We’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who entered this year’s Bristol Short Story Prize; we feel so grateful to have had the chance to read your stories. A big thank you, also, to our readers for the care and commitment they have shown in reading this year’s entries.
It’s a huge pleasure to announce this year’s BSSP longlist selected from the 2,160 stories we received. These are the 40 stories in the running for this year’s shortlist, anthology publication and top 3 prizes. Congratulations to the writers of these stories – it’s a great achievement. Our judging panel are still deliberating over their final decisions, so the longlist is titles only at this stage.
This year’s shortlist will be announced on this website on July 26th at 2pm (BST).
2023 Bristol Short Story Prize Longlist
A Familiar Mammal of Her Own Making
A Study in Evolution
Change the World
Child of Crime
Chinna Katha
Cold Blood
Compline
Death by Qorma
Fatberg, Thin Ice
Finishing Touches
Go and Get Your Straw Wherever You Can Find It…
God is Gone from This World
He Didn’t Come Here to Eat
Inhale and Exhale to Extract Apologies
Looking for a Way Out
Lucky Strike
Monopoly
Mr Silk Never Made It to the Library
My Father’s Return
Not the Same People Anymore
Oak & Bramble
Orionis
Parasite
Ráiméis
Rebellions
Stood
The Apricot Seller, the Biker and the Monk
The Basement
The Blanket
The Martyr’s Brother
The Photo
The Taxidermist’s Wedding
The Voice of a Man at the Edge of a Photo
Thicker than Water
Things to do on the Eve of Your Killing
Tongue
Untethered
War Work
When the Fields Emptied
You, the Listener on a Heavenly Trip
Notable Contenders (these stories were in the running for the longlist until the final decisions were made)
Emails from an Abandoned Coast
My Brother’s Tuxedos
Obsessed with Murder
Our Father
Painter’s Bridge
Veal
