Bbc National Short Story Award 2019

Back for the fourteenth year, the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University aims to celebrate and promote the best in contemporary short fiction. This year the judging panel will be chaired by television and radio broadcaster Nikki Bedi, who will select the shortlist alongside novelist and writer of narrative non-fiction, Richard Beard; short story writer and novelist Daisy Johnson; screenwriter, novelist and 2017 BBC National Short Story Award winner, Cynan Jones; and returning judge, Di Speirs, Books Editor at BBC Radio.

'A gem of a book with five memorable works from yet another all-female shortlist. Each story is perfectly formed and I don't envy the judges choosing a single winner. Be prepared to travel on a roller-coaster of emotions as we shape shift along with Lynda Clark's charming story, 'Ghillie's Mum', or have our hearts broken by the inhumanity exposed in Lucy Caldwell's masterful 'The Children'. Tamsin Grey's 'My Beautiful Millennial' is a portrait of urban loneliness that haunted me long after I had read the last page, while Jo Lloyd deftly interrogates social and economic inequality in 'The Invisible' but with humour and superstition. Jacqueline Crooks courageously captures the anxiety of an immigrant family in an unwelcoming city in 'Silver Fish in the Midnight Sea'. These stories collectively represent the best of contemporary storytelling in any form.' - Ingrid Persaud, winner of the 2018 BBC National Short Story Award

Nikki Bedi is a television and radio broadcaster with a passion for making arts and culture accessible. She currently curates, writes and presents The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service, their flagship arts and culture programme, which once a month becomes The Arts Hour On Tour, a show that is travelling across the globe, one country at a time, to bring the hottest names, talents and issues to the airwaves and to 75 million listeners. Nikki has most recently been seen on TV presenting the topical, weekly arts and entertainment programme Front Row, on BBC 2 on Saturday nights. She's a regular interviewer and presenter on BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends and has presented Front Row and Woman's Hour on the same station.

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