Newcastle Short Story Award 2017

I wanted to know. Why are its eyes open if hes asleep? Because hes sleeping much deeper than the eyes-closed kind of sleep. He ran his thumb over its eye. This is how you tell how deep hes under. Count how long until he blinks.From The Blink Response by Alison KellyWinner 2017 Newcastle Short Story AwardOne of the pleasures of judging this years competition has been listening to a vast rangeddd of those voices even if it came with a more complicated pleasure: how to measure them against each other the perennial problem of apples and oranges . . . There were good stories that didnt make the anthology cut: there were terrific stories that didnt make the prize list. However we hope that the stories collected here will all astound in different ways and that there are stories for all tastes and temperaments.Peter Goldsworthy & Maria Takolander Judges 2017