The 2026 shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award (NSSA) with the University of Cambridge has revealed an all-female line-up. Announced on Thursday 10th September, on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, the list includes three writers who have previously made the NSSA, alongside two newcomers, and the writing has been praised for its “variety, insight and understanding”.
Novelist, playwright and Royal Literary Fund fellow, Laura Beatty is shortlisted for the first time for ‘Two Minutes to Midnight’; a story set on a remote coastline, and inspired by philosopher Baptiste Morizot’s book Ways of Being Alive. The story centres a “newly retired doctor” who “meditates on her love for a lost partner and a faraway daughter, and on the slowing of time as she adjusts to no longer working.”
Lucy Caldwell is Belfast-born writer and 2021 BBC NSSA winner, who is shortlisted for a fifth time for ‘Little Lands’. Her latest shortlisted story is taken from her 2026 collection, ‘Devotions’, and was “inspired by her experience of watching The Sound of Music with her daughter for the first time, and remembering watching it as a child with her own mother.”
Caoilinn Hughes is another Irish novelist and previously shortlisted writer. The RLS Encore Award Winner has been shortlisted for the Award for a second year in a row for ‘A Second Opinion’. The story centres “widowed estate agent and rower, Carmel, who finds renewed energy in the most unexpected of places after a beloved daughter-in-law breaks up with her son, and he comes home to live with her.”
Australian writer, Merryn Glover, who grew up in South Asia and has lived in Scotland for thirty year has been shortlist for the first time for ‘Burning Bush’. “The story centres on a ‘vividly memorable’ old man Pete, who, damaged by his past, lives alone in the bush with only the idiosyncratic wildlife around him for company, until an unexpected invitation offers a chance of reconnection with long-lost family. Dressed in a new charity shop outfit and ‘pre-loved’ underwear, Pete waits anxiously for his family to arrive, until disaster strikes and he is forced to act.”
Last but not least, another Australian writer who now lives in Scotland, Cherise Saywell was previously shortlisted for the BBC NSSA in 2023. She has been nominated this year for ‘Ditto‘; a story “set in a small, rural Australian town, the story captures the evening when a young boy, nicknamed Ditto, like his father, is inspired by a moment of connection with a concerned neighbour to finally overcome indecision and stand up for his mother as violence erupts in their home.”
Di Speirs, who has judged the BBC National Short Story Award since its launch, was joined this year on the judging panel by 2022 NSSA winner Saba Sams, and two former NSSA shortlistees, Tahmima Anam (2016) and Will Eaves (2017), alongside Costa Best First Novel Award winner, Andrew Michael Hurley.
Speaking about the shortlisted writers, Speirs said: “The BBC National Short Story Award has come of age. And it’s as vital as ever. In a fractured age, where we confront technological change and an often atomised society, the value of stories that reconnect us can’t be overstated. This year’s five shortlisted stories differ in style, location and approach, but they all penetrate the heart of human relationships, across generations and through friendship. Written with deep attention, we are confident that you will find as much in them to enjoy and to admire as we have.”
Each of the five stories will be broadcast on Radio 4; airing at 3.30pm from Monday 14th to Friday 18th September. To catch up online, head to BBC Sounds following initial broadcast. The stories will also be published in an anthology from Comma Press.
