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Paterson Joseph reads Nice Dog by Vee Walker, which is one the of five stories shortlsited for this year's Â鶹Éç National Short Story Award with Cambridge University.

Vee Walker’s novel, Major Tom’s War, was shortlisted for the inaugural Society for Army Historical Research (SAHR) Military Fiction Awards 2019 and her short story Cinder Toffee, won the Hugh Miller Writing Competition Fiction Prize in 2020. Her fictional young adult novella The Tale of Eppy Hogg, was shortlisted for The Kelpies Prize 2023. She has pursued a career in museums and heritage, working initially for the Imperial War Museum onboard HMS Belfast and then for the National Trust.

The Â鶹Éç National Short Story Award is one of the most prestigious for a single short story, with the winning author receiving £15,000, and four further shortlisted authors £600 each. The 2023 winner of the Â鶹Éç National Short Story Award was Naomi Wood who won for ‘Comorbidities’, a story examining the difficulty of maintaining love and intimacy in a marriage, from her debut collection, This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (Orion). The 2024 winner will be announced live on Â鶹Éç Radio 4’s Front Row on Tuesday 1 October 2024.

All of the stories are available on Â鶹Éç Sounds where you can also download the Â鶹Éç National Short Story Award podcast which includes a Front Row interview with each of the five shortlisted writers.

Abridged and produced by Justine Willett