Shortlisted!

Today I received my invitation to the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award Dinner – so I definitely didn’t hallucinate the whole thing.

Booktrust called me a few days ahead of the official shortlist announcement, and I had to keep the news secret again until Sunday. Except this time, I was at work when the call came, and my colleagues knew that I was really hoping that this exact thing would happen. So after speaking to Booktrust outside, I was only able to restrain my glee when I went back in by thinking about limping kittens.

I didn’t find out who my fellow shortlistees were until Sunday morning: Will Cohu, Joe Dunthorne, Petina Gappah, CK Stead and David Vann – a fantastic line-up. I’m not yet sure which of them will be able to make it to the Oxford Literary Festival, but I’m looking forward to meeting them. My favourite thing about festivals is always meeting other writers – when Instruction manual was nominated for the Frank O’Connor prize and I went over to the festival in Cork to read, the feeling of camaraderie between the writers was amazing, and I am still in regular contact with many of them. So I’m hoping Oxford will be the same.

Right after I found out I’d been shortlisted, I discovered an album on my iPod I didn’t even know I had, of Nine Inch Nails remixes. And the track ‘In this twilight’ remixed by Fennesz totally resonated with the sense of elevation I felt. I listened to it about ten times, and this song has now become the anthem of my happiness at this news. I love it when songs imprint themselves on moments in your life like that. I know that in ten years, I’ll be able to put this track on and be transported right back to this moment. And it is a great moment.