“All the writers have a praise-worthy handle on prose and they embrace the short story form with imagination and zest. The stories are brilliantly varied, encompassing snapshot events, descriptions of sprawling political movements, and intimate essayistic monologues.”
Lucy Luck and Olivia Bignold from Conville & Walsh Literary Agency, judges, BSSA 2025
Paperback ISBN 978-1-915247-76-6; 133mm x 203mm; 144pp
£10.99 GBP
“The stories in BSSA’s eleventh anthology offer a rich tapestry of experiences and emotions. Each, in its own way, illuminates a strand of existence that deserves to be documented, from the fanciful and frivolous to the painful and profound. From intricate character studies to innovative narrative structures, these stories exemplify the power of the short story form to convey profound insights and evoke new emotions.”
2024 judge, Sophie Haydock, award winning novelist, journalist and short story champion.
Paperback ISBN 978-1-915247-64-3; 133mm x 203mm; 156pp
£10.99 GBP
There are nineteen exceptional stories in our tenth BSSA anthology, all shortlisted in our 2023 Award. Our judge, Farhana Shaikh, founder of Dahlia Publishing, said this about them:
“The writers shortlisted in this year’s Bath Short Story Award have understood this: that each component part must work in harmony, be in service to a story that must entertain… In my selection I have chosen the stories that resonated with me, the ones that having read them for a third or fourth time still surprise me in some way; where I found something beautiful, quiet, raw, that let me forget just for a moment that it was forecast to rain for the whole of next week. So, these are the stories that stuck with me, and didn’t quite let go. I hope you find as much joy in them as I do.”
Paperback ISBN 978-1-915247-52-0; 133mm x 203mm; 168pp
£10.99 GBP
2022 has seen little relief from seismic world events but again we were impressed and delighted by the range and quality of stories submitted to this year’s international competition.
Our ninth BSSA anthology presents the twenty short-listed and prize-winning stories, traversing lifelong friendships, audacious middle-aged women, the perils of house-sitting pets and a yearning for alien intervention. They range from absurd and darkly funny to raw and vulnerable to wise and poetic and showcase just what the short story form is capable of.
‘It speaks to the reputation of the Bath Short Story Prize that the stories had such variety in genre, plot and style with impressive quality and I very much enjoyed reading them.’
2022 Judge, writer Paul McVeigh, author of The Good Son
Paperback ISBN 978-1-915247-30-8; 133mm x 203mm; 196pp
£9.99 GBP
2021 has been marked by lockdowns, loss, love and making connections through glass screens and online platforms. The stories here were born of these times and there is a dark vein running through them but, ‘yet there is great beauty and humour too – the flip side of our human coin. The winners of this year’s Award all demonstrate radical compassion, diverse perspectives, and truly extraordinary voices.’
2021 Judge, Norah Perkins, from literary agency Curtis Brown
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-912095-31-5, 133mm x 203mm, 168 pages.
£9.99 GBP
Political turmoil and a raging pandemic might have marked 2020 as a year to forget but in this anthology you’ll find memorable stories to transport you to different worlds, all celebrating the resilience of human nature.
“I appreciated the variety here, be it in voice, form, mood, setting, or time period. Some stories had a literal magical twist; for others the magic was in conjuring a whole world of emotion and humanity in less than 2,200 words. Every single story exhibited a mastery of the written word, and it was tough to choose.”
~The 2020 Judge, Kate Johnson, MacKenzie Wolf Literary Agency.
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-912095-08-7, 133mm x 203mm, 182 pages.
£9.99 GBP
The twenty distinctive stories in our seventh anthology reveal the secrets, pains and pleasures of being human. Set in different times, cultures and places they reflect universal truths and beg to be read.
‘What struck me most was the inventiveness of the stories, whether in their structure, their voices, or in the wonderful range of vivid imagery. A girl suspended in mid-air, survivors healing through song in a candlelit chapel, two streetlamps leaning into each other, in love, in the twilight. These were images that remained with me long after reading.’
—Samuel Hodder, Blake Friedmann Literary Agency
Paperback; ISBN 978-1-912095-89-6; 196mm x 134mm; 182pp
£9.99 GBP
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The devastating consequences of a wild fire in ‘the bush’. An unreliable narrator who may have been wrongly accused of a crime. The skewed logic of a child in the aftermath of tragedy. Just some of the powerful winning and shortlisted stories that are included in this sixth anthology from Bath Short Story Award.
‘I was taken from the UK to Australia with detours to the Middle East, Japan and North America. And I was plunged into the lives of different characters dealing with a variety of emotions – grief, disappointment, anger and guilt. The writing is of a high standard throughout ans every one of these stories has things to commend them.’
—Euan Thorneycroft, Senior Literary Agent, A M Heath
Paperback; ISBN 978-1-912095-55-1; 196mm x 134mm; 186pp
£9.99 GBP
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