If you haven’t already seen, from the shortlist of five fantastic authors the esteemed judging panel chose KJ Orr and her short story ‘Disappearances’ to win the BBC National Short Story Award 2016. She beat fellow shortlisted authors Tahmima Anam, Hilary Mantel and Lavinia Greenlaw to the prize, with Claire-Louise Bennett as the runner up. KJ published her debut collection of short stories, Light Box, in February of this year and has previously feature in Beta-Life and Bio-Punk, published by Comma Press..
The winner was announced last night during an event which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 4. Comma staff member Becky Harrison was in the audience at the theatre and got to witness the enlightening author discussion about the short story form and finally the big reveal of the award winner. The image featured above is from our Instagram (@commapress).
Also a winner on the night was 14 year old Lizzie Freestone who won the BBC Young Writers’ Award for her short story ‘Ode To A Boy Musician’, congratulations to her also on this astonishing achievement.
If you would like to purchase a copy of the BBC NSSA which includes all 5 stories that made it on to the shortlist, you can get an ebook (Kobo/Kindle) or hard copy version from our website commapress.co.uk here for the special online price of £7. We’ve loved being involved in this award which celebrates the best short story writers of the moment and hope that all five authors continue to do the form proud. Comma as always would like to thank the BBC and the Book Trust for involving us in the process and we can’t wait to see the talent that we are sure will be showcased for the 2017 award.
The Comma Press Blog 