Lucy Luck
Thank you very much to our judges, Lucy Luck and Liv Bignold for selecting the five wonderful winning stories from our shortlist and for their general comments about the list and their insightful comments on the winners.
Liv Bignold
Judges’ Overall Thoughts
We were delighted by the quality and diversity of the stories shortlisted for BSSA 2025. All the writers have a praise-worthy handle on prose, and they embraced the short story form with imagination and zest. The stories were brilliantly varied, encompassing snapshot events, descriptions of sprawling political movements, and intimate essayistic monologues. Certain themes and motifs cropped up throughout the shortlist: immigration and journeys, cooking, agriculture, bodily transformation, fatherhood. But the shortlist can’t be distilled into an easy collection of messages, and that’s what makes it so brilliant: each story’s power lies in its nuances and the way in which the different components interact to create a vivid impression of the author’s world. Well done to everyone featured – we hope we’ll one day read more from you!
First Prize: DANCER, ALL LEGS UP by Cleo Haywood
Dancer, All Legs Up is a charged, sinewy story that reimagines the fable of Hansel and Gretel in a stark red land reminiscent of the wild west or a Mad Max style apocalyptic wasteland. The atmosphere is potent, the dialogue taut, and the plot deeply disturbing. It often feels like retellings of fables are now commonplace, and rarely exciting, but the quality of the muscular prose, stylish world-building and sense of depth to the lead characters’ relationship is truly impressive.
Second Prize: DANGER ZONE by Jay McKenzie
Danger Zone is a keenly poignant study of ageing, loneliness and grief, told through a wash of nostalgia. We were struck by the precision of the prose here; the author exerts perfect control over the narrative, circling the source of the narrator’s disillusionment in a way that reflects the vacuous nature of loss. The way that the past bleeds into the present day narration is skilfully executed and the descriptions of urban decay feel rich in political and allegorical meaning. This is a dignified, hugely sympathetic portrait of a middle-aged woman grieving for the optimism of youth.
Third Prize: BLUE SILK SHEETS by Zuzu Burton
Blue Silk Sheets is a compelling and sinister piece told in increasingly unsettling snippets. We were both struck by the opening line, ‘My boyfriend’s wife…’, a fantastic hook that sets the tone for the offbeat tone to come. This is not an easy story – the author delights in wrong-footing the reader, embracing droll humour, nastiness and a quirkiness that at time recalls a dark Miranda July – but it is hugely rewarding. This is a striking and distinctive take on the trend of ‘Weird Girl fiction’.
Our highly commended stories are:
GONE FISHING by Ray Cluley
Gone Fishing is a tight depiction of burgeoning masculinity and unspoken grief. Whilst the central metaphor – the fish as the boy’s father – isn’t subtle, this is a fantastic lesson in how to ‘show not tell’, and the restrained prose signals to wonderfully rich subtext. The dialogue, in particular, resonates with language around dying – ‘we’re losing him’ and ‘does it hurt?’ have emotional connotations. This story is quietly beautiful.
BAD LITTLE GARDENS by Gio Iozzi
An ambitious, evocative piece exploring female pain, how to find meaning in suffering and the cathartic power of art. The insularity of the narration is balanced with the visceral descriptions of her body, whilst the clinical medical language is offset by the visual nature of the narrator’s painting. The ending is a little quiet, but the bulk of the story is energised and politicised by the narrator’s difficulty navigating a patriarchal healthcare system, and the interweaving of the narrator’s experience with the legend of Frida Kahlo is nicely done.
Acorn Prize for an unpublished writer of Fiction
The Dance of the Fire by Steve Mellon
BSSA team’s comment: ‘We loved this haunting story about a topical subject – Australian wildfires. The events are seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy and, as the drama unfolds, the horror and poignancy are revealed through a skilful development of the story arc and clean, honest writing.’
Local Prize
The Song of the Salmon by Joanna CampbelL
BSSA team’s comment: ‘This quirky tale about a couple who decide to cook a whole salmon in a house they’re only supposed to minding for a neighbour is beautifully told. Occasional dead pan humour, an eye for detail and subtle imagery reveals so much about their relationship as well as how we view others. Like the salmon there are ‘hidden depths’.’