Richest Short-Story Prize

London, Sept 13 - The Sunday Times today announced support to a new literary prize worth 25,000 pounds - the biggest prize money for a short story in Britain and Ireland.

The contest is open to authors who have already had their
work published in Britain and Ireland, and is intended to
attract well-published as well as relatively unknown stories.
Entrants to the contest will have to write a story of
maximum 7,000 words.Besides the winning prize of 25,000
pounds, there will be five other prizes of 500 pounds each for
the runners-up.

The first winner of the award will be announced next
March at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival.
The award follows the success of a regular short-story
slot in The Sunday Times Magazine in which authors like Julian
Barnes, Zoe Heller and Hilary Mantel, who is favourite to win
this year's Man Booker prize with her novel 'Wolf Hall',
contributed. Writers like Alexei Sayle and Julie Burchill too
penned stories for the magazine.

Our weekly short story has been a great success,
attracting some of the most talented names, said John
Witherow, editor of The Sunday Times.

Authors who have recently penned volumes of short stories
include India's Arvind Adiga, who won the Man Booker prize
last year for his novel 'The White Tiger'.Other well-known
writers such as Alice Munro and Helen Simpson also have an
expertise in the genre.

John Updike's last book, published just after his death
earlier this year, was also a volume of short stories.