Best British Short Stories 2021

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 nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its eleventh year.Best British Short Stories invites you to judge a book by its cover - or, more accurately, by its title. This critically acclaimed 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 best of the bunch to reprint all in one volume.This new anthology includes stories by Julia Armfield, A.J. Ashworth, Iphgenia Baal, Emma Bolland, Tom Bromley, Gary Budden, Jen Calleja, Robert Dewa, John Foxx, Josephine Galvin, Uschi Gatward, Meave Haughey, Hilaire, Alice Jolly, Isha Karki, Yasmine Lever, Simon Okotie, Mel Pryor, Douglas Thompson and Matthew Turner.

Autorentext

Nicholas Royle is the author of five short story collections - "Mortality", "Ornithology", "The Dummy", "London Gothic" and "Manchester Uncanny" - and seven novels, most recently "First Novel". He has edited thirty anthologies and is series editor of "Best British Short Stories" for Salt, who published his books-about-books, "White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector" and "Shadow Lines: Searching For the Book Beyond the Shelf". In 2009 he founded Nightjar Press, publishing original short stories in chapbook format. Forthcoming, from Confingo Publishing, is "Paris Fantastique", and "Finders, Keepers: The Secret Life of Second-hand Books" (Salt).

JULIA ARMFIELD is a fiction writer with a Master's in Victorian Art and Literature from Royal Holloway University. She lives and works in London. Her work has been published in Granta, Lighthouse, Analog Magazine, Neon Magazine and Best British Short Stories 2019. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Prize 2018 and was the winner of the White Review Short Story Prize 2018. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. Her debut collection, salt slow, was published by Picador in May 2019, and by Flatiron in the US. salt slow was longlisted for the Polari Prize 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize 2020 and was shortlisted for the London Magazine Prize for Debut Fiction 2020. Her story Longshore Drift won a Pushcart Prize in 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under the Sea, will be published in 2022 by Picador and Flatiron.

AJ Ashworth is the author of the short story collection "Somewhere Else, or Even Here" which won Salt Publishing's Scott Prize and was shortlisted in the Edge Hill Prize. She is the editor of Red Room: New Short Stories Inspired by the Brontës and a contributor to the mental health anthology "What Doesn't Kill You" (Unbound, 2020). She is currently working towards a PhD in creative writing at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk.

Iphgenia Baal is the author of "The Hardy Tree (A Story About Gang Mentality)", "Gentle Art", "Merced Es Benz", "Death & Facebook" and "Man Hating Psycho".

Emma Bolland is an artist, writer and academic. She is co-editor at Gordian Projects and co-runs oHPo Radio at the Sheffield Institute of Arts, Sheffield Hallam University.

Tom Bromley is an author, editor, creative writing tutor and ghostwriter. His books include ten works of fiction and non-fiction under his own name, and a further fifteen ghostwritten titles, including prize-winners and bestsellers. He has taught novel writing for the Faber Academy since 2013, is Director of Fiction for the Professional Writing Academy and in 2017 founded the Salisbury Literary Festival. He writes a weekly column, 'Word Up', for various newspapers in Wiltshire and Hampshire, and reviews fiction for the regional Living Magazines. He lives in Salisbury.

Gary Budden is a writer, editor and co-founder of award-winning independent publisher, Influx Press. He is the author of "London Incognita" (Dead Ink, 2020), "Hollow Shores" (Dead Ink, 2017), the Shirley Jackson Award-shortlisted "Judderman" (Eden Book Society, 2018), and "The White Heron Beneath the Reactor" (2019) and "These Towers Will One Day Slip Into the Sea" (2021), with artist Maxim Griffin. He lives in Enfield, north London.

Jen Calleja is a writer and literary translator based in Hastings. In 2020, she published her first short story collection, "I'm Afraid That's All We've Got Time For", with Prototype, and was shortlisted for the Short Fiction/University of Essex Prize. She has translated over a dozen literary works from German, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019 for her translation of Marion Poschmann's "The Pine Islands".

Robert Dewa has always written fiction, and in her twenties published three historical novels with Robert Hale. While studying for various degrees she published poetry and short fiction, including a first short story collection, "Holding Stones" (Pewter Rose Press, 2009). In 2013 she published a memoir, "The Memory of Bridges", and a contemporary novel followed: "The Esplanade" (Weathervane Press, 2014). Since retiring from university teaching, she has been writing poetry and short stories again, and in November 2017 won the "Willesden Herald" prize with her story 'Dark Song'. Her first novella, "The Flight of Marian Smith", was published in 2021.

John Foxx is a singer, musician, recording artist and graphic designer. A pioneer of electronic music in the UK, he was the original lead singer of Ultravox until leaving to pursue a long and successful solo career. His first collection of short stories, "The Quiet Man" (Rocket 88 Books), was published in 2020.

Klappentext

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.