Kate Clanchy: On Winning the BBC National Short Story Award 2009

Two weeks ago, it was announced live on BBC Radio 4's Front Row that Kate Clanchy's story, 'The Not-Dead and the Saved' had won the BBC National Short Story Award 2009. This was a surprise for the acclaimed poet as it was only her third or fourth excursion into the world of prose and short stories. She was humbled to have won and it seemed like a genuine personal triumph for her and for the power of the short story.

We caught up with Kate a week after winning and asked her about what she's going to spend her winnings on, her plans to quit poetry for prose (or not as the case may be) and how she came to write her award-winning story.

> A week after winning the BBC Short Story Award, what's been the best thing so far about winning?

I'm still thrilled and disbelieving. I have bought myself a new bicycle though, so the money must be real. The best thing for me is the story actually being read quite widely, and the number of people who have said that they were moved by it or that it resonated with their experience.

> Now that your short story has received such acclaim and two awards, any plans to ditch poetry and write more prose?

I don't really make plans about my writing in that way- I almost wish I could. I've been writing prose for the last few years, but not from a desire to 'ditch' poetry. First I wanted to write my non-fiction book, Antigona and Me and to find a voice and a shape for that, and since then I've been experimenting with stories. Its a lot to do with what I'm reading: there has been so much exciting short-form writing in recent years, and experiments with memoir. I just wanted to do something like that.

> How did you approach the writing of the story and did you find the form more or less difficult than writing a poem?

With a poem, I usually know the first line and the last line and have some idea of the rhythm and shape before I start. And a short story turns out to be much the same, but longer. But I'd gotten to be quite a quick, experienced poet. Writing stories takes me longer because I have less experience, fewer strategies for the knotty bits. But I think that's why I've been enjoying it so much. I feel really at full stretch- refreshed.

> What is your favourite piece of advice you've been given about writing?

‘Write the thing you are afraid to write, the thing you are ashamed of- because that's usually the interesting bit.’ Stephen Clark, librettist.

> What are your thoughts on contemporary poetry and its direction?

I was thrilled when Carol Ann Duffy became Poet Laureate. She is such a gifted poet and I hope will help to give contemporary poetry the wider audience it deserves.

> What was your favourite of the BBC shortlist?

I liked them all very much, and found much to admire too, especially in the sense of structure and plot that experienced novelists bring to bear on the form. I think poets need work hard on plot, always. But Sara Maitland’s was my favourite. It was unsentimental, clever, funny - and I loved its poetic use of scientific language. I like moss, too.

> What did you think of the podcast of your story?

Penelope Wilton is one of my favourite actors - so intelligent and understated and funny. I loved her interpretation- I can't imagine anyone doing it better.

> What are your future plans?

More stories and a piece for a radio. Maybe I'll even have a collection of stories now. That's the sort of possibility this prize can give you.

> Your story has an intense emotional journey for the mother as she watches over her son. How did you go about editing down such wide-ranging emotional landscapes into a concise short story?

The story was always short in my conception of it, because it's about the experience of illness always returning people to the same place, emotionally and physically. They are pinioned by it: that’s why they have titles, not names; they are alienated from themselves. I wanted the events to sort of swirl round them and be lost as they were returned to their positions. So there weren't big scenes to cut. But I did take ages to build the story all the same. My big breakthrough came when my husband told me to put it in the present tense. That makes it much more immediate.

> What's been the best book you've read this year and why?

Two poetry collections:

Sian Hughes: The Missing (Salt) An amazingly direct and beautiful book, full of disaster and hope.

Lorraine Mariner: Furniture (Picador) ...wonderfully funny, self-deprecating truth-telling poems about surburbia, work and families.

Read more about Kate Clanchy

Read more about the BBC National Short Story Award 2009