The Costa Book Awards is one of the UK’s most prestigious and popular literary prizes and recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.
It’s unique for having five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book, and this year for the first time ever there is a sixth – for short story.
Last week the six shortlisted short story authors were revealed – the public have been asked to vote on their stories, but their identities have been a secret until now. They are (in alphabetical order): Guy le Jeune, Avril Joy, Sheila Llewellyn, Chioma Okereke, Angela Readman and Salley Vickers.
The winner and two runners-up (voted for by the public) were announced Costa Book Awards ceremony in London. Avril Joy won overall, but we are thrilled to report that Guy Le Jeune took third place.
Here at writing.ie, we were particularly excited by the shortlist as Guy Le Jeune is an Irish writer whose thoughts you might have read right here on writing.ie in Residential Writing Courses, My Week at Arvon, A Sense of Memory Part 1 and A Sense of Memory Part 2.
Guy revealed last week “I’m delighted and a little amazed to be shortlisted for the inaugural Costa Short Story Award. I only started writing seriously two years ago, so being shortlisted for such a prestigious award is extraordinary and rather humbling. ‘Small Town Removal’ was inspired by the real events of a summer’s afternoon in Ballinamore, County Leitrim, a place where I draw a lot of my ideas from. It is a area where stories and characters seem to be written into the clay of Sliabh An Iarainn. I owe a debt of gratitude to the words and genius of John McGahern, whose works brought me to Leitrim and the slopes of the Iron Mountain. The characters and location of ‘Small Town Removal’ are central to my novel in progress, entitled ‘On a Hammered Copper Hillside’.”
Star making literary agent Simon Trewin who is on the judging panel, told writing.ie: ‘It was a wonderful experience being in a room with my fellow judges spending a whole day dissecting the minutiae and debating the relative merits of an incredible selection of stories that took us on flights of imagination and deep into the dark and light sides of humanity. I am excited as anyone to see which story the general public chose as the inaugural Costa short story winner.’
We’ll be getting a quote from Guy on his huge success just as soon as he’s recovered from the celebrations!
