National Short Story Awards Shortlist announced!
The shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Awards with the University of Cambridge was announced on Thursday 10 September 2026, on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. The all-female shortlist includes three writers who have been shortlisted for the BBC NSSA before, and two newcomers, in a list praised for its variety, insight and understanding. Set in locations across the globe, from the Australian bush to Galway Bay, the ‘tender’ and ‘vivid’ stories explore the value of human connection ‘across generations and through friendship’ in a fractured world.
The BBC National Short Story Award with the University of Cambridge 2026 shortlist is:
• ‘Two Minutes to Midnight’ by Laura Beatty
• ‘Little Lands’ by Lucy Caldwell
• ‘Burning Bush’ by Merryn Glover
• ‘A Second Opinion’ by Caoilinn Hughes
• ‘Ditto’ by Cherise Saywell
Marking the award’s 21st anniversary, Di Speirs, who has judged the BBC National Short Story Award since its launch, is joined on the judging panel by 2022 NSSA winner Saba Sams and two former NSSA shortlistees, Tahmima Anam (2016) and Will Eaves (2017), and Costa Best First Novel Award winner, Andrew Micheal Hurley.
Speirs says:
"The BBC National Short Story Award has come of age. And it’s as vital as ever. In a fractured age, where we confront technological change and an often atomised society, the value of stories that reconnect us can’t be overstated. This year's five shortlisted stories differ in style, location and approach, but they all penetrate the heart of human relationships, across generations and through friendship. Written with deep attention, we are confident that you will find as much in them to enjoy and to admire as we have."
Each of the five stories will be broadcast on Radio 4, with airing at 3.30pm from Monday 14 to Friday 18 September. Go to BBC Sounds after each broadcast to catch up online.
Meet the shortlist
Laura Beatty
Novelist, playwright and RLF Fellow, Laura Beatty is shortlisted for ‘Two Minutes to Midnight’, a ‘powerful’ story inspired by philosopher Baptiste Morizot’s groundbreaking book Ways of Being Alive, and set on a remote coastline, where a newly retired doctor meditates on her love for a lost partner and a faraway daughter, and on the slowing of time as she adjusts to no longer working. Reflecting on female anger, how we co-exist with nature – from orcas to slow worms – and what matters in a life, the narrator tries to make sense of herself as she enters her final years, in this ‘original’ and ‘experimental’ story that ‘lingers long in the mind.’
Lucy Caldwell
Belfast-born writer and 2021 BBC NSSA winner Lucy Caldwell is shortlisted for the Award for a fifth time for ‘Little Lands’, a story taken from her 2026 collection, ‘Devotions.’ This ‘beautifully crafted’ and ‘moving’ story was inspired by Caldwell’s experience of watching The Sound of Music with her daughter for the first time and remembering watching it as a child with her own mother. The story explores how memories overlay and co-exist and what is passed down from one generation to the next, through a dissection of the film’s famous Laendler dance scene when Maria and Captain von Trapp realise they are in love. Intimate in tone and experimental in form, the story ‘sits close to essay or autofiction’ and is a meditation on the power of human love.
Caoilinn Hughes
Irish novelist, short story writer and RLS Encore Award Winner Caoilinn Hughes has been shortlisted for the Award for a second year in a row. Her story ‘A Second Opinion’ centres on widowed estate agent and rower, Carmel, who finds renewed energy in the most unexpected of places after a beloved daughter-in-law breaks up with her son, and he comes home to live with her. This ‘beautifully written’ and 'playful' story set in Galway explores contemporary themes of female ambition, familial expectation, the complexity of friendship and the isolation of middle age with dry humour and poignancy.
Merryn Glover
Merryn Glover, an Australian writer who grew up in South Asia and has lived in Scotland for thirty years, has been shortlisted for ‘Burning Bush.’ The story centres on a ‘vividly memorable’ old man Pete, who, damaged by his past, lives alone in the bush with only the idiosyncratic wildlife around him for company, until an unexpected invitation offers a chance of reconnection with long-lost family. Dressed in a new charity shop outfit and ‘pre-loved’ underwear, Pete waits anxiously for his family to arrive, until disaster strikes and he is forced to act. Writing the story provided a ‘pathway’ for Merryn Glover to reconnect with her native Australia – the land, wildlife, people and culture – and her sense of being Australian. Exploring trauma, loneliness and redemption, this ‘compelling’ story was praised by the judges for its ability to ‘hint at so much while telling so little.’
Cherise Saywell
Another Australian writer who now lives in Scotland, Cherise Saywell was previously shortlisted for the BBC NSSA in 2023 and has been nominated this year for ‘Ditto'. Set in a small, rural Australian town, the story captures the evening when a young boy, nicknamed Ditto, like his father, is inspired by a moment of connection with a concerned neighbour to finally overcome indecision and stand up for his mother as violence erupts in their home. This ‘exquisitely crafted’ story explores themes of masculinity, domestic abuse and its effect on children who are too young to articulate what they are experiencing with ‘empathy’ and ‘tension.’ Despite dark themes, the story, at its heart, is one of ‘hope and salvation.’
