NAW Director to judge new Costa Short Story Award

Wednesday, 01 August 2012

The Costa Short Story Award is is for a single, previously unpublished short story of up to 4,000 words. Entry is open now and closes at 4pm on Friday 7th September. Entries must be submitted online via a dedicated page at www.costabookawards.com.

Entrants may be published or unpublished authors, and all entries will be judged anonymously – the identity of the author will not be available to the judges. The panel of five judges will then select a shortlist of six entries to be revealed in November, and the public will be invited to vote online for their favourite story from the six finalists.

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.

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 National Academy is all in favour of anonymous judging, which means decisions can be made exclusively on the quality of the writing and not the author's profile. Submissions to the National Academy are also assessed anonymously, so that texts can be read without regard to age, gender or educational background.