Sarah Hall, prize-winning novelist and short story writer, has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University for the third time for “Sudden Traveller”. She won the award in 2013 for “Mrs Fox” and was shortlisted for the first time in 2010 for “Butcher’s Perfume”. Both stories appeared in her debut collection, The Beautiful Indifference.

Hall is joined on the shortlist by composer and debut novelist Kerry Andrew for “To Belong To”, Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner and debut novelist Ingrid Persaud for “The Sweet Sop”, rising talent Kiare Ladner for “Van Rensburg’s Card” and creative writing lecturer and novelist Nell Stevens for “The Minutes”. The shortlist of five stories was announced on Friday 14 September 2018, during BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.

Selected from nearly 800 entries (an increase of 28% on 2017), this year’s shortlist is the fifth all-female shortlist in the BBC National Short Story Award’s history. The shortlist is:

• “To Belong To” by Kerry Andrew
• “Sudden Traveller” by Sarah Hall
• “Van Rensburg’s Card” by Kiare Ladner
• “The Sweet Sop” by Ingrid Persaud
• “The Minutes” by Nell Stevens

Now celebrating its thirteenth year, the Award is one of the most prestigious for a single short story, with the winning author receiving £15,000, and the four further shortlisted authors £600 each. The stories are also broadcast on air and the writers interviewed on Front Row, as part of BBC Radio 4’s short story season in September.

Simple acts of kindness and the meaning of home and community are key themes this year. Resilience and the impact of the political on the personal underpin a list unified by the power of each character’s voice to convey experience both private and universal. Loss, whether of life or community, and renewal are central themes with many of the stories inspired by world events: Brexit, immigration and urban gentrification. Diverse in tone and setting, whether it be Kerry Andrew’s remote Scottish Isle, Ingrid Persaud’s Trinidad, Kiare Ladner’s South African shopping mall or Nell Steven’s South London housing estate – this year’s shortlist is a powerful meditation on a world where displacement and loss are paramount but where renewal and hope are infinite.

From the gently unfurling landscape of a man’s renewal as he moves from suicidal despair to new hope saved by the beauty of the land and sea and the community that embraces him in Kerry Andrew’s “To Belong To”; to the experimental form of the pretentious world of hapless art student activists as they protest the demolition of a South London tower block with art in ‘The Minutes’ by Nell Stevens; to the unique voice of Ingrid Persaud’s “The Sweet Sop” where the parent/child relationship is inverted as a young Trinidadian man is united with his absent father via the power of chocolate; to the haunting and tender evocation of loss as Sarah Hall creates a complete world in a moment as a woman nurses her child while her father and brother clear the cemetery ready to bury her mother in “Sudden Traveller”; to Kiare Ladner’s “Van Rensburg’s Card”, the poignant story of a grumpy widow, fuelled by sadness and loneliness who discovers a way back to life and an acceptance of the inevitability of change via a condolence card sent 18 months before – these are beautifully told stories that show what it is to be human amidst the politics of our age and artfully reveal the power of the short story to convey a world in just a few pages.

We spent a long, hot summer immersed in stories, and then many happy hours debating their merits. My fellow judges were fierce and forensic in their reading, and we ended up with a shortlist of tales that – I think – are arresting, moving and sometimes surprising. It was a pleasure to bear witness to this talent.Stig Abell, Editor of the TLS and Chair of Judges for the BBC National Short Story Award 2018

Stig Abell is joined on this year’s judging panel by short story writer and 2016 BBC NSSA winner, K J Orr; Granta’s “20 under 40” novelist and one of last year’s shortlisted writers, Benjamin Markovits; returning judge, Di Speirs, Books Editor at BBC Radio; and multi award-winning poet, Sarah Howe.

Key Dates:

• From 10 September: The stories shortlisted from the 2017 BBC National Short Story Award will be available on Radio 4 Extra.
• From Friday 14 September: Interviews with each of the 2018 shortlisted writers will be broadcast over five weekdays on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row at 7.15pm from Friday 14 to Thursday 20 September 2018.
• From Monday 17 September: The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from Monday 17 to Friday 21 September 2018 from 3.30 to 4pm, and then available on BBC iPlayer and via the BBC Short Story Podcast.
• From Monday 17 September: An anthology – The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2018 – introduced by Chair of Judges Stig Abell and published by Comma Press will be available at www.commapress.co.uk and all good bookshops priced £7.99.
• From Monday 17 September: 40 school groups of sixth-form students participating in the Student Critics’ Award will read and/or listen to the shortlisted stories and hold discussion groups supported by teaching resources. Some of those will share their experience with a special visit from the shortlisted writers and Young Writers’ Award judges Dean Atta and William Sutcliffe.
• From Monday 17 September: A series of five specially commissioned Short Works to compliment the BBC NSSA in the Book at Bedtime slot at 10.45pm, from Cynan Jones, Simon Van Booy, Amy Sackville, Irenson Okojie and Tom Rackman.
• Sunday 23 September: The stories shortlisted for the BBC Young Writers’ Award with First Story and Cambridge University will be announced on BBC Radio 1 on Sunday 23 September from 4 to 6pm.
• From 24 September: NSSA chair Stig Abell has been trawling the BBC Archives to select past short story highlights which he will introduce in his five-part series Life in Miniature on Radio 4 Extra. Broadcast dates are 24-27 and 28 September at 11am.
• Saturday 29 September: Former winners and judges of the BBC National Short Story Award K J Orr and Sarah Hall will be at the Small Wonder festival in Charleston, Lewes, on Saturday 29 September at 4pm to discuss writing and critiquing short stories with BBC’s Books Editor Di Speirs and shortlisted writer Ingrid Persaud. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.charleston.org.uk/event/the-bbc-national-short-story-award/
• Tuesday 2 October: The winner announcements of the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2018 and the BBC Young Writers’ Award with First Story and Cambridge University will be broadcast live from the award ceremony at the Cambridge University on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row from 7.15pm.
• From 14 October: David Szalay’s twelve-part commissioned series Turbulence will begin on Radio 4 at 7.45pm.