Our esteemed judges for the Bristol Short Story Prize 2025 competition are Jan Carson, Kate Johnson, and Peace Adzo Medie!
Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Jan’s latest novel, The Raptures, was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses, was published by Doubleday in April 2024.
Kate Johnson is an agent at Wolf Literary Services, as well as UK rights manager for Wolf Literary and the Gillian MacKenzie Agency. She was previously an agent and Vice President at Georges Borchardt and managing editor of StoryQuarterly. She represents prize-winning fiction and nonfiction, and loves voice-driven, timeless work that examines the human condition, or looks askance at what we take for normal behaviour. She has chaired the judging panel for the Bristol Short Story Prize and Bath Short Story Award, and some of her favourite short story writers include Lydia Davis, Mariana Enriquez, Mavis Gallant, and Clare Sestanovich.
Peace Adzo Medie is a scholar and a writer. She is associate professor in politics at the University of Bristol. Her book, ‘Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa,’ was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. Her debut novel, His Only Wife, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2020, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and a Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020. It was also a Reese’s Book Club pick. Her second novel, Nightbloom, was longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Transition, Four Way Review, Slice Magazine, and elsewhere.