By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Determinedly International in Orientation’
Offering £30,000 (US$39,700) to its winner, The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award has opened its call for submissions, with a deadline this year of September 29 at 6 p.m. GMT.
Managed for the first time by London’s Society of Authors and sponsored by The Sunday Times and private banking firm EFG International, the award is in its eighth year, and is, in the words of Sunday Times Literary Editor Andrew Holgate in a note to Publishing Perspectives, “determinedly international in orientation”—a phrase that fits Publishing Perspectives’ own stance, of course.
Press materials for the award note that previous winners include the Chinese-American writer Yiyun Li for her story “A Sheltered Woman” (2015); three Pulitzer prizewinners—US author Adam Johnson (2014); US-Dominican author Junot Diaz (2013); and US author Anthony Doerr (2011). The 2012 winner was Ireland’s Kevin Barry. In 2010, CK Stead of New Zealand took the prize.
Shortlisted authors have included Hilary Mantel, Emma Donoghue, David Vann, Elizabeth Strout, Ali Smith and Gerard Woodward.
Judges of the Award have included Rose Tremain, Melvyn Bragg, Mark Haddon, AS Byatt, Nick Hornby, Will Self and Lionel Shriver.
In a prepared statement, Holgate is quoted as saying: “The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award has come an immense distance in a very short space of time, and its place as the so-called ‘Baby Booker’ now feels cemented. Few prizes can boast such an international reach, such celebrated winners, and such a record too for discovering new talent. I am immensely excited about this eighth year of the Award and what literary gems we shall find.”
Speaking for the Society of Authors, Paula Johnson is quoted saying: “The Society of Authors [SoA] is thrilled to be the new administrator of this prestigious award, which honors and supports the short story. The SoA curates prizes for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, educational writing and audio drama–The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award is a really exciting addition.”
The judges for the 2017 prize are to be announced in September and “will be looking for an outstanding English-language story of no more than 6,000 words from a fiction author from anywhere in the world who has been published in the UK or Ireland,” according to the news release. “The winner will receive £30,000, and the shortlisted writers will each receive £1,000, as well as having their work published online.”
A longlist will be announced in February 2017 and shortlist of six in March 2017. The winner will be announced at a gala dinner in London in April 2017.
There are details at the award site and an address for questions: STEFGqueries@
