC Book Club, where she interviewed authors such as Jacqueline Wilson, David Walliams and Cressida Cowell to name a few.

  LOUISE O’NEILL

  Louise O'Neill is the multi-award-winning author of five novels, three of which are for Young Adults. Her second YA novel, Asking For It, spent 52 weeks in the top ten of the Irish charts, was named Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2015, and was awarded the Michael. L Printz honour by the American Library Association. She has a weekly column for the Irish Examiner and lives in West Cork, Ireland.

  ARLO PARKS

  Arlo Parks is a 20-year-old singer-songwriter from West London. Since she was very young, Arlo wrote as a way of creatively expressing her emotions, and was inspired by poets Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver and Pat Parker, among others. At 14, she started making beats to rhyme her poetry to – which formed the basis of her song writing. Now with her music and storytelling, Arlo converts people's hyper specific moments into something universal. In 2017, she submitted her recordings to BBC Introducing, which led to her first interview, management and later a recording contract. In the summer of 2018, Arlo recorded her first EP, 2019’s acclaimed Super Sad Generation with breakout hit 'Cola'. Her Sophie EP quickly followed, alongside performances at Glastonbury and Latitude Festivals and supporting slots on tour with Jordan Rakei and Loyle Carner. In 2020 she was included on the BBC Sound Poll and in Dazed’s 100 List, and featured on covers with NME and Evening Standard. She won the AIM One to Watch and BBC Introducing Artist of The Year Awards, and made her debut appearances on COLORS, Later.... with Jools Holland. Her high-profile fans include Phoebe Bridgers, Billie Eilish, Florence Welch, Lily Allen, Michaela Coel and Michelle Obama.

  ROBERT WEBB

  Robert Webb is best known for his work as the Webb half of Mitchell & Webb in the Sony award- winning That Mitchell & Webb Sound and the Bafta award-winning That Mitchell & Webb Look, and as permanent man-boy Jeremy in the acclaimed Peep Show. In 2017, his call-to-arms memoir How Not To Be a Boy was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. Robert has been a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and the New Statesman, and now lives in London with his wife and daughters. In 2020 he published his first novel, Come Again.

  ALEX WHEATLE

  Alex Wheatle is the author of several acclaimed novels, many of them inspired by experiences from his childhood. He was born in Brixton to Jamaican parents and spent most of his childhood in a Surrey children’s home. Following a short stint in prison following the Brixton uprising of 1981, he wrote poems and lyrics and became known as the Brixtonbard. Alex has been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, and was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2008. The story of his early life was recently dramatized by Steve McQueen in his Little Axe series. His most recent novel Cane Warriors is published by Andersen Press.

  
  

  ABOUT THE AWARDS AND PARTNERS:

• The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) aims to expand opportunities for British writers, readers and publishers of the short story and honour the UK’s finest exponents of the form. James Lasdun secured the inaugural Award in 2006 for ‘An Anxious Man’. In 2012 when the Award expanded internationally for one year, Miroslav Penkov was victorious for his story, ‘East of the West’. Last year, the Award was won by Sarah Hall for her story ‘The Grotesques’. In its 16-year history, K J Orr, Jonathan Buckley, Julian Gough, Clare Wigfall, Cynan Jones, Kate Clanchy, Ingrid Persaud and David Constantine have also carried off the Award with shortlisted authors including Zadie Smith, Jackie Kay, William Trevor, Rose Tremain and Naomi Alderman.

• The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University is open to authors with a previous record of publication who are UK nationals or residents, aged 18 years or over. The story entered must either have been unpublished or be first published or scheduled for publication after 1st January of the previous year. The story should have a maximum of 8000 words and must have been written in English. The Award offers £15,000 for the winner and £600 to four shortlisted writers. For more information please visit www.bbc.co.uk/nssa

• The BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University is now in its seventh year and invites all 14 – 18 year olds living in the United Kingdom to submit short stories of up to 1,000 words. The Award was launched as part of the tenth anniversary celebrations for the BBC National Short Story Award and aims to inspire and encourage the next generation of writers. Previous winners are Brennig Davies (2015), Lizzie Freestone (2016), Elizabeth Ryder (2017), Davina Bacon (2018), Georgie Woodhead (2019) and Lottie Mills (2020). For more information please visit www.bbc.co.uk/ywa

• Follow the BBC National Short Story Award on Twitter via #BBCNSSA #shortstories, the BBC Young Writer’s Award via #BBCYWA #shortstories @BBCR1 and the BBC Student Critics’ Award via #BBCSCA

• BBC Radio 4 is the world’s biggest single commissioner of short stories, attracting audiences of over a million listeners to listen to short fiction. Contemporary stories are broadcast every week, the majority of which are specially commissioned throughout the year. www.bbc.co.uk/radio4

• BBC Radio 1 is the UK’s No.1 youth station, targeting 15 to 29 year-olds with a distinctive mix of new music and programmes focusing on issues affecting young people. The station is the soundtrack to young people's lives in the UK and has been for over 50 years. www.bbc.co.uk/radio1

• University of Cambridge: The mission of the University of Cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. To date, 96 affiliates of the University have won the Nobel Prize. Founded in 1209, the University comprises 31 autonomous Colleges, which admit students and provide small-group tuition, and 150 departments, faculties and institutions. Cambridge is a global university. Its 19,000 student body includes 3,700 international students from 120 countries. Cambridge researchers collaborate with colleagues worldwide, and the University has established larger-scale partnerships in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. The BBC National Short Story Award is being supported by the School of Arts and Humanities, Faculties of English and Education, University Library, Fitzwilliam Museum and the new University of Cambridge Centre for Creative Writing which is part of the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education based at Madingley Hall, which provides a range of courses to members of the public, including English Literature and Creative Writing. More information at www.ice.cam.ac.uk/bbcshortstory

  
  

BBC National Short Story 2020 & BBC Young Writer Award 2020 Press Release

Bit late to the party as on mini-break but HERE NOW SO SHARING NOW!!! 

 SARAH HALL 

BECOMES FIRST WRITER TO WIN 

BBC NATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD TWICE 

www.bbc.co.uk/nssa #BBCNSSA #ShortStories

Four-time nominated Sarah Hall has won the fifteenth BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) for the second time with ‘The Grotesques’, a ‘timeless and unsettling story’ set against a backdrop of privilege and inequality in a university town. Exploring themes of powerlessness and privilege, dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships, covert control, identity and scapegoating, the judges praised Hall for her ‘extraordinary’, ‘layered’ and ‘masterful’ writing and cited her second time win as ‘recognition of her standing as the country’s foremost writer of short stories’.
The first double win in the Award’s history, the news was announced live on BBC Front Row this evening (Tuesday 6 October) by 2020 Chair of Judges Jonathan Freedland in a special programme celebrating 15 years of the Award. ‘The Grotesques’ is available to listen to on BBC Sounds and appears in Hall’s latest collection Sudden Traveller, published by Faber in 2019. Its titular story was also shortlisted for the Award in 2018.
  
Chair of Judges, journalist and author Jonathan Freedland commented:
“In perhaps the strongest field in the history of the BBC National Short Story Award, Sarah Hall’s story still stood out. A timeless, unsettling story rendered in exquisite prose, ‘The Grotesques’ yields more with each reading, offering layer upon layer of meaning. It is the work of a writer who is not only devotedly committed to the short story genre but, has become a master of it. Sarah Hall has now won this Award twice, recognition of her standing as this country’s foremost writer of short stories.”
Sarah Hall, winner of the 2020 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University, said:
“I’m stunned to have won. No one expects to repeat a shortlisting, let alone be honoured with an award like this twice. It’s an incredible privilege and reward. And with this prize comes a tremendous amount of support for the form itself - from tenacious, passionate advocates at the BBC and Cambridge University, to expert judges, and the writers who continue to innovate, experiment and create astonishing, vital, questioning worlds within stories. We can see from this year’s shortlist the diversity and range showcased. In the hands of these writers, over only a few pages, so much is possible and words become utterly potent. It’s hard to turn a good story, it requires the compression and alchemy of so many aspects, ideas, details, experiences and observations. I truly love the form, its disproportionate power, disquiet and refractive metrics, its ability to stir the reader or listener, even, at best, to overturn our secure notions of who we are and what we believe. There are days when we are lost, when not much makes sense and answers to the vexing human question seem impossible. On those days nothing is as companionable as a short story. That goes for writing them too.”.

Twice nominated for the Man Booker Prize, Sarah Hall previously won the BBC NSSA award in 2013 for ‘Mrs Fox’. She was further shortlisted in 2010 and 2018. The award-winning author of five novels and three short-story collections, she was born in Cumbria and lives in Norwich. 

Di Speirs, Editor of Books at BBC Audio and judge of the Award since its launch said: 
“There are few writers who make even the shortlist more than once. In one way this reflects the wealth of talent writing in the UK; in another it shows how very hard it is to consistently write new original short fiction and make it different, entertaining, gripping, provocative, again and again. 15 years ago, we began this award hoping to reward the writers who –- against the odds and fashion and publishers’ preference for a novel – not only persisted but revelled in taking up the particular challenges of short fiction. To keep writing really excellent short stories requires audacity, invention and practice. So I’m particularly delighted that, from a brilliant shortlist, Sarah Hall, a virtuoso in this field, sees her long service in the short story game recognised again.”

Hall beat stiff competition from an extremely strong shortlist that included established and new voices, comprised of: 26 year old British-Ghanaian writer and photographer Caleb Azumah Nelson whose eagerly anticipated debut novel Open Water is released in 2021; James Tait Black Prize winner Eley Williams; poet and newcomer Jack Houston and EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019 winner Jan Carson.  

This years’ judging panel was chaired by journalist and author Jonathan Freedland and included Commonwealth Prize winner Lucy Caldwell, who was shortlisted for both the 2012 and 2019 BBC NSSA; British-Nigerian writer Irenosen Okojie, a Betty Trask and Caine Prize winner; Edge Hill Prize shortlistee and Guardian short story columnist Chris Power; and returning judge Di Speirs, Books Editor at BBC Audio.

Established in 2005, the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University was originally established to highlight a literary genre regarded as undervalued and under threat. Its aim was to recognise and celebrate the very best writers of short fiction who had no prize equivalent to major literary awards like the Man Booker Prize. 15 years on, the short story is in robust health and the BBC National Short Story Award is recognised as the most prestigious for a single short story with the winning writer receiving £15,000 and the four shortlisted writers £600 each. 

Dr Midge Gillies, Academic Director, Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, said:
“Sarah Hall’s unsettling short story takes a good, hard look at power structures and inequalities – not just in the fascinating mother/daughter relationship at the heart of ‘The Grotesques’ – but in the wider associations between the homeless and the entitled in an ancient university city. As a second-time winner, Sarah Hall proves, again, how adept she is at introducing us to fascinating new characters and the strange worlds they inhabit.” 

Alongside the BBC NSSA, BBC Front Row also announced the sixth annual BBC Young Writers’ Award with First Story and Cambridge University, an award created to inspire and encourage the next generation of short story writers. Open to 13–18 year olds at the time of entry, it is a cross-network collaboration between BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 1. The award was won by Lottie Mills, 19, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire for ‘The Changeling’. Lottie was previously shortlisted for the BBC YWA in 2018. Her story is also available on BBC Sounds.

BBC Young Writers' Award 2019 Shortlist Press Release!!!

POETRY AND A SEARCH FOR EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS INSPIRE 

2019 BBC YOUNG WRITERS’ AWARD SHORTLIST 

www.bbc.co.uk/ywa 

#BBCYWA #shortstories @BBCR1

The need for understanding, emotional connection and reconciliation feature in a ‘confident’, ‘irreverent’ and ‘experimental’ shortlist for the 2019 BBC Young Writers’ Award 

with First Story and Cambridge University announced live on BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks today (Sunday 22 September). 

For the first time, a love of poetry and a desire to experiment with the short story form has been mentioned by each of the shortlisted writers, with 2018 Foyle Young Poet Georgie Woodhead featuring on the shortlist. The five stories – many deeply personal – range from the comic, to the lyrical, to the tragic, and are written by an all-female shortlist of young writers aged 16 and 17 years from across the UK. 

Showing a fearless confidence in form and tone, the stories explore divorce, coming of age, mental illness, loneliness and the meaning of life, and range from the meditative to flash-fiction. Whether it be the brutally evocative story of kinship found in hospital as a teenager battles anorexia; the implosion of a young girl’s family life told through the change of seasons on her father’s allotment; the tragi-comic story of a freak accident on a nightclub roof; a search for the meaning of home via a journey from island to city; or the funny and tender story of an introvert archivist and his connection to an exhibit – each finalist has shown a fresh, sophisticated and unique approach to their subject. 

Katie Thistleton, BBC Radio 1 presenter and Chair of Judges, BBC YWA 2019 says: 

“I am particularly excited about the shortlist this year because we had such a diverse range of stories submitted and the final five really reflect that – no two have a similar style or topic. For that reason, there’s something for everyone and I think it will also encourage people listening or reading to want to write themselves, and perhaps enter next year!”

The shortlisted stories and writers are:

• ‘Insula’ by Eleanor Clark, 16, from mid-Devon. This ‘rite of passage’ is told via a young woman’s journey from the safe community and almost magical island of her childhood to the brutal, isolation of the city. Evocative and sophisticated with a strong sense of place, the story laments the inevitability of growing up and champions the importance of rural communities. 
• ‘Another Pair of Eyes’ by Tallulah Howarth, 17, from Macclesfield. Inspired by the true story of John Dalton, a Northern scientist known for his study into colour blindness who asked for his eyes to be preserved after his death, this is the strange and touching tale of a lonely archivist who becomes emotionally attached to ‘Dalton’s eyes’. Tender and funny, this unique piece of flash-fiction is short, yet beautifully realised. 
• ‘The Blue of Spring Violets’ by Isobel Paxton, 17, from Edinburgh. Set in a psychiatric ward, this brutal, rich and sensory story explores the kinship of the patients as they find kindness, connection and humanity in their pain. 
• ‘Allotment’ by Rowan Taylor, 16, from Reading. The story of a daughter’s changing relationship with her father after her parent’s marriage break-up, this beautifully told story shows the shift from desolation through sadness to new love as the seasons pass and new life, and hope, awakens on the father’s allotment.  
• ‘Jelly-headed’ by Georgie Woodhead, 16, from Sheffield. ‘Jelly-headed’ is a comic, quirky and ultimately tragic story of two friends, a night out and a lightning strike that brings devastation. A story about guilt and the absurdity of life, this funny, subversive story is ultimately about searching for meaning or connection.

The five shortlisted stories, each under 1000 words, are available to read on the BBC Radio 1 website, and can be heard on BBC Sounds as part of the Short Works short story podcast.

Katie Thistleton is joined on this year’s judging panel by former teacher and Betty Trask Award winner, Anthony Cartwright; Waterstones Prize and YA Bookseller Prize-winning writer, Patrice Lawrence; winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year children’s author, Kiran Millwood Hargrave; and writer, rapper and world-record breaking human beatboxer, Testament. 

Kiran Millwood Hargrave, judge and author, says:

“This was one of the most stimulating and collaborative experiences of judging I've ever had and we've emerged with a shortlist to be proud of. The writers demonstrate all the skills I look for in any piece of writing, from immediacy of voice to sensitive pacing, and most of all an emotional connection made with the reader. I think the way a story is told is just as important as the story itself, and these writers have each paid attention to language as well as plot.” 

The shortlisted writers will have their stories read by an actor and broadcast by BBC Radio 1, and available to listen to on BBC Sounds as part of the Short Works short story podcast.  The stories will also be published in an anthology and the writers will attend a creative writing workshop with author and judge Patrice Lawrence, in addition to a session in a recording studio and a tour of Broadcasting House with BBC producers. All five teenagers will attend the exclusive BBC Short Story Awards ceremony with their families on Tuesday 1 October 2019, when the winner will be announced live on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. There, they will have the chance to meet high-profile authors, publishers, agents and broadcasters at the award ceremony. The winner will also receive a personalised mentoring session with an author to enhance their writing skills.

Antonia Byatt, Executive Director, First Story, says:

“Each of these short stories unveils a new distinctive voice, unafraid to take risks with language or to tackle difficult subjects. First Story works to give new young writers from deprived communities across England the chance to write and we are always excited by the incredible standard of work that they produce. These five shortlisted writers are brilliant torchbearers for so much of the young talent waiting to be discovered today.  At First Story we believe that there is dignity and power in young people’s stories and here is real proof of that.”

Dr Sarah Dillon, Faculty of English, Cambridge University, says:

“In a modern world in which the pace of life so often outstrips our ability to process it, these wonderful stories all show how words can create a bubble of calm in which to feel, remember, laugh and cry. Our shortlistees represent a new generation of writers whose concerns and use of form both link them to the past and yet depart from it. The University of Cambridge is delighted to celebrate these young women shortlisted for the BBC Young Writers’ Award with First Story and Cambridge University, who will shape the future of writing just as Cambridge alumni such as Zadie Smith and Helen Oyeyemi have done before them.”

ABOUT THE SHORTLISTED WRITERS:

Eleanor Clark is 16 years old and lives in mid-Devon. She spends much of her time reading, to teach herself all she can about the world of books and writers, and her rural location allows her to spend a lot of time rambling around the countryside, which is one of her main inspirations. Ever since she was a small child, Eleanor has been spending her pocket money on exercise books and filling them with stories. She now has dozens of them in boxes filling her bedroom, and they continue to build up. From a very early age, much of Eleanor’s search for adventure by reading and writing can be attributed to favourite children’s writers such as Noel Streatfield, the late great Judith Kerr and Eva Ibbotson. As she has got older, and explored how stories capture a sense of place and self, she has been inspired by Virginia Woolf, Winifred Holtby and Rumer Godden.

Tallulah Howarth is 17 years old and lives in Macclesfield. This is the first short story Tallulah has written that isn’t part of the school curriculum, and she has been writing poetry for about five years. She sometimes works to prompts, but most commonly one-liners come to her out of nowhere and she’ll add them to a bank of text she has written, before trying to piece a poem together.  Tallulah was poet laureate for her High School and she is part of the Manchester based poetry collective Young Identity. Tallulah is currently reading David Wojnarowicz’s memoir Close to the Knives. Other books she has enjoyed include The Last Policeman by Ben Winters, and the Skippy Dies series by Paul Murray. Outside of writing, Tallulah is involved in political activism, believing strongly in justice for all humans, animals and the climate.

Isobel Paxton is 17 years old and lives in Edinburgh. Isobel has always enjoyed writing but the BBC Young Writers’ Award with First Story and Cambridge University is the first writing competition she has entered. Outside of writing, Isobel loves to take part in aerial sports, such as trampolining and diving. The work of Markus Zusak, and texts inspired by ancient mythology (with a twist), such as Tomi Adeyemi novels, inspire Isobel to write. 

Rowan Taylor is 16 years old and lives in Reading. Rowan loves to write as it helps her to relax and it makes her very happy. She has written many short stories and poems. Since the age of seven, Rowan has dreamed of publishing a book of her own. Away from writing, she has very hands-on hobbies such as painting, crafting and modelling. Fantasy books are Rowan’s favourite genre as she finds the imagination required to create new worlds fascinating. One of Rowan’s favourite authors is Lemony Snicket, due to his unique way of writing that reads like a person’s thoughts.

Georgie Woodhead is 16 years old and lives in Sheffield. She is an avid writer and greatly enjoys the creative process. Georgie is also a skilled poet and won the esteemed Foyle Young Poet Award, was highly commended in the Cuckoo Northern Writers Award, and was the runner-up in the young people’s category of the Ledbury Poetry Competition, all in 2018. Georgie likes to read novels and short stories, mainly contemporary fiction, from writers such as Etgar Keret, Kafka, J.D Salinger, and Arundhati Roy. In the future, Georgie hopes to continue to develop her writing work, and to travel.

The shortlisted stories can be read and listened to online at: www.bbc.co.uk/ywa 

NOTES TO EDITORS

KEY DATES:

• From 6pm Sunday 22 September: The five shortlisted stories are available to read and listen to on the Radio 1 website. They are also available on BBC Sounds as part of the Short Works short story podcast. 
• Tuesday 1 October: The announcement of the winners of both the 2019 BBC Young Writers’ Award with First Story and Cambridge University and the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University will be broadcast live from the award ceremony at Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row from 7.15pm. 
• Tuesday 6 October: An interview with the winning writer will feature in the BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks show 4-6pm. 

ABOUT THE AWARD AND PARTNERS:

• This is the fifth year of the BBC Young Writers’ Award which invites all 14 – 18-year-olds living in the United Kingdom to submit short stories of up to 1,000 words. The Award was launched as part of the tenth anniversary celebrations for the BBC National Short Story Award and aims to inspire and encourage the next generation of writers. Previous winners are Brennig Davies (2015), Lizzie Freestone (2016), Elizabeth Ryder (2017) and Davina Bacon (2018). 
• BBC Radio 1 is the UK’s No.1 youth station, targeting 15 to 29 year-olds with a distinctive mix of new music and programmes focusing on issues affecting young people. The station is the soundtrack to young people's lives in the UK and has been for over 50 years. 
• Radio 1 has a weekly audience of 10.56 million (including all listeners aged 10+) and is the most watched radio station in the world. Radio 1’s YouTube and Vevo channel has over 8 million subscribers and receives an average of 2.2 million views a day. Radio 1’s iPlayer channel has received over 56 million total views.
• One of the station’s key purposes is to support new British music and emerging artists. It champions a breadth of live music through platforms like Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Radio 1’s Teen Awards, Radio 1 in Ibiza, BBC Music Sound of 2019, and Live Lounge Month, as well as various sessions from the Live Lounge and Maida Vale studios. 
• Radio 1 is a force for good and the leading voice for young people in the UK, tackling relevant issues through our documentaries, podcasts, Radio 1’s Life Hacks, and Newsbeat, as well as our mental health campaigns like My Mind and Me - a year-long campaign launched in December 2016 to get young people talking about mental health and to raise awareness and understanding of mental health issues. Other key social action and education campaigns include #1MillionHours - a year-long volunteering campaign launched in December 2015 that saw Radio 1 and 1Xtra motivate their young listeners to pledge 1 million hours of time to good causes over 12 months.
• BBC Radio 1 is a truly multiplatform station, enabling young audiences to connect to the network and to listen, watch and share great content both at home and whilst on the move - via BBC Sounds; FM and DAB Radio; Radio 1’s YouTube channel; Radio 1’s BBC iPlayer channel; online (www.bbc.co.uk/radio1); Freeview and other digital television platforms; and via mobile.
• BBC Radio 4 is the world’s biggest single commissioner of short stories, attracting audiences of over a million listeners to listen to short fiction.  Contemporary stories are broadcast every week, the majority of which are specially commissioned throughout the year. www.bbc.co.uk/radio4  
• BBC Year of Books – BBC Arts – The awards coincide with a year-long celebration (autumn 2019 – Autumn 2020) of literature through BBC Arts, with new programming across BBC TV, radio and online, as well as a festival in partnership with libraries and reading groups around the UK. From classics to contemporary fiction, celebrated authors to the less well-known and new adaptations, this new content will sit alongside feature specials of many of the BBC’s regular books programmes including; The Radio 2 Book Club with Jo Whiley, The Verb on Radio 3, World Book Club on the World Service, Book Club and Open Book, both on Radio 4. Plus, there will be further literature content announcements made in the coming months. At the centre of the celebration of literature is the landmark BBC Two three-part series The Novels That Shaped Our World this autumn with an accompanying festival of programming. The series coincides with what is widely acknowledged to be the birth of the popular English language novel 300 years ago with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.
• The mission of the University of Cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. To date, 107 affiliates of the University have won the Nobel Prize. Founded in 1209, the University comprises 31 autonomous Colleges, which admit undergraduates and provide small-group tuition, and 150 departments, faculties and institutions. The University sits at the heart of one of the world's largest technology clusters. The 'Cambridge Phenomenon' has created 1,500 hi-tech companies, 14 of them valued at over US$1 billion and two at over US$10 billion. Cambridge promotes the interface between academia and business and has a global reputation for innovation. The BBC National Short Story Award is being supported by the School of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of English, University Library and the new University of Cambridge Centre for Creative Writing which is part of the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, which provides part-time and short courses to members of the public. www.cam.ac.uk 
• First Story believes there is dignity and power in being able to tell your own story, and that writing can transform lives. We’re working towards a society that encourages and supports all young people to write creatively for pleasure and agency. We’re committed to bringing opportunities for creativity to students who may not otherwise have the chance. Our flagship programme places professional writers into secondary schools serving low-income communities, where they work intensively with students and teachers to foster confidence, creativity and writing ability. Through our core programme and extended activities, we expand young people’s horizons and raise aspirations. Participants gain vital skills that underpin academic attainment and support achieving potential. Find out more and get involved at www.firststory.org.uk

An Vintage Extract from 1954

Ok, I'm not back from my blog break as of yet. But I fancied popping in, saying hi and giving you an extract of something a little different. It's not my typical YA but as I am still trying to figure the path the Pewter Wolf is going int he future, I thought I would shake it up a little with wine.

Well, an extract from a upcoming novel which all starts with a bottle of wine.

Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain (and translated by Emily Boyce and Jane Aitken - though correct me if I am wrong!) follows four very different people - Hubert, antique restorer Magalie, mixologist Julien and Airbnb tenant Bob who is visiting Europe for the first time as he's from Milwaukee. After an evening of drinking a bottle of exceptional bottle of 1954 Beaujolais, they all wake up the following morning to discover themselves in 1950s Paris.

Once the shock wears off, the four fall under the city's charm. But ultimately, they will have to figure out how to get back to 2017. And the key to that might be at the vineyards of the Chateau St Antoine...

Like I said, this is a very different animal to what I normally do. Plus, I'm not the biggest wine drinker so this is a bit of a curveball, but I thought this would be a fun extract to share with you!

Before I hand you over to the extract (got a glass of good wine or beverage at hand?), I just want to thank Ellen from ED PR for asking if I want to be involved in this tour. And if you want more info on this book, you can check it out at Gallic Books's website.

Now, ONTO THE EXTRACT!!!

An Extract For Tea?

I have an extract for you today. And it's a change in pace/genre from what I usually scare you all with!

This extract is from Elaine Everest's newest novel, The Teashop Girls.

I warned you this was a change of pace from what the Pewter Wolf normally is, but sometimes, a change is as good as a rest!

Set in 1940 at the high of the Second World War, The Teashop Girls follows three friends - Rose, Lily and Katie - who work at Lyon's Teashop Nippy in Kent. With Katie's fiancé overseas with the Navy and the war gripping the country, the three rely on their family and friends.

So, when a mysterious captain enters the teashop one day, Rose finds herself being drawn to him, much to Lyon's rule of no courting between staff and customers. But with a war on, Rose fears there might not be much time to lose in the course of true love. But is the dashing captain all he seems to be?

Before I hand you over to the intriguing extract, want to do some thank yous and point you in some directions if you want more info. My thanks goes to Bethan at ED PR for getting me involved with this tour and Sian who asked at the start if I wanted to be involved (before she left ED PR for bigger, brighter things!

Ok, now the links! If you want to say hi to Elaine, you can either say hi to her either on her Facebook (facebook.com/ElaineEverestAuthor) or her Twitter (@elaineeverest)! And if you want info on Teashop Girls, why not check out PanMacmillan!

Now... ONTO THE EXTRACT (once we've brewed ourselves a nice cuppa...

Book Review - The Fork, The Witch and The Worm

• Title And Author: The Fork, The Witch and the Worm by Christopher Paolini
• Publisher: Penguin
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Physical
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by ED PR in exchange for an honest review
• Length: 320 Pages

As you know if you have followed the Pewter Wolf in the past month or so, I’m planning to read Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini through 2019. Or try to (they are meaty books!). I planned this back in late summer 2018. So when this collection of short stories was announced to go with the series, I added it on my radar, but with the plan to read AFTER I completed the four book series. 

However, when the lovely people at ED PR sent me a copy and told me “Oh, you can read this as an entry point to the series if you are a newbie to the world or readers of the series can read now as a tie-them-over till when the fifth novel set in the world comes out (oh, Christopher has said he’s planning to write more novels set in the world of Alagaësia but following new characters, so companion novels technically)”, I decided that I would read this collection before I go to Eragon (which would be a reread to me as I read this YEARS ago but never carried on due to the following novels lengths!). A bit of a refresher and, hopefully, a nice way to ease self back into the world of dragons… 

Set a year after the events of Inheritance, Eragon is trying to find a new home for the dragons. But with that, comes duties. Trade agreements, guarding dragons, dealing with elves and Urgals. But three things happen that, hopefully, bring Eragon a much needed-distraction and new perspective: a vision from the spirits of the dragons past, an unexpected visitor and an Urgal legend.