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:
