What more do you think can be done to encourage new and diverse voices to submit their work to competitions?
Spreading the word remains crucial, but I am encouraged by the change in the demographic over 15 years. We have a much wider spread of submissions than we did at the start and we hope that by publicising that fact, we continue to help break down the sense that there are barriers. It’s free to enter, which should help wider representation. Entrants do need to have had published one piece of creative writing – that can be a poem or a play, as well as short or long fiction – so we are trying to find people who have put some time into writing.
“Be playful, take a risk, don’t explain everything, assume your reader is intelligent and will take a leap of faith…”
But last year’s winner, Ingrid Persaud, entered with her first-ever story ‘The Sweet Sop’ – and won! – so anything can happen. I always like to see younger writers entering and hope that one day soon we’ll start to see entries from the amazing people who enter our Young Writers’ Award for those age 13 and 18 – something you can enter without any publishing record. On a broader note, the industry is changing, too slowly, but there’s a rise in the amount of fiction being published from black people and people of colour. I hope that will continue to feed in to the awards.
What tips or advice would you offer writers of short stories who are looking for competition success? Editing, tone, dialogue, bravery, etc?
My biggest tip is edit. Not once, but again and again. It’s the worst short story cliché, but there isn’t room for wasted words, and the best short stories are spare and pinpoint sharp.
They have to have something to say so being brave is important, too. I don’t mind about dialogue (though there’s no doubt it helps on air in particular – although that isn’t a judging criteria for the Award), but the story needs to stand up to multiple re-readings – both by yourself as the author, finessing and killing your darlings, and from judges who need to find more as they deep dive in.
Of course, read great short stories – old and new – and see what they are doing. Also be playful, take a risk, don’t explain everything, assume your reader is intelligent and will take a leap of faith, be imaginative, don’t be afraid to portray kindness or to be still, in the moment, but avoid the overly lyrical, the overly sentimental and the overly overwritten!
What are your hopes for the coming years for the BBC NSSA? And for short fiction (in general) in the future…
I hope our 15th Award will be even more widely heard, read and enjoyed and that our listeners and readers will go back to previous stories, too, and that all five of the writers, whoever they turn out to be, will find it a springboard into a writing career if they are at the beginning – or a valued appreciation and addition to their work if they are long established.
From then, I hope we can head smoothly towards our 20th and beyond, helping to celebrate a great form.
There are many reasons why we need short fiction and short form more than ever now – and the blends of creative non-fiction and auto- fiction, the rise in the essay, especially in the States, underline that. When attention spans are challenged, and much as you might want a long escape into a novel, it’s hard to achieve sometimes; a story still offers the chance to inhabit another world, feel another’s pain – or love, and can resonate more powerfully and for longer than its limited word count initially suggests. The world would be a much poorer place without short fiction.
Interview by Sophie Haydock. First published by The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award in January 2020; updated in September 2020
