Established in 2005, the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University was originally established to highlight a literary genre regarded as undervalued and under threat. It aimed to recognise and celebrate the very best writers of short fiction who had no prize equivalent to major literary awards like the Man Booker Prize. 19 years on, the short story is in robust health and the BBC National Short Story Award is recognised as the most prestigious for a single short story with th...

Don't miss the hilarious novel from the #1 bestselling author, Maddie Please, author of the brilliantly funny, Old Girls on Deck!A fresh start with a French twist!Joy Chandler had one simple wish: a nice, drama-free family reunion. But instead? Daughter Sara announces she's getting divorced and seems determined to drown her sorrows in wine, while son John and his perfect wife Vanessa casually drop the bombshell that they’re moving to New York—without so m...

Maxim Jakubowski has once again compiled a blockbuster collection of the year's most outstanding short crime fiction published in the UK. His aim is always to present the whole breadth of crime, mystery and thriller writing, from gentle stories of detection to puzzling historical labyrinths full of devious characters and sharp social comment about our imperfect society in some savage, and often scary stories.Last year saw a fifth Crime Writers Association Short Story Dagger award f...

'The Mersey Sound is an attempt to introduce contemporary poetry to the general reader by publishing representative work by each of three modern poets in a single volume, in each case the selection has been made to illustrate the poet's characteristics in style and form'. With this modest brief, The Mersey Sound was conceived and first published in 1967. An anthology which features Roger McGough's work, alongside that of Brian Patten and Adrian Henri (The Liverpool Poets)...

The nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its sixth year.Best British Short Stories invites you to judge a book by its cover – or more accurately, by its title. This new series aims to reprint the best short stories published in the previous calendar year by British writers, whether based in the UK or elsewhere. The editor's brief is wide ranging, covering anthologies, collections, magazines, newspapers and web sites, looking for the b...

Inspired by Giles Gordon and David Hughes's Best Short Stories series, which ran to ten volumes between 1986 and 1995, Best British Short Stories this year reaches its thirteenth volume.Best British Short Stories 2023 showcases an excellent and varied selection of stories, by British writers, first published during 2022 in magazines, journals, anthologies, collections, chapbooks and online.This new anthology contains stories by Alinah Azadeh, Davi...

Outstanding short stories from the 20 writers from around the world shortlisted for the 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize.

Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, grew up a Muslim Calvinist in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. Her main themes are drawn from a life of transitions: childhood, exile, journeying, home, displacement, religious strife and terror, and latterly, grief. She is also an accomplished artist, and all her collections are illustrated with her drawings, which form an integral part of her books. Over the Moon is her fifth book from Bloodaxe. These are poe...

Look We Have Coming to Dover! is the most acclaimed debut collection of poetry published in recent years, as well as one of the most relevant and accessible. Nagra, whose own parents came to England from the Punjab in the 1950s, draws on both English and Indian-English traditions to tell stories of alienation, assimilation, aspiration and love, from a stowaway's first footprint on Dover Beach to the disenchantment of subsequent generations.

Featuring:David Constantine, Aminatta Forna, Sarah Hall, Jon McGregor and Helen Oyeyemi.The BBC National Short story Award is one of the world's largest awards for a single short story. All five shortlisted stories, including the winner, are published here side by side. The Award is designed to honour Britain's finest short story writers and to re-establish the importance of the short story as a central literary form.This year's shortlist brings tog...

The nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its fourteenth yearInspired by Giles Gordon and David Hughes's Best Short Stories series, which ran to ten volumes between 1986 and 1995, Best British Short Stories this year reaches its fourteenth volume.Best British Short Stories 2024 showcases an excellent and varied selection of stories, by British writers, first published during 2023 in magazines, journals, anthologies, collections, chapbooks and online.

The short story is one of Ireland's national treasures, and within these pages are some of its finest practitioners — from such established names as Julia O'Faolain, Claire Keegan and Christine Dwyer Hickey, to the exciting new voices of Judy Kravis, Eithne McGuinness and Cherry Smyth. Here we have stories of dysfunctional marriages, abnormal goings on in rural outposts, urban alienation, and kitchen sink dramas where the woman is no longer tied to the kitchen sink but railing against past...