Costa has just announced the launch of the Costa Short Story Award, a brand new Award for a single short story that will run in association with the Costa Book Awards. The winner will be voted for by the public and announced at Costa Book Awards ceremony.
The new Award is for a single, previously unpublished short story of up to 4,000 words by an author aged 18 years or over and written in English. Entry opened on Monday 16th July and closes at 4pm on Friday 7th September. Entries must be submitted online via a dedicated page at www.costabookawards.com.
If you are a short story writer do get your entries in and if you are in a reading group or book club that likes reading short stories, do watch out for your opportunity to read the shortlisted short stories and vote for the one you think should win.
Judging the Award
All entries will be judged anonymously – in other words, without the identity of the author being available to the judges.
A panel of five judges will select a shortlist of six entries which will be revealed in November. The public will then be invited to vote online for their favourite story from the six finalists.
The judges for the 2012 Costa Short Story Award are:
* Richard Beard: Director of the National Academy of Writing
* Fanny Blake: Novelist and Journalist; Books Editor of Woman & Home
* Gary Kemp: Songwriter and guitarist for Spandau Ballet; Actor and Writer
* Victoria Hislop: Writer
* Simon Trewin: Agent, William Morris Endeavor
The winner will be announced at the Costa Book Awards ceremony on 29th January 2013 and will receive £3,500; two runners-up will each receive £750.
