We are overdue a high-profile award for this neglected form, but we need more than a token, niche gong for a single story
The news that the Costa prize is to give an award to the short story came suddenly, and unexpectedly. For those publishers that invest heavily in collections – the wondrous Salt, for example, or Bloomsbury, which has unilaterally declared 2012 the year of the short story – it looked like a godsend. Finally, a level playing field! A real opportunity to show the varied breadth of stories in this country! Publicity at last! Then the details emerged: the prize is to be awarded to a single story and is not eligible for the main prize. The balloons shrivelled, the bunting sagged, the party hats were thrown in the rubbish. Thanks for nothing, Costa.
It is, of course, to be commended that they have taken this decision at all. Yet, we already have two big prizes for individual short stories – the BBC short story prize and the Sunday Times award– and there is only one UK prize dedicated to the short story collection, the Edge Hill short story prize. And while that is a fantastic initiative, it simply doesn't have the reach or the backing (or the money) of the BBC or the Times. This was the opportunity for the Costas to bring stories out into the mainstream; instead they have branded them as little more than a niche concern, nowhere near as important as the big-boy novels, the grown-up biographies, and the sainted poets.
For so many years, British writers have stood in the considerable shade of their US and Irish counterparts. In our mainstream publishing, the vast majority of story collections came from there, or are indulgences afforded only to big-name, home-grown authors. Slowly this has begun to change. The interest generated by the BBC and Sunday Times prizes has seen publishers more willing to take a risk on stories. But this could easily be a quickly snuffed out fad. If the year of the short story doesn't deliver the expected sales, how easy is it going to be to publish new collections in 2013 and 2014?
The answer is that, unless there is a bigger push for readers to consider picking up a collection in the first place, it won't be long before the old maxim "short stories don't sell" is trotted out again. As a literary culture, we will be much the poorer for this. While the internet will allow us to pick up stories on an ad hoc basis, we will miss the gloriously strange feeling of moving from one set of characters to another, miss the piecing together of themes and styles, miss the sheer, breathtaking ability that stories have to surprise, move and affect us in just a matter of pages. A collection of stories is as much a literary endeavour as a novel or collection of poetry, so why not treat it as such?
We need prizes more than ever to remind readers of the power of story collections, their artistic legitimacy and their very great pleasure. It is their prize, and they must do as they see fit, but the Costas here have a real opportunity to make a difference to the literary landscape of this country, rather than coat-tail on what has gone before.
In years to come, the Costa award for best British story collection could help us find our natural heirs to VS Pritchett, JG Ballard and Angela Carter, as well as help foster a sense that stories are vital to our reading lives. It is great that Costa has acknowledged some of this, but they need to go further. Please reconsider, Costa. Please.