08 May 2008

Transported Longlisted for 2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award

I've been blogging like crazy this week, but there's good reason for one more post: my short story collection Transported (which you can pre-order online), which will be published by Random House New Zealand in June, is one of four New Zealand short story collections longlisted for the 2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.

The New Zealand collections longlisted are:
  • Transported, Tim Jones (Random House New Zealand)
  • Etiquette for a Dinner Party, Sue Orr (Random House New Zealand)
  • The Girl Who Proposed, Elizabeth Smither (Cape Catley)
  • Ask The Posts Of The House, Witi Ihimaera (Raupo)


The Guardian has the full longlist of 39 books and an article about it.

I'm really pleased about this, but it's important to keep a sense of perspective. It's a longlist - a looooong longlist. The quality of the other New Zealand selections (congratulations to all the authors!) indicates the strength of the field. The shortlist is announced in July, and I don't expect Transported to be on it - but I won't deny that I'll be very pleased if it is!

It's also good to see a prize specifically for short story collections, which are sometimes neglected beasts in the literary zoo.

UPDATE: If you're looking for a review copy of Transported, or other 'official' publicity material about the book, please contact Jennifer Balle, jennifer (at) randomhouse.co.nz

8 comments:

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Loads of good luck, from one of the Brits on the list. Its wonderful to know the short story is so alive and well!

Tim Jones said...

Thanks, and the same to you! Regardless of what happens from here, getting on the longlist has been excellent publicity; and now I know of a lot more short story collections I want to read.

Anonymous said...

Tim - congratulations on the longlisting, fingers crossed for the shortlist. Thanks for stopping by the Short Review blog. If I want a review copy of your collection, who do I contact? You can email me at editor (at) theshortreview.com.

Tania

Kay Cooke said...

Congrats indeed! And you're right, it is great to have an award for short stories. Good luck!

Mary McCallum said...

Bloody hell, Tim, that's great news. I have to say I saw your book on the list and thought 'who?' My apologies, now I know and will order it pronto for the bookshop where I work. Teaching short fiction at the moment I am reinspired by the genre in terms of writing some of my own. Have always loved short fiction to read ... Good luck.

Tim Jones said...

Thanks, chiefbiscuit and Mary. Being longlisted is proving very useful for overcoming the "who?" factor.

Helen Rickerby said...

Tim, that's fantastic! I'm really happy for you. I'm sure this will really help to get you and your work known a bit more widely, and hopefully will help with the sales also. Maybe it might raise the interest of an overseas publisher?

Congratulations!

Harvey Molloy said...

Great news Tim. Well done that Man! You deserve it.