Award-winning novelists and new voices shortlisted for world’s most valuable short story prize

Six writers are shortlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011, announced today, Sunday, March 13.

A former City para-legal and new literary voice Roshi Fernando, prolific short story writer Yiyun Li, American author Anthony Doerr and non-fiction writer Will Cohu, who was shortlisted for this prize last year, vie for the £30K prize against Man Booker Prize-winning novelist Hilary Mantel,(pic left), and Man Booker Prize 2004 shortlisted author Gerard Woodward.

The stories include tales of lost innocence, relationships and childhood adventures, as well as the experience of immigrants in London, a German soldier returning home after World War II, and a young man struggling to support himself.

The shortlisted writers and the title of their stories are:

• Will Cohu – East West – West Coast

• Anthony Doerr – The Deep

• Roshi Fernando – The Fluorescent Jacket

• Yiyun Li – The Science of Flight

• Hilary Mantel – Comma

• Gerard Woodward – The Family Whistle


The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, launched last year, is an annual literary prize which builds on the success of an innovative short-fiction slot in The Sunday Times Magazine introduced by the deputy editor, Cathy Galvin.

The judges are author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, journalist and author Daisy Waugh, writer and journalist Will Self, Booker Prize-winning novelist and poet AS Byatt, and Andrew Holgate, literary editor of The Sunday Times. The non-voting chair of Judges is Matthew Evans, Chairman of EFG Private Bank and former chairman of Faber & Faber.

The winner will be announced at an awards dinner at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on Friday, April 8. The award is managed by Booktrust.

Listen to judges Melvyn Bragg and Will Self discuss what makes a good short story on the prize’s stand alone webpage: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/shortstoryaward

• The longlist was previously announced on Sunday February 20. The 20 long-listed writers were:

- Fabian Acker – Nirvana
- Kevin Barry – Fjord of Killary
- Meira Chand – The Pilgrimage
- Will Cohu – East West – West Coast
- Anthony Doerr – The Deep
- Michel Faber – In the Woods with a Dead Dog
- Roshi Fernando – The Fluorescent Jacket
- Tibor Fischer – Possibly Forty Ships
- Xiaolu Guo – Life by Accident
- Sarah Hall – Vuotjarvi
- Tobias Hill – Not that it Matters
- Susan Hill – Crystal
- Yiyun Li – The Science of Flight
- Hilary Mantel – Comma
- David Miller – Fuck Being Happy
- Robert Shearman – History Becomes You
- Erin Soros – BC Almanac
- Louise Stern – Black and White Dog
- Gerard Woodward – The Family Whistle
- Clare Wigfall – Professor Arvind

• The winner of The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award will be announced at an awards dinner during The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, on Friday, April 8. The shortlisted writers will each receive a cheque for £500.