SoA Awards 2024: Alexandra Ye wins ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award

The SoA Awards is the UK’s biggest literary prize fund, worth over £140,000, which was shared between 31 writers, poets and illustrators. This year’s ceremony was hosted by SoA Management Committee Chair Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, with a keynote speech from bestselling author Kate Mosse.

Alexandra Ye has won the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award for her short story ‘This Story’, winning a share of £4,500. The award, sponsored by ALCS and the Hawthornden Foundation, is for short stories by writers who have had at least one short story accepted for publication. Edward Hogan won runner-up for his short story ‘Little Green Man’.

Alexandra Ye is an American writer living in Edinburgh, where she studied for a MSc in creative writing. Her short stories have been published in Gutter Magazine, The Offing and Extra Teeth.

This year’s judges were Peter Hobbs, Sophie Haydock, Yan Ge and Brian Chikwava. Judge Peter Hobbs said: “‘This Story’ is a small miracle – perfectly crafted, funny and surprising, with everything in it ringing only of beautifully-observed truth. It’s written with great skill and humanity, and carries the weight and force of its themes effortlessly. I couldn’t have hoped for a better winner.”

Brian Chikwava said: “The runner-up, with its stark realism, is a superb story that, for me, stood out right from the start. Striking and driven by a distinctive narrative zing, it’s one of the stories I most enjoyed reading”.

The late Benjamin Zephaniah is among the other winners for this year’s Awards, winning the Queen’s Knickers Award with illustrator Nila Aye, for their children’s book People Need People (Orchard Books, Hachette Children’s Group). Described by judge Cerrie Burnell as ‘moving, humorous and lovely all at once’, the picture book in verse wins the Queen’s Knickers Award for an outstanding children’s original illustrated book for ages 0-7.

The winners in full

The ADCI Literary Prize – Lorraine Wilson for Mother Sea

ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award – Alexandra Ye for ‘This Story’

Betty Trask Prize – : Tom Crewe for The New Life

Cholmondeley Awards – Fiona Benson, Gerry Cambridge, Julia Copus, Leontia Flynn, Helen Ivory and Roger Robinson

Eric Gregory Awards – Will Barnard, Maia Elsner, William Gee, Yanita Georgieva, Nathaniel King and Francis-Xavier Mukiibi

Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize – Soula Emmanuel for Wild Geese

McKitterick Prize – Wenyan Lu for The Funeral Cryer

Paul Torday Memorial Prize – Jacqueline Crooks for Fire Rush

Queen’s Knickers Award – Benjamin Zephaniah and Nila Aye for People Need People

Somerset Maugham Awards – Iona Lee, Cecile Pin, Phoenicia Rogerson, Momtaza Mehri and Katherine Pangonis

Travelling Scholarships – Hannah Lowe, Zoë Skoulding, Peter Kalu, Liz Hoggard, Katya Balen and James Byrne