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£30K Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Long-list

February 21st, 2011

Hilary Mantel, Michael Faber, Tibor Fischer and Susan Hill are among the well-known names on the longlist for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011. But the list also includes several newcomers, including former bus conductor Fabian Ackler and actor and puppeteer Erin Soros. The prize is open to authors of previously unpublished work or stories first published after 1st January 2010. The shortlist will be announced on 13th March and the winner revealed at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on 8th April. Each shortlisted author will receive £500 and the overall winner receives £30,000.

Judge A S Byatt said: “The stories we read this year were both varied and well crafted. We had considerable difficulty in narrowing the list to 20 . . . We have the fantastic and the precisely real, the shocking and the witty, the distressing and the invigorating. We have stories by famous writers and stories by the unknown. Some are succinct and some are elegiac. All were debated with passion.” More information about the prize can be found on the excellent STORY website.