But Ann’s journey into higher education was far from straightforward. As a teenager, she struggled to maintain focus at school and left with poor GCSE grades. Like many young people at the time, she joined a Youth Training Scheme, similar to today’s apprenticeships, first studying child and vulnerable adult care before moving into retail. 

In 2000, at the age of 29 and with two young children, Ann left retail with dreams of a new challenge with long-term prospects. Fastrack proved to be the ideal opportunity as a mature student.  

“I was searching for something more meaningful, a role with challenge, purpose and longterm prospects. I knew I had to change my future, I needed to go to university. 

“Enrolling on Fastrack was one of the hardest but best things I have ever done.  

“I never imagined that a free, short-term programme would lead to a fulfilling career in higher education, a degree, a postgraduate qualification and a leadership role within a university.” 

After completing Fastrack, Ann, from St Helens, went on to graduate in English with Creative Writing and has since achieved a PGCE in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 

A dyspraxia diagnosis did not prevent Ann from pursuing and achieving her career goals. While working at Edge Hill, she was awarded a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and became a member of the University’s Board of Governors. 

She added: “Edge Hill gave me an opportunity that changed my life and I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved. 

“Now I get to help others in the same position I was in realise that their background doesn’t define their potential.” 

Edge Hill University’s Fastrack programme offers adults aged 21 and over the chance to access higher education, even if they don’t currently hold the qualifications required. 

The free full-time course begins with a oneweek induction, followed by six weeks of oncampus study designed to develop academic skills, subject knowledge and most importantly, confidence to succeed University level education.  

Find out more at the Fastrack Information Evening on Wednesday 4 March at 5:30pm.

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Special Measures – which will be broadcast on Channel 5 on Thursday 11 December, 9pm, follows secondary school teacher Amy Harrison, played by Eastenders star Jessica Plummer, as her headteacher quits and Ofsted make a surprise visit. 

Writer and creative writing lecturer Lee Thompson was inspired to write Special Measures because of his own personal experience of working at a struggling secondary school while he was a teacher. 

“This play is a thrilling social drama that asks big questions and will leave you asking questions. I wanted to write a drama about what it feels like to be a teacher in the present day. 

“Over a day, Amy is just trying to carry on when things are stacking up against the school. And it’s essentially a really bad day for a teacher. 

“Amy’s got some issues in her personal life as well and she must put this mask on. Over the course of the day cracks start to appear, she’s a good teacher having a bad day. 

“I taught English at a school that was placed into special measures by Ofsted, which meant they needed extra support and that the teaching was failing essentially.  

“I really wanted to get across what it can feel like to be a teacher; the sort of overwhelm and the drive to carry on.” 

Lee worked with LA Productions in Liverpool to develop the original idea and they produced it alongside bringing in new emerging talent. One of them was Jack McLoughlin, former Edge Hill film and Tv production student, who was hired as the director.  

Jack said: “I remember getting the script for the show, and at the top Lee had put ‘this is a state of the nation piece’. And it is, this is happening right now in schools across the country.  

“I think a lot of people – teachers, pupils and parents, will relate to what’s going on in this story. Lee and I both had personal experiences with this topic, 

when we first met, I told Lee that when I was in school, we were in special measures. 

“So, it was quite powerful that we both had this mutual understanding from a teacher and pupil perspective of what that’s like.” 

Jack graduated from Edge Hill in 2019 and has gone on to work as an independent film maker on a variety of short films, but this is his first TV director credit.  

Despite the heavy theme, both Lee and Jack loved working on the drama and were passionate about the project. They felt it was vital to have the opportunity to explore a topic which is so relevant in the UK today.  

Lee said: “Teaching can be an incredibly rewarding career, and I really respect the passion and dedication of the thousands of teachers working hard in schools across the country.  But I want the public and the establishment to understand the challenges they are facing and make sure they are properly supported.” 

Jack added: “I hope it creates a conversation amongst viewers. If people are shocked by Special Measures, then good, because guess what? It’s not a shock for a lot of people in this country. 

“This is happening in schools across the country and if people from working class families that are in a state school watch this and feel heard and seen on national television, then that’s all we can hope for.” 

You can watch the show on Channel 5’s My5 if you miss it.

Find out more about studying creative writing or film at Edge Hill University.  

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“While it was flattering to be on the list, I really didn’t think I’d win.

“When the judge announced my name, I wasn’t sure I’d heard it correctly. Any writer will tell you it’s great to have some recognition, whether that’s one person telling you they enjoyed your work or being awarded a prize.

“I hope it means more people will read my work and short fiction more generally.” 

Born in Manchester and now based in Hebden Bridge, Christopher has written several books including The Neva Star, Who’s Who When Everyone Is Someone Else, The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure, The Blind Accordionist and the winning novel.

We Live Here Now, centres on the sudden vanishing of a famous conceptual artist’s installation project. The story traces how this disappearance forever changes the lives of the twelve people involved.

The narrative spans diverse and contrasting themes, moving from the dark world of weapons dealers and international shipping to the glamorous, cutting edge of hyper-contemporary art galleries and studios.

The Goldsmiths Prize is a nationally significant prize which celebrates “mould-breaking” works of fiction which “embody the spirit of invention”.

We Live Here Now garnered high praise from the judges, who called it “dazzling” and “intellectually challenging and supremely entertaining”.

Amy Sackville, Chair of Judges and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, said: “A book about what art is and what it does (or doesn’t do), CD Rose’s We Live Here Now in its turn asks profound questions of the contemporary world and the systems that power it, in the aether, deep under the surface, far out at sea.”

Christopher says his time at Edge Hill was transformative for his writing and career: “Edge Hill made my reading and writing more methodical and less haphazard. It really made me take my writing seriously.” 

Christopher was mentored by Professor Ailsa Cox, the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction, whose influence he describes as “hugely significant.”. Professor Cox founded the Edge Hill Short Story Prize in 2006 to highlight the intricate artisanship of short story writing and the wealth of publications available. 

“Ailsa’s work, both at Edge Hill and beyond, has been amazing, her scholarship, creative output and championing of short fiction have been hugely influential. I was also lucky to work with Rodge Glass, Robert Sheppard, Claire Dean and Sarah Schofield (Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Edge Hill), who have all been brilliant in their own ways.”

Awarded a PhD bursary, Christopher says the support he received at Edge Hill was vital: “That generosity made it all possible,” he said. “Edge Hill really is different. I instantly liked the people and the place, as so different to anywhere else I’ve studied.” 

Find out more about studying Creative Writing and English Literature here.

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Fighting Talk Edge Hill University enters the slam poetry arena

If you’ve never been to a poetry slam, you should try it. If you’ve never entered a poetry slam, you should try it. Admittedly, I say this as someone whose never done either…until I was invited to one by Jade Ball and Ciaran Moss, Masters students and graduates of our BA (Hons) Creative Writing degree.

I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly. My hopes weren’t high, I must confess, largely due to my own ignorance. I didn’t even know what slam poetry even was.

“Slam poetry is competitive spoken word,” explains Jade, “It’s about taking a poem off the page and putting a new element to it by performing it. There is a competition element to it, but what we were really trying to focus on with this is that the competition isn’t important at all.”

Poetry needs to be performed, argues Jade. That’s when it comes alive, that’s when it takes on the dynamism and radicalism of other performance artforms like hip hop, rap, or pop music. Eye- and ear-opening stuff.

But what I really didn’t expect was how brilliant the performers would be – mostly creative writing students, mostly aged between 17 and 25, all tongue-twistingly articulate, all nerveless.  And if they weren’t, they sure hid it well.

Most were performing their poetry to an audience for the first time – and willing to be judged by a panel consisting of performers and teachers.

Ciaran also found performing difficult. Initially, anyway. What’s his advice to any wannabe poets?

“The only way to get good at it is to do it. You can’t get good at it thinking about doing it. You have to just rock up and give it a go. If you’re bad at it, you’re bad at it. You will get better. But to get better at it, you have to do it.”

“Fear isn’t a good enough reason not to do something. Just take a deep breath,” adds Jade.

They had to take their own advice when it came to organising the event. They had no experience, had taken no classes in event management, and, perhaps most challengingly, had no budget. For someone who entertained ideas of joining the army at 14, that would be no problem, surely…

“We had quite a hard time because we were relying so heavily on funding and that was probably the wrong move. So it was a big learning curve for us in terms of still getting stuff done,” says Jade.

Fortunately what they did have was energy, determination, vision, contacts, and Edge Hill’s creative writing department to fall back on. Time to use their way with words, time for a charm offensive. They persuaded “amazing” facilitators to provide their services free of charge – and local businesses, such as air con company CareQuick, donated prizes.

They were also able to draw on the extensive experience of their tutors, like published poet and veteran event organiser Dr Zayneb Allak:

“The biggest challenges when organising an event like this are: competing with all the other events that are going on and getting people to come to yours. Also, scheduling and time frames – everyone is so busy all the time, so you have to really think ahead and make sure that you give everyone enough time to make their contribution without being stressed. But for Jade and Ciaran, I’d say one of the biggest challenges was putting it together with ZERO POUNDS. They had to draw on a network of people that they’d met and worked with and who, very generously, offered their time and expertise.”

Zayneb, though, saw the value in what they were trying to achieve.

“For me, the best thing about it was the platform they offered to all the participants. I saw students’ confidence in themselves and their writing grow before my eyes and I was delighted by the buzz around the event and afterwards.”

And was Zayneb tempted to join in? Not this time.

“But not because I don’t want to perform – it’s because it was a day for students to discover what they could do. As a tutor, you hope that by the end of the module or year or degree, your students don’t need you anymore. You want them to strike out on their own. That’s what I saw that day. I was delighted to be completely superfluous to requirements.”

Jade and Ciaran were also keen simply to provide a platform for new performers, although they were very willing to give the poets-in-waiting – a mixture of local sixth formers, coursemates, and students from other universities – the benefit of their own experiences.

“The whole point of this is to put people on a stage who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity. People who maybe have never heard of slam poetry before, or schools that might not follow the mainstream,” explains Jade.

Once upon a time, that person was Jade. Without her own introduction to the world of poetry her life could have been very, very different:

“I was a very angry kid, a very violent kid. And ultimately, writing probably saved me from that life that I was heading towards. I was writing poetry privately. I was about 14, I was going to join the army, get a real job. Somebody I knew saw an advert for a writers’ retreat for young people in my area in the summer holidays. I just applied on a whim, got a spot. It was a week of intense workshops with four professional poets. I joined a poetry collective, did my first performance a week after that and then through that event I was asked to go and compete at Uni Slam in the youth showcase. I did that for two years and then picked it up again when I came [to Edge Hill] and competed in the proper slam. I completely changed my whole career plan.”

And rather than a strictly literary event, Jade sees her poetry slam as more of an opportunity for young people to develop confidence, spread their creative wings…and hopefully fly.  Where to, nobody knows, least of all Jade:

“Even if you don’t want to be a performance poet, even if you don’t want to be a performer, if you’re a writer, even if you write fiction or scripts or anything really, if you publish your work, somebody is going to ask you to read that out. It’s a really important skill, presentations in offices. Being able to embody confidence and speak out loud in front of people is super important. And I think slam poetry is a really extreme way of teaching people that skill.”

Jade and Ciaran became friends as undergraduates, before Jade drawing Ciaran into her secret world of slam, eventually competing together at UniSlam. They didn’t place, but as we’ve identified, beyond the razzmatazz of competition, it’s really about confidence, creativity, stretching yourself, maybe even finding yourself a little bit.

“As a poet, I have power. That’s how I perform, with power. I’m also what’s called a sound poet, so I’m focusing on rhythm and beat. That’s where I excel, really. I do comedic poetry, I do political poetry. I really like personal poetry without it being in-your-face about life. I really like the way that rhythm works in poetry. Even if you put it into music or into rap, it wouldn’t have the same effect as using rhythm effectively in a slam poem. So that’s sort of my niche.”

Perhaps drawing on instincts that initially drew Jade to a life in the army, she workshopped the team to within an inch of their lives. Jade does a lot of workshops, it’s something she herself benefited from. She sees it as a kind of duty to pass on the slam torch, handing out tips and observations, just to help debutant performers tiptoe out of their comfort zones:

“When I started performing, I was really bad. I would go bright red, and my voice would shake, and my hands would shake, and I’d move around a lot, and it was really distracting. I managed to get a one-on-one masterclass with [slam scene legend] Kat Francois, and I’ve had masterclasses with other poets and people. I’ve managed to develop those into my own practice of teaching, so I can now go through my little toolbox of exercises and figure out what people need.

“We had a student last year who couldn’t slow down no matter what we tried, just couldn’t consciously slow down. So I made her do a three-second pause between every word, which she hated me for, but it worked. It’s a way of tricking your brain into being more aware of what your voice is doing.”

Ciaran started to find his own poetic identity in pre-comp workshops:

“We started off trying to make me be serious, and I’m not generally a very serious person in life. So we just went, ‘why don’t we try just talking and you talk?’ And we found a niche that worked for me, and the voice that I write with more naturally. [At UniSlam] I got asked to be the person who warms up the audience before the final. You haven’t been recognised by the competition, but you’ve been recognised by the judges and by the facilitators for your skill and for your performance. I did a poem called An Ode to Northern Women, which was a funny poem about all the women in my family who’ve been with me through my life. So I’m a funny poet. I write funny poems.”

Back at Jade and Ciaran’s event, writing and performance masterclass duties fall to slam champion Dave Viney and actor Eithne Browne. They put participants through their paces, encouraging and provoking, guiding and challenging, in order to help them find their own voices, and overcome those pesky nerves. And they come in all shapes and sizes. There’s the funny ones, the political ones, the romantic ones, the observational ones, the outrageous ones. There’s even the funny, political, romantic, observational, and outrageous ones. All voices are welcome. And, as mentioned at the top of the article, when the spotlight falls on the competitors, all are hugely impressive.

“It was a really fun day, and so positive and affirming for everyone who joined in,” says Zayneb Allak. “Jade and Ciaran pulled it off brilliantly. The whole thing went very smoothly in terms of organisation. I didn’t doubt them for a minute. They’re so hardworking, committed and capable that I knew that it would be a success. They’re just great people that I’m proud to know.”

Forget your concerns about Generation Z, AI, the death of creativity, and wasted lives perpetually doom-scrolling. These fresh, unique, brave, articulate voices – inspired and encouraged by young people like Jade and Ciaran – are tomorrow’s thought leaders, generational spokespeople and creative souls. Sounds like a slam-dunk.

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“I don’t really enjoy poetry on a page,” admits Jade. “I think that poetry should be spoken. I really like American-influenced spoken word poetry. The climate for spoken word in America is very different to here. It’s just brilliant. They take it so seriously, it’s a real artform. I love Blythe Baird as well, a similar American poet. She wrote a poem called Pocket Sized Feminism. That’s the one that really got me hooked on poetry. And my favourite ever is Olivia Gatwood. She wrote a poem called Ode to My Bitch Face, and that’s where I took some of my style from. That idea that I own the stage, and you’re going to listen to me because I own it.”

“Sylvia Plath is my favourite poet,” says Ciaran. “It was my first exposure to reading poetry off my own back, I think. I got to A level and had to pick a poet to write about. And when all the other poets I knew were people that we’d already studied, or were going to be in my exams, so I can’t write about them again. So I went, I’ll find someone a bit newer than that and then found Sylvia Plath through that research and just really loved language in the way that she uses it. I think she’s got such a beautiful knowledge of words. In terms of performance, we went to watch Harry Baker, who headlined UniSlam, and was brilliant, does funny poetry, does serious poetry tinted with funny. Just a really lovely performer and great stage presence.”

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Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Championed by Lucy Thompson, lecturer in 19th-century literature and creative writing, Aberystwyth University

Sense and Sensibility is Austen’s most quietly radical novel. As her first published work, it may be less polished than her later fiction, but it is no less incisive.

It lays bare the emotional cost of living in a world governed by reputation, family obligation and gendered expectation. Excluded from inheritance and displaced from their home, the Dashwood sisters must navigate constant scrutiny. Through Elinor and Marianne, Austen dramatises two strategies for survival in a society obsessed with appearances.

Born from an earlier epistolary draft, the novel retains a sharp interest in how information circulates and misleads. Gossip doesn’t just constrain; it distorts. Letters are spied upon, conversations overheard. Assumptions take on the weight of fact.

In this world, everyone watches – but not everyone truly sees. Sense and Sensibility may wear a quieter face than Emma or Pride and Prejudice, but it is Austen’s sharpest early critique of how appearances govern lives.

Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Championed by Andrew McInnes, reader in English literature, Edge Hill University

Everyone already knows the best Austen novel: Pride and Prejudice. Why? Elizabeth Bennet. Lizzy is so charismatic that you might mistake the novel’s title for an abstract problem, and not Darcy’s pride versus her prejudice.

We share her prejudices because Austen makes them so delicious. We roll our eyes at Mrs Bennet because Lizzy finds her exasperating. Wickham is seductive because he satisfies our inner bitch. And we fall in love with Darcy alongside Lizzy.

Pride and Prejudice is the funniest and sexiest of Austen’s novels. In it, she allows herself a swoon-worthy romance without a hitch. Unlike Northanger Abbey’s Henry Tilney, Darcy doesn’t fall in love because Lizzy adores him, but falls first. Darcy is a complex man – shy, domineering, funny – and not a drip like Eds Ferrars (Sense and Sensibility) or Bertram (Mansfield Park). And unlike Emma, Lizzy builds healthy relationships with other women.

Austen called Pride and Prejudice “too light and bright and sparkling” and joked that it could do with an essay on Walter Scott or Napoleon. But we know that would be a crime. It is just light and bright and sparkling enough to outshine the others.

Mansfield Park (1814)

Championed by Amanda Vickery, professor in early modern history, Queen Mary University of London

Pride and Prejudice is often the first grown-up novel young girls read, but Mansfield Park is the only Austen novel about a little girl growing up.

All Austen’s fictions are versions of the female-centred courtship novel, usually covering a single year, with the heroine safely married to a deserving gentleman by the last page. Yet her heroines are mostly formed young women. Only in Mansfield Park do we meet our heroine as a little girl – and a puny and cowering little girl at that.

Mansfield Park is Austen’s bildungsroman (the novel of becoming) on a par with that other girls’ classic, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847). Like poor, plain Jane, Fanny Price is a girl of no consequence – a Cinderella figure in a mansion of the rich and selfish.

Fanny is shy, frail and physically timid, but she is not a moral coward. She learns to bear her lot with dignity, and to hold fast to what she believes. By volume three, Fanny is at last the centre of her own story. Mansfield Park is not just a love story, it is a life story.

Emma (1815)

Championed by Ruvani Ranasinha, professor of global literature, King’s College London

Emma Woodhouse is Jane Austen’s most vividly realised, proto-feminist heroine. Witty, clever and attractive, Emma is supremely self-confident and flawed. She challenges every expectation of female propriety and is full of contradictions: self-centred yet deeply attached to her hypochondriac, indulgent father; snobbish but kind.

Emma revels in meddling in the romantic lives of others, especially her protégée, Harriet Smith. When her carefully laid plans unravel, the busybody makes mortifying mistakes and learns self-knowledge: “It darted through her with the speed of an arrow, that Mr Knightley must marry no-one but herself!”

All Austen’s novels are shot through with the awareness of the role of wealth and class in marriage. But Emma – “an heiress of thirty thousand pounds” – is free from the intense competition among the women for young men with positions and prospects. At the same time, she attracts men like Mr Elton seeking women with landed connections and dowries. This is why the novel both responds to Austen’s historical moment and speaks to our own.

Northanger Abbey (1817)

Championed by Octavia Cox, departmental lecturer in English literature, University of Oxford

Northanger Abbey is a riot of jokes. Nobody and nothing is spared: not the heroine, convention, society – even readers. There’s everything marvellous you’d expect from an Austen novel (sharp satire of patriarchy and socioeconomic weaponisation, laughter at human absurdity and pompousness, beautifully wrought witty expression, a rollicking good yarn, irony), but with extra sass.

Its bombastic intrusive authorial narrative voice (perhaps the closest we get to Austen’s own), constantly makes in-jokes with readers about the action. It’s Austen’s most meta-fictional text, playing with readers’ expectations about novels (for example, joking that her novel, ironically, “is a new circumstance in romance” despite depicting nothing “new in common life”).

Its “defence of the novel” passage is a proto-feminist rallying call-to-arms for female authors to celebrate each other’s work. Northanger Abbey’s meta-fictionality reveals much about Austen’s aim and style as an author, making it a must-read for all Austen-lovers. Oh, and it’s funny. Damned funny.

Persuasion (1817)

Championed by Richard de Ritter, lecturer in English literature, University of Leeds

Persuasion contains the greatest love letter in all English literature. It is the culmination of a slow-burning romance between the heroine, Anne Elliot, and Captain Frederick Wentworth, the man she has loved for eight long years. “You pierce my soul,” Wentworth writes to Anne with striking vulnerability: “I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late.” (Spoiler: he is not too late.)

The brilliance of Persuasion lies in the depiction of its complex heroine. At 27, Anne Elliot is older and wiser than Austen’s earlier protagonists. Disregarded by her comically narcissistic family, the depth of Anne’s personality is revealed by Austen’s prose style, which is at its most luminous and expressive. Readers are plunged into the mind of the novel’s heroine. We witness her innermost thoughts and feelings as she negotiates the awkwardness, excitement and, finally, the sheer joy of embracing a future with Wentworth.

Persuasion is the final novel that Austen completed before her death in 1817: she was at the peak of her powers. It is her most moving and her greatest work.

Now the experts have made their case, it’s your turn to decide which of Austen’s six completed novels is her best work. Vote in the poll below to and see if our other readers agree with you.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Find out more about studying English at Edge Hill University.

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Receiving her award at a ceremony at Bloomsbury-based London Review Bookshop, she said: “I feel I have a special relationship with this prize now that I’ve won it twice!

“And they are such a lovely team at Edge Hill, so committed to literary values and to the short story. Awarding a prize for a whole collection rather than a single story makes it feel like a grown-up recognition of the long haul of short story writing, of writers’ long-term relationship with the form.”

The Edge Hill Prize celebrates emerging and established writers, highlighting the diverse voices and exceptional talents of contemporary short story writers from across the UK and Ireland.

Now in its 18^th year, the £10,000 prize is the only national literary award to recognise excellence in a published, single-authored short-story collection.

This year’s judges were: writer Bernie McGill, who won the prize last year; Tom Conaghan, founder of Scratch Books; and Edge Hill alumna Harriet Hirshman, publishing manager at Dead Ink Books.

Judge Bernie McGill said: “The stories from After the Funeral present us with a cast of fully realised characters whose voices ring out clear from the page. Tessa Hadley is a writer with the lightest of touches who gives us stories that quicken the pulse, that catch at the heart. This is her brilliance: to go further, deeper, to explore the mystery of what it is to be human, of what’s eternal and of what’s true.”

Edge Hill University international student Alma Lilja, who is studying a masters in creative writing, won the Post Graduate Researcher prize for best short story submitted by a student.

The 24-year-old from Gothenburg, Sweden, said: “Winning has certainly served as a boost of confidence in my own ability to write short stories. I am currently working on two novels, and as always, I am writing poetry.

“And who knows, maybe I will turn some of those poems into short stories? That is, after all, how my winning story Our Town So Far Inland started out.”

Judge Harriet Hirshman said: “It was no easy task choosing a winner from the fantastic selection of stories from the Edge Hill students. In the end, Alma Lilja’s rich and luminous fable won us over with its fervent beating heart and important underlying message about the way we treat the natural world around us. Lilja is a writer to watch.”

Writer and academic Malachi McIntosh won the inaugural Debut Prize, worth £1,000, for his Parables, Fables, Nightmares collection (The Emma Press).

He said: “I’m thrilled, shocked, overwhelmed, stunned. Even being longlisted felt like an alien landing and inviting me on an adventure. Progressing through to the shortlist and then winning best debut is like a dream sequence. I’m honoured and want to live up to the recognition.”

Judge Tom Conaghan, who presented Malachi with his award, said: “The stories in Parables, Fables, Nightmares showed great poise to conjure the very real dilemmas of all-too-human characters.

“They are written with a fantastic syncopated poetry and uniquely fitting architecture. The collection itself displays a superb diversity which makes for an eclectic and edifying and very nourishing book.”

Founded in 2006, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize attracts entries from the best new and established writers. Ailsa Cox, the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction, founded the award to highlight the artisanship of short story writing and acknowledge the wealth of published collections available.

Inspired by World Book Day? Find out more about studying creative writing at Edge Hill, apply as an international student or discover more about our courses.

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The shortlisted collections and their publishers are: 

• Forgetting is How we Survive by David Frankel (Salt) 

• After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape) 

• Encounters with Everyday Madness by Charlie Hill (Roman Books) 

• Monstrous Longing by Abi Hynes (Dahlia Publishing) 

• Parables, Fables, Nightmares by Malachi McIntosh (The Emma Press) 

• Walter Benjamin Stares at the Sea by CD Rose (Melville House Publishing) 

A new £1,000 Debut Collection Award will also be presented to one of the shortlisted authors to celebrate the best new voices in short story writing, and a £500 prize will be awarded for the best entry from an Edge Hill University postgraduate creative writing student.

Harriet Hirshman, an Edge Hill alumna who previously interned on the Edge Hill Prize, was twice shortlisted for the student prize and is now Dead Ink publishing manager, will be on the judging panel.

She said: “I want a short story to keep me guessing, yet when it ends make me feel like it couldn’t have ended any other way.

“A great collection should feel cohesive and distinct, like sampling an expansive array of delights from a carefully curated platter.

“Each story should be memorable and provocative in its own way.”

The Edge Hill Short Story Prize was founded in 2006 by the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction, Ailsa Cox, to highlight the intricate artisanship of short story writing and acknowledge the wealth of published collections available.  The £10,000 prize remains the only national literary award to recognise excellence in a published, single-authored short story collection. 

Sarah Schofield, Edge Hill Short Story Prize organiser, said: “Narrowing the longlist of 14 exceptional collections was incredibly difficult for the shortlisting panel. The six titles selected demonstrate a breadth of variety in style and voice. 

“Each collection holds stories that resonate with the reading panel members on a personal level. It is a positive year again for small presses, which are well-represented on this list, continuing to keep the short story form in good health and backing new talent.” 

Past winners of the prize include Sarah Hall, Saba Sams, Kevin Barry, Daisy Johnson, and last year’s winner Bernie McGill for her collection This Train is For. Bernie will return as a judge for this year’s prize, alongside Harriet and founder of Scratch Books, Tom Conaghan.

Bernie said: “Reading stories changes us in subtle and incontrovertible ways. In a world where opinions can appear copper-fastened, where debate is too often polemicised, it seems to me to be a good thing to be reminded that your heart can be moved by fiction; that your mind can be changed. 

“We’re looking for a collection of stories that will do that, with range and depth and variety and conviction, not once, but over and over again.”  

Tom is looking for “a nourishing sense of diversity, that ‘drunkenness of things being various’ (Louis MacNeice)”.

“Its individual stories will be rich and exhilarating but together a collection can fold you in more planes than a novel can. We come away from a great collection as if from a magic night out, where you’ve met everyone, laughed and wept with everyone, danced with everyone.” 

Find out more about Edge Hill’s Department of English and Creative Arts and courses including BA (Hons) Creative Writing and MA Creative Writing.

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The annual prize seeks to highlight the diverse voices and exceptional talents of contemporary short story writers, celebrating both emerging and established authors.

Previous winners include acclaimed authors such as Sarah Hall, David Szalay, Tessa Hadley, Kevin Barry and Daisy Johnson.

The shortlisted collections are as follows:

• Total by Rebecca Miller (Canongate)
• Love in the Time of Chaos by Rosemary Jenkinson (Arlen House)
• Cat Brushing & Other Stories by Jane Campbell (Riverrun)
• Animals at Night by Naomi Booth (Dead Ink Books)
• This Train is for … by Bernie McGill (No Alibis Press)

The prize is run by Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, Billy Cowan.

“We’re really excited to celebrate five fantastic female-authored collections through this year’s shortlist.”

“It’s been another successful year for small independent publishers who continue to support the short story form and it’s great to see some previous shortlisted writers in the mix again, along with new entrants to the Edge Hill Prize.

Billy Cowan

A £1,000 Reader’s Choice Award will be presented to one of the shortlisted authors, as well as a £500 prize for the best short story submitted by an Edge Hill MA Creative Writing student. 

The judges of the 2023 prize are last year’s winner Saba Sams, C&W literary agent Lucy Luck and Edge Hill’s own Andrea Ashworth, short story writer and Lecturer in Creative Writing.

Now in its 17th year, the Edge Hill Prize is the only annual UK-based award to recognise excellence in a single-author short story collection. 

The Edge Hill Short Story Prize was founded in 2006 by the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction, Ailsa Cox, to highlight the intricate artisanship of short story writing and acknowledge the wealth of published collections available. 

For more information about studying Creative Writing at Edge Hill, visit our subject page.  

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The longlist for 2023 showcases a remarkable diversity of styles, themes and narrative techniques, exemplifying the breadth and depth of short fiction from the UK and Ireland.

Billy Cowan, Edge Hill Short Story Prize organiser, said: “The short story is often an underappreciated form of fiction and we’re proud to continue supporting it through the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.

“In the past, the prize has been won by established and emerging authors alike, and we’re excited to see who the next name on that list is going to be.”

The longlist in full is:

• Cat-Brushing and Other Stories Jane Campbell (Riverun)
• This Train is for Jane Bernie McGill (No Alibi Books)
• Love in the Time of Chaos Rosemary Jenkinson (Arlen House)
• Now You See Him Tim Craig (Ad Hoc Fiction)
• Scar Tissue Clare Morgan (Seren)
• Animals at Night Naomi Booth (Dead Ink Books)
• Total Rebecca Miller (Canongate)
• Mammals, I Think We Are Called Giselle Leeb (Salt Publishing)
• The Dog Husband and Other Stories Rose McDonagh (Reflex Press)
• Whirlwind Romance Sam Thompson (Unsung Stories)

The Edge Hill Short Story Prize was founded in 2006 by the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction, Ailsa Cox.

The prize seeks to highlight the diverse voices and exceptional talents of contemporary short story writers.

Synonymous with literary excellence, it draws attention to emerging and established authors alike. Previous winners include acclaimed authors such as Sarah Hall, David Szalay, Tessa Hadley, Kevin Barry and Daisy Johnson.

Over the coming weeks, the longlisted stories will undergo further scrutiny from our panel of judges. A short list will be announced by September, with the winner of the £10,000 prize announced in November.

A £1,000 Reader’s Choice Award will also be presented to one of the shortlisted authors and there will be a £500 prize for the best short story submitted by an Edge Hill University MA Creative Writing student.

Last year’s prize was won by Saba Sams for her debut collection, Send Nudes.

Find out more about Edge Hill’s Department of English and Creative Arts and the courses offered, including BA (Hons) Creative Writing and MA Creative Writing.

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“When I was trying to get a book deal for a short story collection, everyone told me short stories don’t sell.

“I feel really quite lucky to have written this at a time when short stories are having a resurgence.

“The rest of the shortlist was amazing and people seem to be eating up short stories.

“It’s about being at the right moment in time when your stories can say something about what’s happening in the world right now.

“I’m completely blown away to win this award.

“People think of short stories as the beginning of your career because you’re learning but actually, I think when you look at the previous Edge Hill prize winners, they still write incredible short stories.

“I think that’s amazing and I really hope to follow that trajectory.”

Saba Sams

The award comes on the heels of winning last year’s BBC national short story award for Blue4eva, taken from Send Nudes.

Saba, a fiction writer based in London, has seen her stories appear in publications including The Stinging Fly and The Tangerine.

“Saba’s collection is thematically cohesive and sensitively written. With humour and pathos it gives us glimpses into what it’s like for young women navigating this complex early 21^st century world.

“For such a young writer, the voice is assured and the tone pitch-perfect. It also includes one of the best, most moving Covid stories I’ve read.“

Billy Cowan, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing

Wendy Erskine scooped the £1,000 Readers’ Choice Award for His Mother, while Edge Hill MA Creative Writing student John Brady was crowned winner for the best short story submitted by a student.

Founded in 2006, the unique Edge Hill Short Story Prize is the only annually-presented award for a published, single-authored collection of short stories in the UK and Ireland, and has attracted entries from some of the best new and established writers. 

The judges of the 2022 prize were 2021 winner Kevin Barry, literary development agent Arzu Tahsin and Sarah Schofield, writer and lecturer at Edge Hill University.

The Edge Hill Short Story Prize was founded by Ailsa Cox, the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction, to highlight the intricate artisanship of short story writing and acknowledge the wealth of published collections available. 

Edge Hill has a long-established track record in Creative Writing at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and the degrees on offer promise a challenging and innovative programme to stretch abilities and encourage independence.

For more information about studying Creative Writing at Edge Hill, visit our subject page.  

To discover more about our courses, please visit ehu.ac.uk/study.  

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