Recognition for Giffnock author Ryan O'Connor

A Giffnock author is one of just ten writers highly commended in this year's prestigious Bridport Prize short story competition.
Author Ryan O'ConnorAuthor Ryan O'Connor
Author Ryan O'Connor

Ryan O’Connor’s ‘Ouroboros’ was selected from over 4,300 entries.

Ryan spent six months travelling alone across America on Greyhound buses when he was-sixteen-years-old, a journey that set the tone for a peripatetic life in which the only constant has been his writing.

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Short story Judge Monica Ali said: “Reading through this year’s entries, I thought a lot about what makes a great short story truly great.

“The best ones make the back of your neck tingle. They make you feel newly alive to the world”.

She continued: “The opening of ‘Ouroboros’ succeeds in raising questions instantly in the reader’s mind, creating an immediacy and urgency and desire to delve deeper into the narrator’s life.”

Earlier this year Ryan received the Next Chapter Award from the Scottish Book Trust.

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John Burnside, a judge on the panel, has subsequently gone on to support and endorse Ryan’s work.

On The Speed of Falling, Ryan’s novel in progress, he said: “What is exceptional, and admirable, is that, in a field where it would be so easy to take an imitative route, The Speed of Falling, has a remarkable shape and depth and is an original work in its own right. I cannot wait to read the completed book, and I cannot say strongly enough how important it is to support it.”

Having recently become a father, Ryan lives in the south side of Glasgow with his partner and their child.

The Bridport Prize based in Bridport, Dorset, is one of the most prestigious open writing competitions in the English language with categories in poetry, short stories, flash fiction (stories of 250 words or fewer) and the Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a first novel, named in honour of the Prize’s founder.

Entries are now open for this year’s competition. Visit www.bridportprize.org.uk for further information. The closing date is May 31, 2019.