Well, that was different! Last night’s launch for the 2020 BSSA anthology ended with a ‘Goodbye from Newfoundland’, New Zealand, Ottawa, Iowa, Switzerland, Italy and various regions of the UK from Harrogate to Stroud. Such is Zoom. This made for a truly international and inclusive event – but we did miss the atmosphere of Mr B’s, where we’ve held our past six anthology launches. It’s such a cosy, enticing bookshop – the perfect place to share wine and nibbles while listening to the readings. Continue reading
Author Archives: Editor
Judge 2021
We’re delighted that Norah Perkins from Curtis Brown has agreed to be our 2021 judge. She will select the winning entries from our 20 shortlisted stories.Norah’s interviewed below by BSSA team member, Alison Woodhouse and tells us more about her wide experience in publishing, judging awards and developing opportunities for writers. She likes simplicity in stories and also offers a very useful quote from writer George Saunders which indicates what she is looking for in winning entries: “A work of fiction can be understood as a three-beat movement: a juggler gathers bowling pins; throws them in the air; catches them.”
Continue reading
2021 Bath Short Story Award Open
The Ninth International Bath Short Story Award is now open for entries
Closes 19th April, 2021
Judge Norah Perkins, literary agent from from Curtis Brown Continue reading
BSSA 2020 Anthology
The eighth BSSA 2020 anthology is released for publication on December 1st and will be available for sale from Ad Hoc Fiction; Amazon in paperback and ebook (Kindle), Bath bookshops; and Waterstones online. Continue reading
2020 Award Round-Up
Thank you very much to everyone who entered the 2020 Bath Short Story Award.
The stress and pressure of this year does, in so many ways, make writing more difficult and our eighth Award closed at the end of April at the height of the pandemic. So it is both astonishing and wonderful that we received 1531 entries from around the world, the majority from the UK but we also received submissions from the USA, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, India, Egypt, Singapore and France. Continue reading
Judges’ Comments BSSA 2020

Kate Johnson
Continue reading
BSSA 2020 Shortlisted Writers’ bios
Many congratulations to all the writers shortlisted in BSSA 2020. All these marvellous stories will be published in our 2020 BSSA anthology out in November. Read our shortlist judge, Kate Johnson’s comments on the shortlist, on our Judges’ Comments post.

Elizabeth Allen

L M Brown
Winners BSSA 2020
-
Many congratulations to the winners and commended writers in the 2020 BSSA Award. You can read comments on the stories by our shortlist judge Kate Johnson and the BSSA team on our Judges’ Comments post. These brilliant stories will be published in our 2020 BSSA anthology this November.

Marissa Hoffmann
Marissa’s fiction won the Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2019 and her stories have been variously podium-placed or listed in international competitions such as Mslexia, FlashBack Fiction, Fish, Flash Frontier’s Micro Madness and Reflex. Her flash stories have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, BIFFY 50 and Best Micro Fiction and one of her stories appears on the US Wigleaf Top 50 2020 long list. Read more about Marissa on www.marissahoffmann.com. She is currently working on her first novel. You can follow Marissa @Hoffmannwriter.
Shortlist BSSA 2020
Many congratulations to the twenty writers shortlisted in our 2020 Award
Continue reading
Longlist BSSA 2020
Many congratulations to the writers longlisted in our 2020 Award and big thanks to all those from around the world who entered. Everyone included on this list will be sent an email, so please check your inboxes for confirmation that it is your story. We had a large number of entries and sometimes titles are duplicated. You are welcome to share that you are longlisted on social media and elsewhere, but as judging is still in process, we ask you not to link your name with your story. Thank you. The shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 14th July.
2020 Bath Short Story Award Long List | |
---|---|
Title | Author |
A kindness | |
About Face | |
Another Man’s Smile | |
A Twix And A Twingo | |
Backbone | |
Blackbird, Fly | |
Both at Once | |
Brown Bird | |
Candlemas | |
Cowboys and Indian | |
Exterior. Train Station Platform. Night. | |
Faraway | |
Fingerpricks | |
Feathers | |
Going up country | |
Goodbye, Mr Penguin | |
How To Prepare an Orange Correctly | |
Into Your Own Hands | |
Leviathan | |
Little Penguins are the smallest penguin species in the world | |
Lovely Day | |
Mooncalf | |
Not a Lobster Person | |
Not Yet, But Maybe | |
Queen C | |
Quiet | |
Redemption Drive | |
Retired Heads | |
Rice On A Banana Leaf | |
Ripples | |
Running on the Beach | |
Seashell | |
Seven Tiny Perfect Teeth | |
The Blood Shift | |
The Discomfort of Three | |
The Hiccup | The Kind Mercy of His Madness |
The Infinite Universes of Maggie Lavery | |
The Love and Trials of a (not very) good woman | |
The Memory of Dolls | |
The Pencil Drawn Girl | |
The Quiet One | |
The Required Distance | |
The Song Paul Simon Didn’t Write | |
Tomorrow | |
Two Towns | |
Under A Whalebone Roof | |
Upgrade Day | |
Visiting in the Year of the Rabbit | |
Waves | |
What Julie Taylor Was Made Of 1981-1992 | |
Wild Swimming | |