ALCS is also pleased to be the co-sponsor of the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award, which is awarded for a short story by a writer who has had at least one short story accepted for publication. This year’s award was judged by Claire Fuller, Sophie Haydock, Billy Kahora, Ardashir Vakil and Mary Watson.

THE ALCS TOM-GALLON TRUST AWARD WINNER: DM O’CONNOR FOR I TOLD YOU NOT TO FLY SO HIGH AWARDED £1,000

DM O’Connor is an Irish-Canadian. He has an MFA from University College Dublin & University of New Mexico. He is a contributing reviewer for Rhino Poetry and fiction editor at Bending Genres. His work has appeared in Splonk, A New Ulster, Dodging the Rain, The Cormorant, Crannóg Magazine, Opossum, The New Quarterly, the Guardian, the Irish Independent among others.

ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award judge Claire Fuller says: ‘I loved how the voice in this story created the man, making him a flesh and blood person with foibles and issues and irritations. He was absolutely real for me, nothing too unusual, and no big surprises. Even the perfect ending was written in a very beautiful, understated and matter-of-fact way. Completely deserving of first prize.’

THE ALCS TOM-GALLON TRUST AWARD RUNNER-UP: SEAN LUSK FOR THE HOPELESSNESS OF HOPE AWARDED £575

Sean Lusk’s stories have been published in the Bridport Prize, Fish Short Story Anthology, Reflex Fiction, Litro Magazine and The Moth Magazine. He won the Manchester Fiction Prize in 2015. He works as a freelance consultant on strategy and strategic thinking and is author of Rethinking Public Strategy (Palgrave Macmillan).

Find out more about the winners of the other Society of Authors’ Awards prizes here.