Though we concentrate on the novel on our creative writing courses in London and online, we’re equally passionate about short stories. Our Autumn 2011 student group – including published authors Tim Glencross, Kate Hamer, James Hannah and Annabelle Thorpe – brought out their own short-story collection The Book of Unwritten Rules last year. And now we’ve just heard that another former student – Tamsin Hopkins (above), who studied on our Autumn 2015 Six-Month Novel-Writing Course – has been longlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection Shore to Shore.

Tamsin has some stiff competition for the prize – established authors such as Mark Haddon, Philip Hensher, Susan Hill, Penelope Lively and David Lodge are all also on the list – but it’s fantastic to see a former student in such illustrious company. The Edge Hill Prize is awarded annually by Edge Hill University for excellence in a published single author short story collection. The winner of the 2017 prize will receive £10,000, along with a specially commissioned artwork. And there’s also a £1,000 Readers’ Prize, which is awarded by creative writing students at the university. Previous winners of the prize have included Colm Tóibín, Claire Keegan, Chris Beckett, Jeremy Dyson, Graham Mort, Sarah Hall, John Burnside, Kirsty Gunn, and Jessie Greengrass, who won the 2016 prize for An Account of The Decline of the Great Auk According to One Who Saw It.  

The final shortlist will be announced on 30 June, and the prize will be awarded at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August.

To buy a copy of Shore to Shore by Tamsin Hopkins, please click here.

For more information or to apply for a Curtis Brown Creative novel-writing course, please click here.