Niamh Campbell Wins 2020 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award

Irish author Niamh Campbell was recognized with the 2020 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award with her story Love Many. Campbell is the third Irish writer to win the Award, following in the footsteps of Danielle McLaughlin, who won the Award last year, and Kevin Barry, who won in 2012. This year’s shortlist included fellow Irish author Louise Kennedy, Zambian author Namwali Serpell, Alexia Tolas from the Bahamas, and American authors Shawn Vestal and Daniel O’Malley.

“This is an original and touching modern love story. It has such a lovely quality of sadness, exquisite language, and is told with so much delicacy and precision,” said Judge David Nicholls. “I was frequently taken aback by an image or an observation. Most of all, I loved the melancholy of it, that atmosphere of late nights and missed chances.”

Love Many is set in Campbell’s hometown of Dublin and follows the recollections of a woman who has finally met a man she sees a future with, after dating a host of unsuitable men. Love Many is about a search for intimacy and understanding and about the emotional toll relationships can take. This summer, Campbell published her debut novel, This Happy.

“We were completely seduced as a judging panel by Niamh Campbell's Love Many - immaculately written, haunting, richly imagined and psychologically astute, with phrases that will stay with you,” comments Judge Andrew Holgate. “One of the great joys of the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award is its ability, because of the ‘blind’ reading by judges, to discover remarkable new voices. And Campbell clearly demonstrates with thitory just how remarkable she is, and what a natural short story writer. After the prize's discovery of Sally Rooney, and after Danielle McLaughlin carried off the award last year, Campbell's win just confirms, if confirmation was needed, the striking rise of female Irish voices on the world literary stage.”

This is the second year running that Audible has sponsored the Award. Audible UK will produce an audio anthology of the shortlisted stories, which will be available in the coming months. Last year’s anthology podcast became one of Audible’s best-selling fiction podcasts. Before then, the stories will be available to read on the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award website, www.shortstoryaward.co.uk.