This Train is For by Bernie McGill wins the 2023 Edge Hill Short Story Prize

This year’s winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize is Bernie McGill with her short story collection This Train is For, proudly published by No Alibis Press.

Now in its 17th year, The Edge Hill Prize stands as the sole annual UK-based award honouring excellence in single-authored short story collections, offering a coveted first prize of £10,000.

Bernie McGill, acclaimed author of two novels, The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House, as well as two collections of short stories, Sleepwalkers and the award-winning This Train is For (No Alibis Press), captivates readers with her unique storytelling prowess.

The esteemed judging panel for this year's prize, comprised of last year's winner Saba Sams, Lucy Luck from C&W Agency and acclaimed short story writer and Edge Hill creative writing lecturer Andrea Ashworth, faced the challenging task of selecting a winner from an array of outstanding entries.

The winner was announced during a ceremony hosted at the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury, where Bernie McGill graciously accepted her award: “It’s such an honour to have won the Edge Hill Prize. I’ve been reading the winning collections for years. I’m a huge fan of the short story, as both a reader and as a writer."

Naomi Booth was also celebrated for clinching the £1,000 Reader’s Choice Award for her exceptional collection, Animals at Night (Dead Ink Books), while Will Clark, a student on the Edge Hill MA in Creative Writing, was recognized for the best short story submitted by a student.

The shortlist featured five outstanding collections:

• Total by Rebecca Miller (Canongate)
• Love in the Time of Chaos by Rosemary Jenkinson (Arlen House)
• Cat Brushing & Other Stories by Jane Campbell (Riverrun)
• Animals at Night by Naomi Booth (Dead Ink Books)
• This Train is For by Bernie McGill (No Alibis Press)

Since its inception in 2006, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize has attracted submissions from both emerging talents and established writers, with Professor of short fiction Ailsa Cox founding the award to spotlight the craftsmanship of short-story writing and celebrate the rich tapestry of published collections available.

Previous recipients of the award include luminaries such as Sarah Hall, David Szalay, Tessa Hadley and Kevin Barry, further cementing the prize's status as a beacon of literary excellence.

Big congratulations to our Bernie!