ALCS & RSL announce shortlist for V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize

Commenting on this year's shortlist, judge Julia Armfield said: "The range and variety of tones and genres on display with this year's entries was extremely exciting and it was a struggle to whittle down a shortlist. I hope that the stories we have selected go some way to reflecting a breadth of interests and voices and the fantastically varied nature of short story writing today."

The winner will be announced on Thursday 22 February 2024at the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) annual awards ceremony.

From the longlist announced on Thursday 25 January, this year's judges Julia Armfield, Fred D'Aguiar and Juliet Jacques have selected the following for the shortlist:

Michael Byrne – 'Twéo-mann'
"'Twéo-mann' realises a whole other world with impressive economy, evoking medieval mythology with admirable skill" – Juliet Jacques
Michael Byrne has had previous short stories and articles published by 'Scribble Magazine', 'Pseudopod Podcast' and 'Strange Days Zine' and is a regular contributor to folklore-themed zine 'Myth & Lore' and their horror anthology 'Spun Stories'. He is from Rochdale, Lancashire and resides in London. When not writing or working he can be found travelling the UK and beyond looking for obscure folk customs and esoteric museums.

Gill Fryzer– 'Off Lizard Point'
"'Off Lizard Point' is a masterclass in voice, constructing a whole world in only a few pages and conjuring characters I would have been willing to follow through a novel-length piece" – Julia Armfield
Gill Fryzer is a writer from Kent. Her story 'A Kindness' won the 2020 Mslexia Short Story Prize and was translated into German for an anthology of modern European folk tales. Her fiction also appears in the 2022 Bath Short Story AwardAnthology as well as various other anthologies and journals. One of The London Library's Emerging Writers 2021-22, Gill holds a prizewinning creative writing MA from Birkbeck.

Alessandra Panizza– 'A Gimmick'
"'A Gimmick' is a courageous piece of work, approaching love in an innovative style without allowing its structure to get in the way of the storytelling" – Julia Armfield
Alessandra Panizza is an interdisciplinary writer from Singapore and Australia who writes koans. Primarily concerned with the intersection of art and science, she is also fascinated by the imprint of the internet on literature. She is in the early stages of writing a novel that addresses these confluences.

Hannah Persaud– 'Playing Badminton with Plums'
"'Playing Badminton with Plums' has well-crafted characters in a narrative full of tension, lightened with considerable humour" – Juliet Jacques
Hannah Persaud is a writer of novels, short stories and memoir. Her debut novel 'The Codes of Love' was published in 2020, and her short stories have won competitions including InkTears and the Fresher Writing Prize and have been shortlisted and longlisted in numerous places including Fish Short Story Prize, Exeter Story Prize, The Brighton Prize, the Royal Academy and Pin Drop Short Story Award and Fish Poetry Prize.

Sharma Taylor– 'The three deaths of Nina Carmichael'
"Very entertaining and supercharged in its treatment of a Caribbean reality" – Fred D'Aguiar
Sharma Taylor is a Jamaican writer and lawyer. Her writing has won the Wasafiri Queen Mary New Writing Prize, the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award and the Bocas Lit Fest's Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize. Her debut novel 'What A Mother's Love Don't Teach You' was published by Virago Press in 2022.

Tom Vowler– 'Voyagers'
"'Voyagers' is clean and balanced, combining science and romance with flair and intelligence" – Julia Armfield
Tom Vowler is an award-winning author living in the UK. A university lecturer with a PhD in creative writing, his work has featured on BBC radio and been translated into multiple languages. His forthcoming sixth book is a collection of flash fiction and he's working on a memoir.

Andrew Wilson– 'Woelinam'
"Full of sentiment without being sentimental and unabashed about feeling as a way to learn about the things of the world" – Fred D'Aguiar
Andrew Wilson is a husband, father and dentist living in the UK. From a young age, he loved books and stories but reading never came naturally. This led him to avoid books for many years until he was diagnosed with dyslexia in his early twenties. Somehow having an understanding of his difficulties with the written word allowed Andrew to reignite his love of books. He now reads widely, albeit slowly. Andrew has been writing for five years, pursuing his passion for children's literature.

The RSL is grateful to ALCS for supporting this Prize for over a decade. The RSL is also grateful to Prospect for publishing the winning story online.

NOTES TO EDITORS
Founded in 1820, the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is the UK's charity for the advancement of literature. We act as a voice for the value of literature, engage people in great literature, and encourage and honour writers at all stages of their careers.

The RSL's awards and prizes celebrate the value of writing in all its forms, whilst supporting emerging and established writers at some of the most challenging moments of their careers.

The V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize was founded by the RSL in 1999 to commemorate the centenary of an author widely regarded as the finest English short story writer of the 20th century. The Prize seeks to preserve a tradition encompassing Pritchett's mastery of narrative. Stories are judged anonymously by a panel of writers. Previous winners have included Kaliane Bradley, Leoor Ohayon, Emily Ruth Ford, Jonathan Tel, Martina Devlin and Carys Davies.

The Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit organisation started by writers for the benefit of all types of writers. Owned by its members, ALCS collects money due for secondary uses of writers' work. It is designed to support authors and their creativity; ensure they receive fair payment and see their rights are respected. It promotes and teaches the principles of copyright and campaigns for a fair deal. It represents over 120,000 members, and since 1977 has paid over £650million to writers. alcs.co.uk

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