Like a Booker Prize for short stories. The winner gets 15,000 pounds. There were over 400 entries, but only authors with a previous record of publishing fiction could enter. The short-listed writers were
- David Almond - you'll admire his story more if you haven't read Skellig
- Jonathan Falla - at 32 pages, the longest piece, and felt like it. A old man and younger woman, both cuckolded, live in a guest-house named after a Saint whose breasts had been cut off by pagans. The woman's brother-in-law was castrated by guerrillas.
- Julian Gough - fun. It begins "If I had urinated immediately after breakfast, the mob would never have burst down the orphanage", and by way of a Radiohead-loving farmer, a political rally and a dog called Agamemnon reaches a rather tame ending.
- Jackie Kay - "He got a letter the other day, can't remember when because the days have got mixed up. It said - wait a minute, here it is in his trouser pocket. Actually, let him have a fag to go with it - 'Dear Malcolm ...", "He taught all his bairns to swim, by the way: breast stroke, crawl, even butterfly. People doing the butterfly look mental don't they.", "He must admit you start to have your wee doubts when you're involved in a big plan like this"
- Hanif Kureishi - 4 pages, the shortest. Too short.
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