This might well be the case, but since Eleanor was in a position to sell a novel too, I will never know. Kevin Barry once said something along the lines that approaching a publisher with a short story collection is akin to dragging a dead cow into their office. Eleanor Birne, my agent, submitted my short stories along with the first three chapters of the novel, which became Trespasses. I did not manage that every day, but most days I did, and within three months I had what could be charitably called a first draft. I sat around for a week watching Netflix, then I made a deal with myself that I would force a draft down, writing 1,000 words a day until it was done. On and off I had been making notes and reading around an idea for a novel, and had accumulated 10,000 words or so. It occurred to me that I could not presume that I would have a long life. Earlier that year I had been diagnosed with melanoma, which required painful surgery and a break from work. At that time I had 20 or so stories, a dozen of which seemed to sit well together – the makings of a collection, I suppose. It is set in the north of Ireland in the 1970s on the night a young woman’s life is changed by a murder she is witness to. In September 2019, I was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for a piece called In Silhouette. I suspect it is due in no small part to a textbook studied by everyone who reached the age of 14 in an Irish school between 19 – Exploring English 1.” Was there pressure on you after publishing your story collection to turn out a novel or was it a natural progression for you? You said: “Irish people get short stories. When she fell in love with writing it helped her to engage differently with the world, and she has gone on to be nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Wasafiri New Writing Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award.You previously told Big Issue North how you stumbled into writing at age 47 and quickly found you were able to write short stories.

Jacqueline Crooks grew up in Southall, part of London’s migrant community, and was immersed in the gang underworld as a young woman. Jacqueline Crooks has smashed it out of the park with her debut novel Fire Rush, earning herself a spot on the 2023 shortlist.įire Rush explores Black womanhood in an underground club on London’s outskirts as she meets a man, Moose, with whom she falls head over heels for.īut their relationship doesn’t last forever and the novel is a telling of passion, anger and transformation. Why not pop all the books in your basket and judge the winner for yourself? Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks

Those that made the cut in 2023 are predominantly British: four of the list are from the UK, alongside one American and one Irish writer.

Trespasses a novel louise kennedy