The National Arts Festival and Mercury Books have announced the winners of the inaugural Short Sharp Stories Awards.
The National Arts Festival and Mercury Books have announced the winners of the inaugural Short Sharp Stories Awards.
With these winners comes the publication of their collected works, Bloody Satisfied, thrilling twist-in-the-tale stories that make good on the book title’s promise.
Selected from more than 200 entries, the winners are Dawn Garisch (Best Story), Roger Smith (Best Thriller), T O Molefe (Most Original Story) and Liam Kruger (Best New Voice).
The anthology includes 24 top stories and is introduced with a rollicking foreword by Deon Meyer.
The stories promise to be slick, sexy and brimming with danger and elements of the sinister; sophisticated stories that focus on the subtler crimes of everyday life; smart stories that invert expectations and linger in the mind.
Award money totalling R35 000 will be presented to the four prize-winning stories at an official Arts Festival launch in Grahamstown during July.
This year’s judges are Sarah Lotz, Fred Khumalo and John Maytham. The Short Sharp Stories Awards is a platform for both established and emerging writers in South Africa.
The theme for next year’s anthology will be announced at the launch in July. To find out more go to www.shortsharpstories.com.
The Awards are curated by anthology editor Joanne Hichens.
Bloody Satisfied contributors: Roger Smith, Yewande Omotso, Peter Church, Greg Lazarus, Nechama Brodie, Chris Nicholson, Osiame Molefe, Luke Fiske, Megan Furniss, Sandile Memela, Dawn Garisch, Peter Merrington, Siphiwo Mahala, Anthony Ehlers, Jill Morsbach, Liam Kruger, Amy Heydenrych, Beth Hunt, Anirood Singh, Andrew Salomon, Mncedise Thambe, Jo Stielau, Colin Ward and Melissa Siebert, with an afterword by Michael Stanley.
