Paperback

Twelve stories selected from hundreds of entries to the 2023 Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize; a showcase of some of the boldest new voices in short fiction.

They feature a family day out, an injured horse, metamorphoses, buzz cuts, a firebomb, an alleged assault, a capsized dinghy, a Michelin-starred meal, Purim celebrations, grief, motherhood and kissing. This anthology is a showcase for the short-story form in all its agility, variation, oddity, playfulness, discomfort, brevity and tenderness.

The 2023 competition was judged by Kiya Evans (Mushens Entertainment), Gurnaik Johal, author of We Move (Serpent’s Tail) and 2023 Somerset Maugham Award winner, and Melissa Cox, Publishing Director for Zaffre at Bonnier Books.

The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize was created in 2019 as a celebration of the short story form and the resilience of independent booksellers. Funded by Brick Lane Bookshop, the competition is open to all UK residents and seeks to discover, publish and promote new, exciting and diverse voices in fiction.

The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize has new sponsorship for 2023 from literary agency Mushens Entertainment, and a partnership with Spread the Word.