New Short Stories 4 preview

The shortlisted stories for the Willesden short story competition 2010, adjudicated by Richard Peabody, are:

Busy. Come. Wait. - Tom Vowler
Emily Strabnow's Freckles - Willie Davis
Falling - Henrietta Rose-Innes
In the Land of Flies - Julia Goubert
Letters - Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Love and Longing in the Marvellous City - Jonathan Attrill
Monkey Hat - Kevin Spaide
Precious - Carys Davies
The Architects - Wena Poon
Veronika and Roger-Roger - Toby Litt

Also highly commended:

Hope Street - Paul McGuire
Learning Stick - Jarred McGinnis
Pearl - Peggy Riley
Shutters - Jo Cannon

All will be included in the forthcoming anthology "New Short Stories 4". There will now be a very long wait till the results event when we'll be revealing which story takes the prize mug. The date could be as far ahead as end of March I'm hearing*, which I know is a long drag but at least spring may have arrived by then. Meanwhile here's to the short story. Cheers!

* New Short Stories 4 launch and results announcement: Saturday 10 April, The Charles Dickens Museum. Invitation only.

Update 10/4/2010: New Short Stories 4 launched