BBC Young Writers' Award Showcase 2026

Point Blank by Testament

Short Story Writing Tips: "Edit, edit, edit."

Short Story Writing Tips: "Surprise yourself, and let yourself be surprised"

Short Story Writing Tips: "Revisit the stories that have baffled and exhilarated you"

Short Story Writing Tips: "Write something that matters to you"

Katie Thistleton visits Xavarian College for the Student Critics Award

The judges discuss the shortlist on Front Row with Shahidha Bari

What do short stories and poems have in common?

"Writers as judges are really hard on each other."

"It's one of the most rewarding prizes you can go through."

K.J. Orr talks to John Wilson about her story

Lavinia Greenlaw talks to John Wilson about her story

Tahmima Anam talks to John Wilson about her story

Hilary Mantel talks to John Wilson about her story

Author Claire-Louise Bennett talks to John Wilson about her story

Schools participate in the BBC National Short Story Award - Student Choice - from 2015

Jeremy Page discusses Do it Now, Jump the Table

Hilary Mantel discusses The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher

Frances Leviston discusses Broderie Anglaise

Mark Haddon discusses Bunny

Jonathan Buckley discusses Briar Road

"I tell him briefly how the faculty was revealed to me as a young woman, when a relative was in crisis..."

2014 winner Lionel Shriver discusses Kilifi Creek on Front Row

Zadie Smith discusses Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets on Front Row

Francesca Rhydderch discusses The Taxidermist's Daughter on Front Row

Rose Tremain discusses The American Lover on Front Row

Tessa Hadley discusses Bad Dreams on Front Row

'Something had happened, she was sure, while she was asleep.'

'Sure enough, she'd drifted farther from the shore than was probably wise.'

'Her brother accused Miss Adele of turning rightward in her old age.'

'You wouldn't want that room at the top...It's full of my husband's dead creatures...'

'Whatever self she'd had before she met him was invisible to her now.'

"She begins to walk strangely on the tips of her toes, her knees bent, her heels lifted"

Front Row's interview with Lavinia Greenlaw

Front Row's interview with Lionel Shriver

Front Row's interview with Lucy Wood

Front Row's interview with Lisa Blower

Front Row's interview with Sarah Hall

Two Minutes to Midnight by Laura Beatty

A Second Opinion by Caoilinn Hughes

Ditto by Cherise Saywell

Little Lands by Lucy Caldwell

Burning Bush by Merryn Glover

You Cannot Thread a Moving Needle by Colwill Brown

Little Green Man by Edward Hogan

Two Hands by Caoilinn Hughes

Yair by Emily Abdeni-Holman

Rain: a history by Andrew Miller

Ghost Kitchen by Ross Raisin

Nice Dog by Vee Walker

Pieces by Manish Chauhan

The Barber of Erice by Will Boast

Hamlet, a love story by Lucy Caldwell

Churail by Kamila Shamsie

The Storm by Nick Mulgrew

It's Me by K Patrick

Guests by Cherise Saywell

Comorbidities by Naomi Wood

Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water

Green Afternoon by Vanessa Onwuemezi

Flat 19 by Jenn Ashworth

Blue 4Eva by Saba Sams

And the moon descends on the temple that was by Kerry Andrew