David Constantine shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award!
10 July 2010: Manchester-born Constantine has beaten longlisted authors Louis de Bernières, Patrick Gale and Helen Simpson to be the only Brit (and only non-American!) on a shortlist of six, for what remains the the world’s richest prize for the form (€35,000). Other shortlistees include TC Boyle and Ron Rash.
More about the award and shortlist here.
More about the collection in question, The Shieling, here.
Read yesterday's Guardian article about the dominance of American writing on the shortlist here.

Comma Film at Cannes Film Festival.
12 May 2010: Comma is delighted to announce the screening of MOSS WITCH at the Cannes Film Festival next week.
Directed by Lisa Risbec and based on a short story by Sara Maitland, the film tells of a collision between two world views - those of a research scientist and a mythical character. Originally commissioned by the Huddersfield Literature Festival, the film is part of Comma's on-going short story and poem adaptation project, which has already seen films premiere at Berlin and Edinburgh Film Festivals, win awards at the London Short Film Festival and Leeds International Film Festival, and get onto the Virgin Media Prize shortlist. The original story was commissioned as part of Comma's When It Changed, edited by Geoff Ryman - a series of collaborations between writers and research scientists based at North West Universities. More information about the Cannes screening here.

For those of you unable to jet over to Cannes, Comma are putting on a special Manchester screening later this month at An Outlet (77 Dale Street), Friday 28 May, 8pm. Free and all welcome but please RSVP to ra.page[at]commapress.co.uk if you would like to reserve a ticket.

Hassan Blasim's The Madman of Freedom Square long-listed for Independent Foreign Fiction Prize!
12 Mar 10: The first collection from Comma's new Middle East series has reached the last 15 for the £10,000 Independent prize, in an historic year for Arabic fiction. Blasim's collection is an extraordinary blend of surreal horror and personal trauma, drawing on his own experiences as a refugee of the Iraq War. Madman represents the first major piece of fiction about the war, from an Iraqi pen to be published in English, made even more remarkable for the fact that it has yet to be published in Arabic or in Hassan's adopted country of Finland.
More about the longlist here. More about Madman here.

Adam Marek makes Sunday Times EFG Shortlist
7 Mar 10: Congratulations to Comma author Adam Marek who has reached the shortlist of the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Prize, alongside seasoned Kiwi C K Stead, Zimbabwean Petina Gappah, American David Vann, 26-year old novelist Joe Dunthorne, and former journalist Will Cohu. Adam's story 'Fewer Things' was one of 1200 entries and beat longlisted stories from the likes of Rose Tremain and Helen Simpson to make the shortlist. The prize of £25,000 is the largest cash prize for a single story in English.
More about the shortlist here; more about Adam Marek here.

When It Changed story takes 2nd Prize in the BBC National Short Story Award

5 Dec 09: The five-strong, all-women shortlist included two Comma authors this year - Jane Rogers and Sara Maitland. Sara's story, 'Moss Witch', commissioned for our new anthology When It Changed, took the Runner Up prize this week, the winner being Kate Clanchy's phenomenal 'The Not-Dead and the Saved'. Presenting the award live on Front Row, Monday 7th December, chair of the judges Tom Sutcliffe described 'Moss Witch' as 'at times as simple as a child's fairytale, at other times as densely informative as a PhD thesis - you wouldn't think that combination would work at all, but it does wonderfully.' More info about the shortlist here.
Listen to Sara talk about her story on Front Row here. (Scroll to 16mins in).
Listen to Hannah Gordon read the story on Radio Four (2 Dec 09) here.

Comma Films win film festival awards and selected for key competitions.

15 Nov 09: Congratulations to Andrew Haigh, whose film Five Miles Out has just won the Yorkshire Film Prize at the Leeds International Film Festival. Congrats also to Terry Wragg who's film Working Metal based on the poem by Kath McKay, won the Chapel Allerton Short Film Festival prize 2009.
Congrats also so Kate Jessop and Ronald J. Wright for their selections in key UK and international film festivals. Kate's The Loss, based on a short story by David Constantine, has been selected for Raindance and the Branchage Jersey International Film Festival. Ron's The Dogs, based on a short story by Hanif Kureishi, was selected for the Portobello Film Festival and the Leeds International Film Festival.
See below for info on Andrew Haigh's Five Miles Out.

Comma Press Anthology Wins International Prize for Suspense and Horror!!!

13 July 09: The New Uncanny has been awarded the 2008 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Anthology
On Sunday 13th July 2009, the winners of the Shirley Jackson Awards were announced at Readercon in Burlington, Massachusetts. The awards are given each year for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic, in recognition of one of America's greatest writers and the author of the classic short story 'The Lottery'.
The New Uncanny, edited by independent publishers Ra Page and Sarah Eyre of Comma Press, explored and updated Freud's famous theory of the uncanny – 'das unheimliche' – which laid out a psychoanalytic framework for understanding horror writing. The anthology featured specially commissioned stories from the likes of AS Byatt, Hanif Kureishi, Christopher Priest, Matthew Holness, and Frank Cottrell Boyce, among others. The New Uncanny was nominated alongside authors such as Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates and Etgar Keret (in other categories).
For Manchester-based Comma Press, this award comes hard on the heels of winning the World Fantasy Award 2008 for Best Collection for Tiny Deaths, by Robert Shearman. A not inconsiderable feat given that these are Comma's first two publications in the realm of fantasy.
More about the winners>>
More about The New Uncanny>>

Comma Film launch 2009 Version Short Film Commission

29 Apr 09: As part of the inaugural edition of the Version Film Festival, Sponsored by Lion Eyes Television, Comma Film is commissioning three short films to premiere at Cornerhouse this November. The films will be adaptations of three of Comma's previously commissioned short stories. Filmmakers from across the UK are invited to select a short story from the publisher's backlist (over 300 published stories), and submit a short application with a showreel. This must consist of a short, 1-page outline or treatment on how they would interpret the film (stylistic interpretation, what they would bring out/add/cut), plus a one page outline of how the film would be produced within budget. A budget of £1000 will be made available to up to three directors, and filmmakers must be prepared to work with an outside producer, and if necessary a DOP and other crew members sourced externally.
To access a list of synopses and information about the stories available, click here. Once you have chosen three texts you'd like to read more of, email the coordinator at Ra.Page{at}commapress.co.uk for the full texts. Alternatively, for more general browsing go to the books page of the Comma website, and follow the links through. Some sample stories are available as readings on the StoryBank page, or the books can be ordered directly, by paypal, at a discount. There are no fees for entering the competition.
Filmmakers need to be available across the summer for the productions and the organisers reserve the right to commission less than three films if the quality of the submissions is insufficient.
Production and direction outlines should be emailed to the above address by 5pm on Fri 29 May.
Showreels can be sent as links to websites, youtube profiles, or hardcopies.
For full terms and conditions click here >>.
Version Film Festival is sponsored by

Festival & Commission Partner:

With support from The Granada Foundation.

Comma Film Premieres at Edinburgh Film Festival

10 Apr 09: Comma Film's first short story adaptation enjoys its UK premiere this summer at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Having shown at the Berlinale in February, 'Five Miles Out' will go on to screen at the following festivals over the next few months: Nashville Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Viewfinders, Nova Scotia, Canada, Maryland Film Festival, Edinburgh and then Mediawave, Hungary.
Featuring Dakota Blue Richards (star of The Golden Compass and The Secret of Moonacre), Five Miles Out is based on a Sarah Tierney story first published by Comma Press in Bracket (2003). The adaptation is directed by Andrew Haigh (who's previously worked with Ridley Scott on Gladiator and Heaven's Gate) and is sponsored by Film 4 and the UK Film Council.

Comma authors unite to condemn Israel's attack on the Gaza strip.
Alexei Sayle joins celebrities to call on US President-elect Barack Obama to speak up against the attacks. More...
Sean O'Brien publishes new poem in The Guardian lamenting the options seemingly left for the Palestinian people. More...

Madinah story in December issue of Prospect Magazine
Nov 20th: Those readers who attended Comma's October Middle East events and were disappointed to not hear Hassan Blasim's story have a chance to read it in the December 'Obama' issue of Prospect magazine.

NEWS: Tiny Deaths wins 2008 World Fantasy Award!!

Nov 2nd: Congratulationss to Rob Shearman, whose debut collection, Tiny Deaths has been declared the winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection. The winners were announced at the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary on Sunday evening.
Read news coverage on citylife.co.uk.
Read more about the award....

'Desires' shortlisted for Virgin Media Prize
Aug 1st: Congratulations to Kate Jessop, whose first ever Comma film 'Desires', based on a poem by Gaia Holmes, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Virgin Media Shorts Prize, from over 1400 entrants. The main prize will be judged by a panel including Kevin Spacey and Gurinder Chadha, but there will also be a People's Choice Award. To vote for your favourite film (and be in contention to win a video camera yourself), click here.
You need to register to vote, and you only get one vote.
Earlier this year 'Desires' was selected for simultaneously screenings in Los Angeles, New York and various venues across Canada, Australia and New Zealand as part of International Women's Week!

Congrats also to Kate for picking up the Femme de Fantastique award at January's London Short Film Festival, for her new film 'When the Telescope Came'.

Congrats also to Andrew Haigh who has been selected as one of the Cinema Extreme finalists adapt the Comma short story Five Miles Out. He has received production funding of around £50K from the UK Film Council in conjunction with Film Four to produce an adaptation of Sarah Tierney's story from Comma's Bracket anthology. Read more about Andrew in Screen Daily.

Phobic shortlisted for British Fantasy Society Awards
June 16th: Congrats to Ramsey Campbell, Conrad Williams, and Nicholas Royle, whose stories in Phobic have been nominated for the British Fantasy Society Award for Best Short Story. Congrats also to editor, Andy Murray, as Phobic itself has been nominated in the Best Anthology category.
More information and a chance to vote for the winner here.
Voting closes 1st August.

Tiny Deaths shortlisted for Edge Hill Prize
May 10th: Congrats to Rob Shearman whose debut collection has been shortlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize for the best collection by a single author from Britain or Ireland.
Read more about the shortlist.
Read more about the book.

Marek and Shearman longlisted for Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
May 3rd: Congrats to Rob Shearman and Adam Marek who have just been selected for the longlist of the Frank O'Connor Short Story Prize 2008.

COMMA ON THE RADIO:

Listen to AS Byatt reading from The New Uncanny on BBC Radio's The Strand, broadcast Thu 30 Oct 08.

Listen to Ed Barton, on on Radio 3's The Verb, broadcast Fri 28 March.

View Comma's previous news items, 2003 to present: NEWS ARCHIVE

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