Thank you very much to our judge, Gordon Wise for judging our 2026 Award short list and for his detailed and insightful comments on the winners and his general comments on the short list. Gordon kindly donated his fee to The Book Trust.
Judge’s Comments
This is a supremely accomplished selection of short stories. I think they define our age, for the full spectrum of human (and some non-human) life, death, afterlife – and humans’ interaction with what we may pretend is life – is here. Each has a sense of poise, many are supremely resolved pieces of storytelling. I read them anonymised, and in alphabetical order, and with almost each one I found myself saying, ‘could this be the winner?’. I began on the veldt, went to the Lakes, floated (or maybe sank) in pools and seas, felt the earth shake, saw and felt extraordinary things in ordinary neighbourhoods, found myself making life decisions along with characters and trying to fathom relationships as those characters did themselves. Words leapt off each story’s page as well as words and stories leaping out as being the very subjects of some of the stories themselves.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Three stories outside my top three kept living with me after I had read them. But I finally landed on two I would love to recommend in particular.
‘A Legacy of Tea Coasters’ is an atmospheric meditation on how to do honour to an elder, navigated around the very practical matter of preparing for a death. The fact that life ends is the very definition of being alive. But when it does, how can that help define who we were?
‘Only the Doors’ reflects the consciousness of a house. And not just a house, but a bungalow, with a corridor of secrets, mysteries or doubts. It’s clever, and poignant.
TOP 3
These three very different tales – and approaches to storytelling – exemplify what is great about the form and this competition.
Third Prize: ‘Afloat’ is a surrealistic micro-odyssey that remains completely grounded in its observations. Its hero progressively shakes off the ties (and literally a tie, at one point) that bind him. Business cards, those talismans of a certain kind of corporate life, are cast across an ocean. Eventually we and he find safe harbour. There is great imagination, focus and consolation in play here.
Second Prize: ‘Letholigica — On the Removal of Words’ is a beautifully conceived memento mori for our age. If language becomes homogenised for the purposes of efficiency, how can we express ourselves any more? Can we truly live, without self-expression? And who or what decides what we can use to say things? A truly splendid skewering of a dystopia, told in miniature. (All words that aren’t yet proscribed…)
First Prize: ‘The Wedding Guest’ is compositionally and emotionally brilliant. If I analyse it, I fear I will spoil if for you. To write in the future tense but (spoiler alert) to write in reverse chronology too is an acrobatic writerly feat not for the fainthearted. But to use this to tell a love story, or indeed (again, spoiler alert) a lack of love story, shows particular accomplishment. And to be emotionally true, not to mention funny and surprising, to boot, is a rare gift.