Buckley wins £15,000 BBC National Short Story Award

In the UK, novelist Jonathan Buckley has won the £15,000 ($A31,890) BBC National Short Story Award for his story ‘Briar Road’. Mark Haddon was named the runner-up and received £3000 ($A6380) for his story ‘Bunny’. Fellow shortlisted authors Frances Leviston, Hilary Mantel and Jeremy Page each received £500 (A$1063). Judge chair Allan Little said Buckley’s story is ‘a quiet intriguing mystery and focuses on a single moment in the life of one family who have turned to a spiritualist after their teenage daughter has disappeared. It is a haunting evocation of the tensions between family members at a moment of unbearable loss borne, the outward calm masking the turmoil into which the family has been swept’. Buckley is the author of nine novels, most recently The River is the River (Sort of Books).

Category: International news