Happy publication day to Dima Alzayat, winner of the 2017 Bristol Short Story Prize, whose debut short story collection Alligator and Other Stories is published today by prestigious UK publisher, Picador. The collection will also be published by Two Dollar Radio in the US tomorrow.

The book, which features Dima’s BSSP winning story Ghusl, has already been receiving great reviews and recommendations. Irenosen Okojie says: “These charged, visceral stories get under the skin and stay there. This collection heralds the arrival of an electrifying new voice”, while Sharlene Teo comments: “Tremendously assured, wise-cracking and elegiac . . . [A] wonderful collection that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt caught between cultures, places and the interstices of memory and the loaded everyday”.

Dima is represented by literary agent, Juliet Pickering at the Blake Friedmann agency. Juliet signed Dima after judging our 2017 competition, and said shortly after signing her: “Dima is so skilled at balancing the subtle pathos of everyday events with something that runs much deeper. The voices of her characters are recognisable, but yet come from a place we have yet to really uncover and explore in fiction – a reflection on Dima’s own Syrian-American background, which offers a perspective that was new to me.  I’m always keen to find fresh, talented and largely-unheard voices, and Dima’s is definitely one of those.”

Huge congratulations to Dima; we wish her great success with the book and are sure this will be the first of many more publications.

Dima’s 2017 winning story, Ghusl, was first published in our 10th anthology, published by Tangent books.