I am thrilled to be able to share that my story, ‘Dancing to the Shipping Forecast‘ has been selected as Second Prize winning story in this year’s Bath Short Story Award. The Bath Award is a fantastic prize that since its founding has celebrated some fantastic short fiction.

The judge this year was Carrie Kania, a literary agent with Conville & Walsh who is a strong supporter of the short story form, so having her select my story for the top three out of 1003 entries is a wonderful thing. Her comments on the shortlist have been published on the site, and she had this to say about my story:

Loss hits hard in this story set against a crashing sea. And in many ways, water becomes as much a character in ‘Dancing to the Shipping Forecast’ as the narrator. What I admired most about this story was the building tension and the aching, specific time stamp of a relationship – reminding us all that every second counts.

Another thing that makes this win particularly special is the fact that my story placed in a top three made of Safia Moore and Angela Readman. Both are superb short story writers and I am looking forward to settling down with a glass of wine this evening and reading their stories. For those of you wanting to do the same, the winner’s bios and stories are available on the Bath Short Story Award website.

A massive thanks to Jane, Jude, and Anna and the Bath Short Story Award team for all their hard work behind the scenes. It is a true honour to see my little story do so well. And a big thank you to my Twitter and Facebook friends for all your kind congratulations.

I’m off now to let the news sink in a bit.