The Power of One Word: a short film made to mark release of the award shortlist
The Booker prize winner Hilary Mantel is one of six writers shortlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. The Wolf Hall novelist, whose short story Comma explores our responses to disability, is joined by one of last year’s inaugural shortlist nominees Will Cohu, whose work is called East West — West Coast.
The other contenders are Roshi Fernando, who spent more than a decade working in law before she turned to full-time writing in 2005; Gerard Woodward, who has previously been shortlisted for the Booker and the TS Eliot prizes; Anthony Doerr, an American prize-winning author who also writes a regular science column for The Boston Globe; and Yiyun Li, who was born in China and now lives in California.
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Perhaps the least known is 44-year-old Fernando, who is in the final year of a PhD at Swansea University. Her novel Homesick won the 2009 Impress prize for new writers.
Although born and bred in London, her family comes from Sri Lanka. Her short story entry, The Fluorescent Jacket, is about somebody who is “invisible” in London — an immigrant lost in the capital. “The main theme is about the sense of not really belonging anywhere,” she said.
The winner of the Sunday Times award, which is financed by EFG Private Bank, will receive £30,000.
The judges are Melvyn Bragg, AS Byatt, Matthew Evans, Andrew Holgate, Will Self and Daisy Waugh. The result will be announced next month at The Sunday Times Oxford literary festival.
Further reading and viewing
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Video: Judges Will Self and Melvyn Bragg discuss what makes a good short story
Video: Advice from last year's judges on how to compete
Read an interview with last year's winner, CK Stead and his story, Last Season's Man