More exciting news for our 2017 winner, Dima Alzayat, has been announced. Her debut short story collection, Alligator and Other Stories, will be published by prestigious publisher Picador Books in 2020.

Dima was signed by literary agent, Juliet Pickering after Juliet first saw Dima’s work when judging the 2017 Bristol Short Story Prize. Juliet has now subsequently sold UK and Commonwealth rights for Dima’s first story collection to Picador editor Ansa Khan Khattak.

Quoted on The Bookseller magazine’s website, Khattak said: “There is so much in Alligator: stories that explore family and inheritance, identity and gender, but also such emotional depth and flashes of humour. The stories are wonderful and entertaining in and of themselves, but also explore subtly and brilliantly questions around immigration and the difficulties of grafting one identity onto another. Dima’s ability to inhabit so many different voices make me convinced that this is the start of a brilliant career.”

Born in Syria and raised in California, Dima is a Creative Writing PhD student and associate lecturer at Lancaster University.

We can’t wait to read Dima’s collection and wish her continued success with her writing.

Dima Alzayat won the 2017 Bristol Short Story Prize for her powerful and moving story, Ghusl. It is published in our 10th anthology and available from Tangent Books https://www.tangentbooks.co.uk/bristol-short-story-prize/bristol-short-story-prize-volume-10.html