2006 NATIONAL SHORT -STORY PRIZE

THERE is a new Short-Story Writing Prize in the United Kingdom. The winning entry will receive £15,000, the richest of any short-story competition in the world, while the runner-up will get £3,000. The objective of the competition is to revive interest in the short-story writing genre after years of perceived neglect. The first five shortlisted stories and their authors are as follows:

“The Flyover” / Rana Dasgupta
“The Safehouse” / Michel Faber
“An Anxious Man” / James Lasdun
“The Ebony Hand” / Rose Tremain
“Men of Ireland” / William Trevor

UPDATE Tuesday, May 16, 2006: James Lasdun has won the first National Short Story competition with “An Anxious Man,” beating short-story veterans William Trevor and Rose Tremain, bestselling novelist Michel Faber and Rana Dasgupta to the prize, while Michel Faber was judged the runner-up for his story “The Safehouse.” Although Faber is the author of several short-story collections, he is better known as a novelist, particularly following his 2002 epic panorama of Victorian England, The Crimson Petal and the White, in which he tells the story of a 19-year-old prostitute.