The shortlist for the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition was announced today and, rather excitingly, my story “Advice re Elephants” is on it. I took a major gamble with this one, as not only did I wait until the very last minute before deciding whether or not to go in for it (so what’s new?) but I took a tactical decision to put in an ultra-short piece – 362 words long. The actual limit for the competition was 3000 words, but I knew that the sole judge, Tania Hershman, is a great evangelist for flash fiction so perhaps it wasn’t quite so much of a risk.
The piece itself had a curious genesis. I originally wrote it for the last round of the poetry section of this year’s Whittaker Prize. Whilst I was writing it, it struck me that there was no obvious need for it to actually be a poem – a comment echoed by the judge, Cathy Edmunds. So I turned it into prose, smoothed down the edges and sent it in with a couple of days to go.
Must say it’s rather cool to be sitting there as one of just four five representatives from the UK in the shortlist of 22 (out of 849 original entrants apparently), alongside the likes of established authors such as Elizabeth Baines. It’s also nice to see Nora Nadjarian, who I know slightly from Twitter, and Claire King, who I met a few weeks back when we were both on the Bristol Short Story Prize shortlist.
Congratulations, Jonathan! I’m also on the shortlist and we met at the Bristol Short Story Prize, too. (They’ve used my real name, Sarah Frost Mellor, in place of my pen-name, Sarah Hilary.)
Hey, congrats to you too! Didn’t realise it was you. Good to hear from you 🙂
What splendid news!
Well done Jon.
Thanks, Rachel!
Yep, it’s me. Is there a way I subscribe to “follow” your website updates? Sorry to be a techno-dunce.
Just figured it out – please ignore previous comment!
Congratulations on the short list. And good luck!
@Sarah Guess you found the RSS link, then. I never got around to putting one of those “follow” boxes here, ‘cos I was always afraid it would show no-one following me 🙂
@Jeremy Thanks!
Great news, Jonathan.
Well done!
Thanks, Sherri!
That’s very cool – well done!
Thanks, Simon! I enjoyed your EDF piece today, BTW.
congrats, Jonathan! and thanks for the mention. great to be on the shortlist together. 🙂
Thanks, Nora, and congrats again to you too!
Well done on the shortlist and for taking a calculated gamble on submitting a short piece. Kicking myself as I didn’t enter because I begrudged the cost – (if you don’t buy a ticket …!)
That’ll larn me
AliB
Thanks, Alison! It was very much a last-minute “oh, what the hell” sort of decision 🙂