Many congratulations to the writers longlisted in our 2025 Award and big thanks to all those from around the world who entered. We receive many similar titles among our entries. If your story is on our list, you should have received a confirmation email from us. The short list will be announced on 16th July. Continue reading
Author Archives: Editor
Debut Novel by Patrick Holloway, our 2023 BSSA winner, now published!
Patrick Holloway won first prize with his wonderful short story,’The Language of Remembering’ in our 2023 Award, judged by Farhana Shaikh. We’re very excited to announce that his debut novel, with the same title, was published at the end of last month by Epoque Press. and is available from their store, bookshops and from Amazon. The novel extends the story of the short story’s protagaonist, Oisin, and here’s a brief summary: Continue reading
Ten Tiny Tweaks
With two weeks to go until the £1750 prize fund 2025 Bath Short Story Award, judged by Lucy Luck and Liv Bignold from C & W Literary Agency, closes at midnight on Monday March 31st, try these ten tiny tweaks to your story before you enter. Continue reading
Interview with BSSA Team Member, Jude Higgins
Jude is a well-known face in the short story and flash fiction world. In addition to being a prolific writer, she is a tutor, runs online Flash Fiction Festival Days three times a year, is the founder of Bath Flash Fiction Awards, directs the small press, Ad Hoc Fiction and also Flash Fiction Festivals UK, an in-person weekend event, now in its 7th year, which attracts writers from all over the world.
Her flash fiction has been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies and The Chemist’s House, her debut chapbook of short fictions, was published by V Press in 2017. Last year Ad Hoc Fiction published Clearly Defined Clouds, her full flash fiction collection, also available from Amazon. It has been described as a ‘mastery of condensed fiction.’ She is also a founding member of Bath Short Story Award, which is where we’ll begin. Continue reading
Finding a Title
Our 2025 Award closes on 31st March. In FOUR weeks. Maybe if you are entering, you are at the stage where you are thinking about a title. Maybe you began your short story with a title in mind? Maybe your story is still percolating before any words get down on paper?
How do you create a good title? So much has been written about this. Good ones stay with you for ever. I love Raymond Carver’s famous short story title, which is also the title of one of his collections, “What we talk about when we talk about love.” Gordon Lish, his editor, retitled it “I Am Going to Sit Down.” but thankfully, it was never published in that version.
There’s a fun thing I saw recently somewhere online, which suggested writing bad versions of famous titles of novels and short stories. For example, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ could be ‘The Fruits of Anger’. Worse, another Steinbeck novel. ‘Of Mice and Men’ could be translated into ‘Of Rodents and Males.”What about this version of “Sons and Lovers” — ‘Offspring and Their Romantic Partners’? Or ‘Fondness in the Season of the Plague’. Silly, but useful to study the originals and see how they work. Is it the weight of the words, or what they encompass about the book or the short story. Is it the rhythm or the length of the title? Continue reading
Sarah Hegarty joins the Reading Team
We’d like to welcome Sarah Hegarty, who’s joined our team of readers for the 2025 Bath Short Story Award. Sarah recently published her debut collection of short stories Magpie, with Troubador and has agreed to answer a few questions. Continue reading
Tracy Fells joins the BSSA team
Tracy Fells was the 2017 Regional Winner (Europe and Canada) for the Commondwealth Short Story Prize. Her short fiction has been widely published in print journals and online, including Granta and Brittle Star. Her debut novella-in-flash Hairy on the Inside published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2021, was shortlisted for the Saboteur Awards in 2022 and the International Rubery Book Awards. Her shortstory collection The Naming of Moths was published in 2024 by Fly on the Wall Press.Tracy Fells has been a first reader for the Bath Short Story Award for many years, frequently selecting stories from the entries that go to to be shortlisted or to win a prize Continue reading
One city, two literary colossi: Jane and Mary in Bath
Bath is well-known for its literary associations, the most famous being Jane Austen, who spent only a few years in the city and had a conflicted relationship with it. In a letter to her sister Cassandra, Jane wrote of her ‘happy feelings of Escape’ on leaving. That said, Bath is mentioned in all her novels and features most prominently in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, where the heroine Catherine Morland declares ‘Oh! Who can be ever tired of Bath?’ Certainly not the thousands from all over the world who will gather here this year to attend the balls and events to mark the 250th anniversary of Jane’s birth. Continue reading
Interview with Connor Donahue, the winner of our 2024 Award

Connor Donahue
Karen Jones joins BSSA team

Karen Jones