The BBC National Short Story Award 2024
The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) has opened for submissions. This is the first year of a renewed three-year partnership with Cambridge University.
Radio and TV presenter Paddy O'Connell will chair this year's BBC NSSA judging panel.
The winning author of the BBC National Short Story Award will receive £15,000, with four further shortlisted authors winning £600 each. The stories are broadcast on Radio 4 and available to listen to on BBC Sounds, and also published in an anthology by Comma Press. Naomi Wood won the 2023 award for Comorbidities, which explored the difficulty of maintaining love and intimacy in a marriage, from her forthcoming debut collection, This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (Orion, April 2024).
Di Speirs, editor of books at BBC Radio and judge of the BBC National Short Story Award since its launch, said: "As the BBC National Short Story Award enters its nineteenth year, I'm excited and curious to see where we will travel and what this year's entries will reveal; will writers offer wisdom, solace, escape? As a leading commissioner of original short fiction, the BBC has always broadcast stories that capture the universal in the personal and entertain and reward the listener. The BBC NSSA sits right at the heart of this ambition each year, allowing us to discover talent and reflect the most exciting writing currently in the UK. I'm looking forward to a springtime of fine fiction immersion and to bringing our audiences voices new or old, but undoubtedly fresh and compelling, in the early autumn."
The deadline for entries for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University is 18 March. The shortlist for the NSSA will be announced on 12 September. The announcement of the winners will be broadcast live from the award ceremony at BBC Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4's Front Row from 7.15pm on 1 October.
