I was very grateful (and shocked) to win the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction for my story ‘Late Velvet’. The prize is run by Comma Press and the University of Central Lancashire, and this year the theme was ‘the unspoken’. The judges were Alison Moore, Joseph Hunter, Robert Duggan, and Jacques Tsiantar.
The shortlisted stories – including those by runners-up Iain Rowan and Laura Theis – will be published in an e-book, which I’m really looking forward to reading.
I didn’t know Dinesh Allirajah, but I know of the amazing work he did in literature and the arts. I’ve been reading the stories in his collected works, too (Scent, Comma Press, 2016). I am honoured to win an award bearing his name.
I dedicated this bit of good fortune to the memory of my late mother-in-law, Ignês – an insightful reader and a generous and brilliant person.