BBC National Short Story Award and BBC Young Writers' Award winners

We announce the winners of the BBC National Short Story Award 2021 and the BBC Young Writers' Award 2021. Kirsty Lang is joined for the show by National Short Story Award judges James Runcie and Fiona Mozley and Young Writers' Award judges Katie Thistleton and Louise O'Neill. The BBC National Short Story Award is one of the most prestigious for a single short story, with the winning author receiving £15,000, and four further shortlisted authors £600 each. This year's shortlisted stories are ‘All the People Were Mean and Bad’ by Lucy Caldwell, ‘The Body Audit’ by Rory Gleeson, ‘Night Train’ by Georgina Harding, ‘Toadstone’ by Danny Rhodes and ‘Maykopsky District, Adyghe Oblast’ by Richard Smyth. Now in its seventh year, The BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University 2021 is open to all writers between the ages of 14 –18 years and was created to discover and inspire the next generation of writers. It is a cross-network collaboration between BBC Radio 4 and Radio 1. The 2021 BBC Young Writers’ Award shortlisted stories are ‘Fatigued’ by Luca Anderson-Muller, 18, from Belfast, ‘Another Boring Friday Night’ by Isabella Yeo Frank, 18, from London, ‘Super-Powder by Tabitha Rubens, 19, from London, ‘Blood and Water’ by Eleanor Ware, 17, from Bedfordshire and ‘Pomodoro (and Nasturtium Seeds) by Madeleine Whitmore, 16, from Bath. Kirsty also speaks to Denis Villeneuve about directing the movie remake of Dune, with a screenplay by Jon Spaihts, Villeneuve, and Eric Roth. It is the first of a planned two-part adaptation of the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert, Presenter: Kirsty Lang

Producer: Simon Richardson