Show caption ‘I defy listeners not to be both moved and amused’ … Di Speirs. Photograph: Thomas SG Farnetti/Wellcome National short story prize BBC short story prize selects all-female shortlist for fifth time No space for male authors in race for £15,000 award, whose entries are judged blind Alison Flood Fri 14 Sep 2018 14.45 EDT Share on Facebook

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For the fifth time in 13 years, the final contenders for the BBC national short story award are all women.

The five-strong shortlist pits former winner Sarah Hall against the composer Kerry Andrew and new names Kiare Ladner, Ingrid Persaud and Nell Stevens in competition for the £15,000 prize. All five stories will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 ahead of the final decision. Almost 800 entries were submitted for the award, which is run in partnership with Cambridge University and judged entirely blind – selectors know neither the name nor gender of the authors they read.

Prize judge Di Speirs, editor of books at BBC Radio, said that while some male writers had survived when the contenders were whittled down to 20, none made the final shortlist. Hall’s Sudden Traveller tells of a young woman nursing her child as her father and brother prepare for her mother’s burial; Andrew’s To Belong To is set on a Scottish island where a grieving man is saved from suicide by a fellow outsider; Ladner’s story Van Rensburg’s Card follows a South African maths teacher as she sets out to eat in a shopping mall, and Persaud’s Trinidad-set The Sweet Sop sees a young man getting to know his dying father. Completing the line-up, Stevens’s The Minutes follows a student collective as they plan a protest against the demolition of a South London tower block.

“While many of this year’s … entries tackled pressing issues head on, the stories that rose to the top all approach modern life and loss more tangentially and are unified by their humanity and compassion,” said Speirs. “The kindness of strangers and the need to ‘only connect’ are central tenets set against a sometimes fractured world and I defy listeners not to be both moved and amused by beautifully drawn characters and stories that will linger in the mind.”

Male writers from Cynan Jones to Julian Gough have won the prize in the past, but according to Speirs there has never been an all-male shortlist. “We get more entries from women, and that’s been true the last three years,” she said. This year, 57% of entries were from women, up from 56% last year.

“There has always been a fantastic tradition of women writing great short stories here, from Sylvia Townsend Warner to Elizabeth Taylor, and that has always carried on,” said Speirs. “Women are quite confident writing in this area, but it would be a real mistake to think they’re writing ‘domestic’ stories.”