A Mastermind finalist and a former postal worker feature among the shortlist for the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award. Nominees for the award, which is celebrating 16 years, were announced on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row on Friday. Expand Close Rory Gleeson (BBC National Short Story Award/PA) / FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsapp Rory Gleeson (BBC National Short Story Award/PA)Belfast-born Lucy Caldwell is shortlisted for the third time for All the People Were Mean and Bad, a story taken from her 2021 collection Intimacies, about a woman navigating a long-haul transatlantic flight with her 21-month-old daughter after a family loss. Expand Close Danny Rhodes (BBC National Short Story Award/PA) / FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsapp Danny Rhodes (BBC National Short Story Award/PA)The winning author will receive £15,000 with the four other shortlisted authors getting £600 eachLast year’s award went to Sarah Hall, who won for The Grotesques, a story set against a backdrop of privilege and inequality in a university town. The winner of the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University will be announced on October 19 on Front Row.

Source: Irish Independent September 10, 2021 20:48 UTC