An annual award for a short story, financed by a bequest made by Miss Nellie Tom-Gallon in memory of her brother and generously supported by ALCS and Hawthornden Literary Retreat. The winner will receive £2,000, the runner-up £1,000, and £500 is awarded to each of the shortlist (up to four authors).
The ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award is closed for submissions.
The 2024 ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award winner
Alexandra Ye for ‘This Story’
The 2024 ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award runner-up
Edward Hogan for ‘Little Green Man’
Hussani Abdulrahim for ‘Arewa Boys’
Trahearne Falvey for ‘The Staring Contest’
Naomi Wood for ‘A/A/A/A/’
“I think we’re all immensely proud of the range and quality of our shortlist. It was a long and hard-fought process working our way down to these five outstanding examples of the form, which showcase the ways the short story can distil and contain whole lives and worlds.”
— Peter Hobbs, 2024 ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award judge
With thanks, the judges of the 2024 ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award:
Brian Chikwava
Brian Chikwava is the author of Harare North. He’s a past winner of the Caine Prize for African Short Fiction. His work has appeared in short story anthologies published by Picador, Granta, Weaver Press, Jacana, and Umuzi; it has also been aired on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and BBC World Service. Brian has previously held fellowships at Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (South Africa), the University of East Anglia (Charles Pick Fellowship), the Santa Maddalena Foundation (Italy), Maison Dora Maar (France), Civitella Ranieri Foundation (Italy) and Margurite Yourcenar Villa (France). His novel, Shamiso, will be published by Canongate in 2024.
Yan Ge
Yan Ge was born in Sichuan, China in 1984. She is a fiction writer in both Chinese and English, and is the author of thirteen books in Chinese, including five novels. She has received numerous awards and was named by People’s Literature magazine as one of twenty future literature masters in China. Her work has been translated into eleven languages, including English, French and German. The latest English translation of her novel, Strange Beasts of China, was one of the New York Times Notable Books of 2021. Yan’s English writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Irish Times, TLS, Granta, the Stinging Fly and elsewhere. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where she was the recipient of the UEA International Award 2018/19. Her English language debut short story collection Elsewhere was published by Faber in the UK and Scribner in the USA in summer 2023. Yan lives in Norwich with her husband and son.
Sophie Haydock
Sophie Haydock is an award-winning author living in east London. The Flames is her debut novel – for which she won the Impress Prize for New Writers. Sophie trained as a journalist at City University, London, and has worked at the Sunday Times Magazine, Tatler and BBC Three, as well as freelancing for publications including the Financial Times, Guardian Weekend magazine, and organisations such as the Arts Council, Royal Academy and Sotheby’s. Passionate about short stories, Sophie also works for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and is associate director of the Word Factory literary organisation. Her Instagram account, dedicated to the women who posed for Egon Schiele, has a community of over 100,000 followers. Read more about Sophie on her website here.
Peter Hobbs
Peter Hobbs is the author of two novels, The Short Day Dying and In The Orchard, The Swallows, as well as a collection of short stories, “I Could Ride All Day in My Cool Blue Train.” He is also the co-editor of Sex & Death, an anthology of short stories. His work has won a Betty Trask Award, and been shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the John Lewellyn Rhys Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award. He has been a judge for numerous literary prizes, including the BBC National Short Story Award, and is a writer-in-residence for the schools literacy charity, First Story.
2023
- Winner: Ciarán Folan for ‘A Day’
- Runner-up: Karen Stevens for ‘Among the Crows’
- Shortlist:
- Joe Bedford for ‘The Christening’
- Kerry Hood for ‘The Sunbathers’
- Niamh Mac Cabe for ‘Sky an Iris’
- Lishani Ramanayake for ‘Amba Yahulowo’
2022
- Winner: Kanya D’Almeida for “I Cleaned The __”
- Runner-up: Dean Gessie for “Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump”
- Shortlist:
- Sheila Armstrong for ‘Red Market’
- David Frankel for ‘The Memory System’
- Ben Tufnell for ‘Last Days’
- Roland Watson-Grant for ‘The Disappearance of Mumma Dell’
2021
- Winner: DM O’Connor for I Told You not to Fly so High
- Runner-up: Sean Lusk for The Hopelessness of Hope
- Shortlist:
- Maeve O’Lynn for Eventually Meeeting the Sky Somewhere
- Anne Aylor for The House of Wild Beasts
- Alison Littlewood for Swanskin
- Dafydd Mills Daniel for What the Deal is
2020
- Winner: Wendy Riley for Eva at the End of the World
- Runner-up: Diana Powell for Whale Watching
- Shortlist
- Ani Kayode Somotchukwu for The Bird that Fluttered Free
- Lynda Clark for Ghillie’s Mum
- Carol Farrelly for High Water
- Catriona Ward for The Pier at Ardentinny
2019
- Winner: Dima Alzayat for Once We Were Syrians
- Runner-up: Bunmi Ogunsiji for Blessing
- Shortlist
- Niall Bourke for Gerardo Dreams of Chillies
- Claire Fuller for Tiny and Pointed
- Bruce Meyer for The Kids
2018
- Winner: Chris Connolly for The Speed of Light and How It Cannot Help Us
- Runner-up: Benjamin Myers for A Thousand Acres of English Soil
- Shortlist
- Kirsty Logan for My Body Cannot Forget Your Body
- Valerie O’Riordan for Livestock
- Gabi Reigh for It Was a Very Good Year
- Jacky Taylor for A Brief Period of Rejoicing.
2017
- Winner: Frances Thimann for Shells
- Runner-up: Becky Tipper for The Rabbit
2016
- Winner: Claire Harman for Otherwise Engaged
- Runner-up: Jessie Greengrass for Dolphin
2015
- Winner: Maria C. McCarthy for More Katharine Than Audrey
- Runner-up: Caroline Price for Vin Rouge
2014
- Winner: Benjamin Myers for The Folk Song Singer
- Runner-up: Claire Harman for Poor Magigie Kirkpatrick
2013
- Winner: Samuel Wright for Best Friend
- Runner-up: Lucy Wood for Wisht
2011
- Winner: Emma Timpany for The Pledge
- Runner-up: Miriam Burke for A Splash of Words
2010
- Winner: Carys Davies for The Quiet
- Joint runners-up: Susannah Rickards for The Paperback Macbeth and Simon van Booy for Little Birds
2009
- Winner: Rosemary Mairs for My Father’s Hands
- Specially commended: Huw Lawrencefor Keeping On
2008
- Winner: Alison MacLeod for Dirty Weekend
2007
- Winner: Claire Keegan for The Parting Gift
2006
- Winner: Bethan Roberts for An Elephant in the Thames
2005
- Winner: Colette Paul for O Tell me the Truth About Love
2004
- Winner: Claire Keegan for Men and Women
2003
- Winner: Judith Ravenscroft for As She Waited for Spring
2001
- Winner: Paul Blaney for Apple Tennis
1999
- Winner: Grace Ingoldby for The Notion of Deuce
1996
- Winner: Leo Madigan for Packing for Wednesday
1994
- Winner: Janice Fox for A Good Place to Die
1992
- Winner: David Callard for Reading the Signals
1990
- Winner: Richard Austin for Sister Monica’s Last Journey
1988
- Winner: Alan Beard for Taking Doreen Out of the Sky
1986
- Winner: Lawrence Scott for The House of Funerals
1984
- Winner: Janni Howker for The Egg Man
1982
- Winner: Dermot Healy for The Tenant
1980
- Winner: Alan McConnell for The Comrades Marathon
1978
- Winner: Michael Morrissey for An Evening With Ionesco
1976
- Winner: Jackson Webb for Vassili
1974
- Winner: Neilson Graham for Anscombe
1972
- Winner: Kathleen Julian for Catch Two
1970
- Winners: A. Craig Bell for The Nest and Aileen Pennington for The Princess and the Pussy-cat
1966
- Winner: Gillian Edwards for An Evening in September
1964
- Winners: Peter Greave for The Wonderful Day and Jean Stubbs for A Child’s Four Seasons
1959
- Winner: Harold Elvin for God’s Right Hand Upon My Shoulder
1957
- Winner: E.W. Hildick for A Casual Visit
1955
- Winner: Robert Roberts for Conducted Tour
1953
- Winner: Maurice Cranston for A Visit to the Author
1951
- Winner: Fred Urquhart for The Ploughing Match
1949
- Winner: Olivia Manning for The Children
1947
- Winner: Dorothy K. Haynes for The Head
1945
- Winner: Jack Aistrop for Death In the Midst of What
1943
- Winner: Elizabeth Myers for A Well Full of Leaves
Tom Gallon and Miss Nellie Tom-Gallon
This prize was originally financed by a bequest made by Miss Nellie Tom-Gallon in memory of her brother. Tom Gallon was a British playwright and novelist (1866–1914). Some of his most notable works include: Tatterley: The Story of a Dead Man (1897) A Prince of Mischance: A Novel (1897), The Kingdom of Hate: A Romance (1899) and The Girl Behind the Keys (1903). Miss Nellie Tom-Gallon (1874–1938) was also an author and publicist. Her works include: The Dawn of Desire (1927), Full Passionate Mood (1928) and I Meant No Harm! (1937).
Hawthornden Foundation
Hawthornden Foundation is a private charitable foundation supporting contemporary writers and the literary arts. Established by Drue Heinz, the noted philanthropist and patron of the arts, the Foundation is named after Hawthornden Castle in Midlothian, Scotland, where an international residential fellowship program provides month-long retreats for creative writers from all disciplines to work in peaceful surroundings. In addition, the Foundation sponsors the annual Hawthornden Prize, one of Britain’s oldest and foremost literary awards, and provides grant support to other literary programs.
Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society
Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit membership organisation started by writers for the benefit of writers. They are open to all types of writer, and owned by our members. ALCS collects money that’s due to members for secondary uses of their work. These might include activities like photocopies, cable retransmission, digital reproduction and educational recording.
