The shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award 2010 was announced on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row last night.

The Shortlist is:


‘Tea at the Midland’ by David Constantine

‘Haywards Heath’ by Aminatta Forna

‘Butcher’s Perfume’ by Sarah Hall

‘If it Keeps on Raining’ by Jon McGregor

‘My Daughter the Racist’ by Helen Oyeyemi

This year’s award brings together a high calibre group of new and established authors exploring human relationships at their most dysfunctional and yet sustaining. Splintered families, the persistence of love, the public versus the private and the plight of the outsider all provide a recurring focus for the authors in the running for the award, which marks its fifth year in 2010.

The award was open to authors who have a publication history and who are UK residents and nationals. Celebrating the best of contemporary British short fiction, it is one of the most prestigious for a single short story. The winning author – to be announced on Monday 29 November live on Front Row – will receive £15,000; the runner up £3,000 and three further authors £500 each.

The final announcement of the award winner and runner-up will be made at an event at Free Word Centre in London on Monday 29 November, and can be heard live on Front Row. Each story will become available on the day of broadcast as a free podcast available to download for two weeks from www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/nssa