Festival 2007

Wish I Was Here by Jackie Kay

Jackie Kay has been voted Decibel Writer of the Year in the British Book Awards http://www.britishbookawards.co.uk/pnbb_winners2007.asp for her collection Wish I Was Here.

Jackie has also been shortlisted for the world's largest prize for a single short story, the 2007 National Short Story Prize, for 'How to Get Away with Suicide' , one of the stories Jackie is reading here in Wish I Was Here.

The winning story will be announced at a breakfast ceremony at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) headquarters in Piccadilly, London on Monday 23 April 2007 and broadcast live at 8.20am on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

Each of the five stories will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 daily at 3.30pm, between Monday 16 and Thursday 19 April, with two readings on the last day.

Atlantic Books will publish the shortlist as a collection of stories in May, and the winning short story will also be published in Prospect magazine.

www.theshortstory.org.uk

Jackie Kay performs a live reading of two of her tragically funny short stories. In How to Get Away with Suicide, Malcolm’s marriage disintegrates; he leaves his wife and children and moves into a flat nearby. Malcolm rants through the night, searching for the perfect way to kill himself and make it look like an accident. You Go When You Can No Longer Stay tells the story of Hilary and Ruth. After years together, Hilary suddenly runs up a vast credit card bill, takes to drinking rich red wines, reads slim volumes of poetry and becomes thin. Martin Amis has crept into their relationship and Hilary is leaving…

Written and performed by Jackie Kay

Set to a specially commissioned soundscape by composer Jon Nicholls.

“Jackie Kay is a virtuoso of voices that go straight to your guts”  Independent on Sunday