The Ö÷²¥´óÐã National Short Story Award
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Hurrah! At last. After all the waiting, and the reading, and the deliberating we have at last reached the moment when we can reveal this year's short-list of five contenders for the (Ö÷²¥´óÐã NSSA). These five have survived the turbulent and exacting examination of first our teams of sifters and then, for those that made it through the first hoop, intense discussion and dissection by this year's judges - the writers, Dame Margaret Drabble and Helen Dunmore, the broadcaster Tom Sutcliffe, the singer-songwriter Will Young, and me.
The process of judging is a fascinating and sometimes unsettling one. As the summer progressed I read through my teetering pile of short stories. There were very short stories and those that almost tipped the 8000 word limit; there were first person monologues, futuristic visions, time travellers, llamas, historical adventures and not a few, often moving, parent-and-child stories. There were relationship breakdowns and tender endings to long marriages; a man who disappears, literally, in a fancy dress costume, a woman who disappears through the ice, an artist's glove that reappears as art. This year the quality of the writing and the names of the writers who now take this award seriously, were more impressive than ever.
Filtering the pile of sixty odd stories down to a long list is hard; conceding personal treasures and reaching a consensus on our final five took most of a pleasurable autumn's afternoon but of course one of the joys of this experience is re-assessing stories and uncovering new depths. Passionate defences of certain stories moved them up our list; general approval was not, in itself, sometimes enough. It was the most good-natured judging meeting I've been involved in but very rigorous as we debated futuristic feminism, and whether a monk's pursuit of an orphan over four pages qualified as a short story - even if it was wonderful writing (it almost did!), and, was too much plot actually a disguise for a proto-novel?
The other four judges are even now pondering and re-reading the final five and discussing them in the press - but in the Readings Unit a large part of the job only kicks in once we can get on with turning beautiful writing into equally beautiful radio. Casting the right voice is always the key element in production - these five stories were gifts - we set off in pursuit of the best of British and to everyone's joy secured just the actors we were after.
We needed someone to capture the nuances of North London's Hendon community - Miriam Margolyes is starring round the corner from Bush House (where we live) in Samuel Beckett's 'Endgame' - she was happy to emerge from her dustbin to read Naomi Alderman's 'Other People's Gods'. Julia MacKenzie abandoned the acuity of Miss Marple for the confusion of the protoganist in 'Hitting Trees with Sticks' by Jane Rogers - in a monologue of Bennettian perception. Two of our favourite and most long-standing of readers were instantly perfect casting for their two very different stories; Hannah Gordon has flavoured Sara Maitland's magical mix of science and witches with a heady Highland density in 'Moss Witch', and Penelope Wilton displays her customary restraint and compassion in Kate Clanchy's moving and original 'The Not-Dead and the Saved'. However it is probably fair to say that there was most excitement amongst the team here over the re-jigging of studios to fit in with the latest Harry Potter filming schedule, so that Jason Isaacs could transform briefly from the sinister Lucius Malfoy to a hapless middle-aged American son in Lionel Shriver's 'Exchange Rates'.
And now the whole experience is gathering speed as we head towards the culmination of our work - and the revelation on Monday 7th Dec of this year's winner. As well as a chance to hear the stories on air, there's the build up to the award ceremony, and terrific coverage of the short story genre and the award with interviews with Will, Tom, Margaret and Helen on air and in the press; Julian Gough, winner of the 2007 award, is tweeting, and for the first time, we have gone multi-platform. More on that on Monday - meantime Will Young and Tom Sutcliffe reveal the short-list and discuss the stories on tonight's (Friday's) edition of Front Row. They are a great selection - we hope you enjoy hearing them next week. And wondering which one will win.
Di Speirs is Editor, Readings at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4
- The shortlist was revealed on this evening's Front Row, presented by Kirsty Lang.
- Full details of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã National Short Story Award .
- The animated reading above is an excerpt from Other People's Gods by Naomi Alderman. View clips from the other shortlisted stories here.
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