Shortlist announced for V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize 2025

This is the second year running that the award will be presented as part of the ALCS Annual Awards. The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday 20 February. 

The V.S. Pritchett was founded by the Royal Society of Literature in 1999 to commemorate the centenary of the renowned 20th century author. The winner will receive £1,000 and their entry will be published in Prospect magazine online and the RSL Review. Last year, the award was won by Tom Vowler for his short story Voyagers.  

Stories are judged anonymously by a panel of writers. This year’s judges are Tash Aw, Tania Hershman and Fiona Mozley. 

The Shortlist

Christian Brinsden – ‘Delivery’

“I was so taken with this story not just for the wonderful premise and the way the plot unfolded but because the main character quietly but insistently wormed her way into my head and I had to find out what she would do next” – Tania Hershman

Christian Brinsden started writing stories at an early age but has only recently begun sharing her work more widely. After a brief detour down a different fictional path with an MA in Screenwriting, Christian has returned to prose; specifically short stories. This is her first time on a shortlist.

Lisa Blower – ‘Blessing in Burslem’

“The voice of the main character of this story burst off the page from the opening words and it was utterly impossible not to be drawn in” – Tania Hershman

Lisa Blower is an award-winning writer often paying homage to The Potteries where she grew up. She’s the author of two novels, Sitting Ducks (Fair Acre Press, 2016) – shortlisted for The People’s Book Prize and The Guardian’s Not the Booker – and Pondweed (Myriad Editions, 2020). Her collection of short stories It’s Gone Dark over Bill’s Mother’s (Myriad Editions, 2019) won the Arnold Bennett Prize and features shortlisted stories for the BBC, Bridport and the Sunday Times Short Story Awards. She contributed to Common People (ed. Kit De Waal, Unbound, 2019), and was a columnist for The New Issue during 2020. Her play ‘The Miner Birds’ commemorating 40years of the North Staffs Miners’ Wives Action Group debuted at The New Vic, July 2024 and will be rerun in 2025. She holds a PhD in Creative & Critical Writing from Bangor University and lectures in Creative Writing at Keele University where she continues to champion short fiction and regional voices.

Funmi Fetto – ‘Unspoken’

“This engaging and surprising story explores family conflict, the demi-monde, and the startling secrets that lie beneath a seemingly-respectable surface”

Funmi Fetto, a London-based journalist and editor, is currently the Style Editor at British Vogue. As a digital and print journalist, Funmi’s work largely intersects across art, beauty, culture, race and identity. She has worked and written for numerous publications including Vanity Fair, InStyle, Sunday Times Style, FT, Guardian, Telegraph, Tatler, Glamour, the Observer – where she writes a weekly column – and is the author of the bestselling book Palette: The Beauty Bible for Women of Colour. The V S Pritchett Prize shortlisted story Unspoken is included in her debut short story collection, Hail Mary, published by Oneworld in April.

Edward Hogan – ‘Becky and the Rockettes’

“‘The form creates an effect that is at once distancing and immersive, playing with ideas of objectification and solidarity. It is a very impressive story” – Fiona Mozley

Edward Hogan is from Derby. He has worked in libraries and colleges, and he is now a lecturer at the Open University. His novels include The Electric, and Blackmoor. Ed’s story ‘Single Sit’ won the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize in 2021. He lives in Brighton.

Gráinne Murphy – ‘Good Woman Yourself’

“A wry, perceptive and forceful story about motherhood and the expectations placed on women—its protagonist is unforgettable in her rebellious and often hilarious reactions to the world around her” – Tash Aw

Gráinne is a West Cork-based novelist and short-story writer. Her story, What Can You Say, was longlisted for the RSL V.S. Pritchett Story Prize in 2024 and published in Southword 47. Further West was longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award in 2021. Other stories have been published in Cork Stories, Cork Words 3, The Holly Bough and Fish Anthology. Time Immemorial, on grief and the quiet power of country graveyards, was published by The Milk House in April 2021 and nominated for that year’s Pushcart Prize. Gráinne has published four novels with Legend Press, including Greener (2024) and Winter People (2022).

Rebecca Trick-Walker – ‘Hawthorn’

“A beautifully rendered story, seemingly placid on the surface but full of longing, regret and contemplations on the passing of time” – Tash Aw

Rebecca Trick-Walker is a writer from Pembrokeshire.  A number of her plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and she has also had short stories published in literary magazines and anthologies including Mslexia.  Her first novel was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award.