We now have a longlist for the first Galley Beggar Short Story prize - and it's one that makes us very proud. There are some wonderful stories.

 

But while we're delighted with the end result, we have to confess to some difficulty and anxiety too. It wasn't easy whittling down the stories to this level - and we've had to leave some really excellent pieces of work out. In fact, the first thing we'd like to do here is to thank everyone who entered. The standard was often impossibly high and left us wondering just how we were ever going to decide. 

 

In the end, and counting postal entries, there were over 570 submissions. So for every story that has made to the long-list, they were up against almost 60 other entries…  That’s a hell of a lot. Especially when so many of those stories were so good.  As mentioned, this is our first short story prize, and we weren’t quite sure what to expect – both in terms of quantity and quality. The number of entries far exceeded our expectations – but even more than that, the quality was very strong. Deciding between so many quality stories was a tough job - and the margins between them were often so small as to be almost indiscernible. In the end, we had to be harsh. It often came down to tiny problems (a phrase that a child would be unlikely to know, a faltering of dialect, an illness that didn't seem to manifest in quite the right way) - problems I might add that in the usual course of things would be smoothed over in the editing stage of story publication. In other words, if your story didn't make it through, don't give up on it. There were a great many entries that we would consider publishable, given a few tweaks, which simply fell down at the final stages. There are also dozens, nay, hundreds of writers we'd be keen to hear from again. This prize has given us a fine confirmation of the talent that's out there. 

 

Some other observations. Here in the teens of the 21st century, as in every other age, there seem to be a lot of writers interested in marital and familial relationships; in sex and especially sex that doesn't go very well. There's a prevalence of self-doubt as a theme. A surprising number of stories were written in the second person. Some had very traditional structures, while others tried for something new, wayward… Both kinds of story were equally successful at snagging and keeping our attention. 

 

Out of an amazing list, fantastic entries, and many, many writers who we feel will go on to write (and are already writing) wonderful things, the stories on the longlist are those that most bowled us over. 

 

Following the longlist, we've included an additional list. Here there are a few other stories (fewer than we were tempted to highlight). They deserve a special mention… and we feel very sorry to have to let them go. 

 

 

Aidan Clarkson, ‘The Count’

Gordon Collins, ‘Do Not Fall Asleep in the Bath’

Chris Connolly, ‘There’s No one New around You’

Sean Farrell, ‘Manslaughter’

Philippa Found, ‘How To Be In Love With Your Best Friend’

Gonzalo C. Garcia, ‘Like Penguins in the Desert’

Jessica Greenman, ‘You Must Forget’

Peter Higgins, ‘A Brief Guide to the Lost Cinemas of London’

Rowena Macdonald, ‘Feathered Friends’

Riona Judge McCormack, ‘Backburn’ 

Jarred McGinnis, ‘Daughters of the Revolution’

 

 

 

Claire Adam, ‘Is Yours Now’

Neil Bristow, ‘Postcard from Bogota’

Kate Brown, ‘Small Deaths’

Michael Carey, ‘A Rare Concession’

Jonathan Jacobs, ‘As Told To’

Alice Jolly, ‘Keep Right On To Eternity Road’

Niamh MacCabe, ‘The Lark Ascending’

Amanda Mason, ‘Sing Me No Sad Songs’

Catherine A. O’Toole, ‘Maddalena’  

Yara Rodrigues Fowler, ‘Natal 1992’

Nikesh Shukla, ‘A Man, Without A Donkey’

Richard W. Strachan, ‘All This Was Ocean’

 

 

So that's it. Thank you again, everyone that entered. We hope to read your work again next year. The authors will now be notified, and the longlisted stories will be made available as digital singles over the next week or so.