A Creative Writing lecturer at Bangor University is one of ten authors long-listed for the prestigious 2018 Sunday Times EFG Short Story award.

Lisa Blower is up for the international Award which promotes and celebrates the excellence of the modern short story and attracts entries from among the world’s finest writers.

Its £30,000 prize is the most generous prize for a single short story in the English language.

Lisa is no stranger to such competitions however, having won The Guardian’s National Short Story competition back in 2009.

She was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2013, and has been Highly Commended and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for three consecutive years.

Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Comma Press, The New Welsh Review, The Luminary, Short Story Sunday, and on Radio 4.

Lisa’s entry, "Abdul" is a response to the refugee crisis but from the point of view of someone who was indirectly involved with what happens next.

It tells the story of a 16-year-old Afghan asylum seeker and the journey he makes with a social worker from Kent to Stoke on Trent.

“These are the stories that never get told but become the stories that affect our own sense of citizenship." Lisa explained. The journey someone has experienced to get here is never the whole journey.

"The arrival and what happens next can be as gruelling, as cruel, as frightening as what’s already been experienced.

The winner of the award will be announced on Friday, April 27.