The Scattering by Jaki McCarrick has been shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Jaki’s story The Visit has already won the Wasafari prize for new fiction.
Joining Jaki on the £5000 prize shortlist is fellow Welsh publisher Parthian’s Rachel Trezise as well as David Rose, Bernie McGill and John Burnside. The 2014 judging panel includes Kevin Barry, winner of the 2013 Edge Hill Prize, Carys Bray, winner of the inaugural Edge Hill MA Prize in 2010 and Katie Allen, editor of welovethisbook.com.
The winners will be announced on 3rd July, at an awards ceremony at Free Word Centre in London.
Set on the Irish Border, The Scattering explores states of liminality: life on the Irish border, dual identities, emigration, being between states – certainty and doubt, codependency and freedom. Some explore themes of catastrophe and constraint. All explore what it means to be alive in a fraught and ever-changing world.
Best of luck Jaki!

We have Hay fever! And not the runny nose, red eyed kind! May can only mean one thing: the annual Hay literature festival.  The 2014 festival promises to be a scorcher, with a plethora of Seren authors discussing their fantastic books.
 Sat 24th May: Emma Healey and Tiffany Murray – Fictions Memory
Tiffany Murray and Emma Healey talk about the disturbance of the past in Fictions Memory. Tiffany’s chilling new novel, Sugar Hall, sees Lilia Sugar and her children uncover a past hidden deep within the red gardens of Sugar Hall. Based on the stories of the slave boy that haunt Littledean Hall in the Forest of Dean, this is a truly spooky tale.
10 AM GOOD ENERGY STAGE £5
 Tues 27th May: Tishani Doshi, Owen Sheers and Fflur Dafydd The Women in the Mabinogion
Doshi, Sheers and Dafydd talk about the leading ladies in their Mabinogion re-tellings.
5.30 PM GOOD ENERGY STAGE £5
 Wednesday 28th  May:  Shani Rhys James, Carol Ann Duffy, Gillian Clarke and Francesca Rhydderch – Florilingua
A celebration of art and poetry. Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke read work that responds to the characteristic wild wallpapers and menacing chandeliers of Rhys James’ new touring exhibition of paintings.
8.30PM STARLIGHT STAGE £7
 Saturday 31st May Jim Saunders Hay: Landscape, Literature and the Town of Books
Jim Saunders has lived and worked for 25 years in the border country around Hay. In this, his third book, he homes in on the town itself, along with the landscapes, literature and people of this most beautiful part of Britain.
9AM OXFAM MOOT £6
 Sunday 1st June  Matthew Francis and Rhian Elizabeth – Deeply Unreliable Narrators
Rhian Elizabeth and Matthew Francis talk unreliable narrators. In her debut novel, Six Pounds Eight Ounces, Rhian opens up Hannah King’s diary on to her crazy world of glitter and galmrock, candyfloss and serial killers, but beware, not all of Hannah’s stories are strictly true…
4PM THE CUBE £5
 
In addition, Patrick McGuinness, Cynan Jones, Peter Finch,  Horatio Clare, Rhian Edwards and Damian Walford-Davies will all be at this years festival.
 
To see the full program or to book tickets visit www.hayfestival.com