A short story containing only textmessages is in the running to win the prestigious Sunday Times EFG Private BankShort Story Award 2012. Will Cohu’s ‘Two Bad Thumbs’ – the story of arelationship told through the texts of two lovers – will, however, facestiff competition from a whole host of bestselling and garlanded authors,including Diana Athill, Lionel Shriver, Emma Donoghue and Toby Litt. The£30,000 Award is the biggest in the world for a single short story.
The judges have narrowed their search foran outstanding story of up to 6,000 words to a longlist of 20. The otherstories on the 2012 longlist include three addressing the topical issue ofcaring for parents and an aging population, as well as stories drawing on thehistorical events of 9/11, the American War of Independence, the atomic attackon Japan in 1945, and the 1988 atrocities in Kurdistan.
The longlisted authors, 10 women and 10men, range in age from 31 to 94 and are drawn from as far afield as Hong Kong,Ireland, the USA, Canada and the UK. Will Cohu is longlisted for the thirdconsecutive year. In the two previous years he has gone on to feature in theshortlist. Jackie Kay, A L Kennedy and Kevin Barry have also been longlisted inprevious years.
The 20 longlisted writers and the titlesof their short stories:
- Diana Athill – ‘A Hopeless Case’
- Kevin Barry – ‘Beer Trip to Llandudno’
- Evgenia Citkowitz – ‘Business Class’
- Will Cohu – ‘Two Bad Thumbs’
- Emma Donoghue – ‘The Hunt’
- Jackie Kay – ‘These Are Not My Clothes’
- A L Kennedy – ‘Late in Life’
- Jean Kwok – ‘Where the Gods Fly’
- Barrie de Lara – ‘Dinner at Benutti's’
- Tom Lee – ‘The Current’
- Toby Litt – ‘The Sandy’
- Alison MacLeod – ‘The Heart of Denis Noble’
- Martin Malone – ‘Valley of the Peacock Angel’
- Robert Minhinnick – ‘El Aziz: Some Pages From His Notebooks’
- Linda Oatman High – ‘Nickel Mines Hardware’
- Alison Pimlott – ‘Five Year Diary’
- Tamara Pollock – ‘Elsa’
- Alex Preston – ‘The Bridge Over Shuto Expressway No. 1’
- Lionel Shriver – ‘Prepositions’
- Johanna Skibsrud – ‘Fat Man and Little Boy’
The winner will receive £30,000, and the five shortlistedwriters will this year each receive £1000 – double the 2011 prize money –as well as having their work published online and in an anthology published byWaterstones. This will be available to purchase in store and throughwaterstones.com from March 5.
Readers cansavour all six shortlisted stories at a series of special events at WaterstonesPiccadilly on March 27, 28 and 29, all featuring readings by a stellar line-upof acting talent. As well as being able to hear the stories, audience memberscan meet some of the shortlisted authors, talk to judges about their choices, andpick up a copy of the anthology. Theseevents are being produced in conjunction with WordTheatre.
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