A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to be invited by two of our judges, Lucy and Laura from Spread the Word, to the launch of their newest book Upshots and Other Stories, which is the title of the London Short Story Prize 2015 Anthology.
At the launch, many of the authors read extracts from their pieces. All of the readers were wonderful and the creativity and effort put into their stories was evident. One story struck us in a different way, however, due to its refreshingly unique way of formatting the story.
James Woolf’s “R v Sieger: additional documents disclosed by the Crown Prosecution Service” is a story about the mental breakdown of Helen Sieger, told in a typical understated, “keep calm and carry on” British fashion. What set this story apart in our minds was not the story itself (though it was a powerfully funny one in its own right), but that it was told not by the typical first or third person point of view, but through documents (transcribed phone calls, emails, newspaper clippings, etc.).
I think anyone who has taken a creative writing course has had that one classmate (or perhaps you were that classmate) who has tried to be “artsy” by writing their story in an unconventional way. While you can applaud them for trying something new and the creativity of the idea, the novelty is limited if the story behind it isn’t as powerful. What is so wonderful about Woolf’s story is that it is not only genuinely pushing the conventions of form, but it does not do so at the expense of the story. The story took a risk and succeeded beautifully.
The rest of the stories are of course fantastic, so don’t think we are playing favourites. We only highlight “R v Siegar” because this year’s Prize strove hard to allow our writers the freedom of form and to show how stories can be told in different formats, and Woolf’s story is a perfect example of how this freedom can produce something delightfully unconventional.
So thanks again to Lucy and Laura for the invite and congratulations to all the authors in this year’s anthology!
We are still doing some last minute formatting, but if all goes well we will be sending the book to print. Stay tuned for any news and thanks again for your patience!