Ross Raisin wins the BBC National Short Story Award

Ross Raisin has won the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award for "Ghost Kitchen". The prize of £15,000 was presented on 1 October 2024 at BBC Broadcasting House, in a ceremony broadcast live on BBC Radio 4's Front Row. It was the nineteenth year of the award, which is run with the University of Cambridge. Each shortlisted writer received £600.

The story is narrated by Sean, a young man working as a bicycle courier for a takeaway business on the edge of an unnamed city after a family tragedy. It draws on the gig economy and the "dark kitchens" that serve delivery apps without a public restaurant front.

Raisin, a novelist who teaches creative writing at the University of Leeds, was chosen from a shortlist of Lucy Caldwell, who won the award in 2021, Will Boast, Manish Chauhan and Vee Walker. The shortlisted stories were broadcast on Radio 4.

The award's radio broadcasts give shortlisted writers an audience that print magazines rarely reach. A winning story rooted in delivery work and precarious employment also shows how short fiction can respond quickly to changes in everyday life that longer forms take years to absorb.

Sources: The Bookseller: Ross Raisin wins BBC National Short Story Award 2024; Leeds Living: Yorkshire writer wins BBC National Short Story Award.