The Future of the Novella with Ali Smith

Acclaimed novelist Ali Smith discusses the future of the novella with the two winners of the Inaugural Weatherglass Novella Prize, Kate Kruimink and Deborah Tomkins.

Launched by pioneering independent small press Weatherglass Books, with the aim of celebrating the power and potential of the short form genre, the inaugural Weatherglass Novella Prize was judged by novelist Ali Smith. Smith joins the two winners of the Prize for a discussion about form, craft and their prize-winning work at Foyles Charing Cross Road.

Ali Smith is the author of several novels and short story collections including,The Accidental,Hotel World,How to Be Bothand the landmark Seasonal Quartet. She has been four times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has won the Goldsmiths Prize, Orwell Prize, Costa Best Novel Award and the Women’s Prize. She lives in Cambridge.

Kate Kruimink is one of Australia’s most promising literary voices. Astraea, her prize-winning novella, takes place on a convict ship, full of women and their children bound for the Antipodes. It will be published by Weatherglass Books on 29 August. Her first novel, A Treacherous Country, won the 2020 Vogel/Australian’s Literary Award and was longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. In 2021, she was one of the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Best Young Novelists. Heartsease, her second novel, was published this year.

Deborah Tomkins writes long and short fiction, often on the subject of climate change. Her work has twice been longlisted for the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award and has been shortlisted for prizes including the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature, the Yeovil Prize and the Sandy River Novella Award. In 2017 Tomkins founded Bristol Climate Writers, a local network of writers of all genres. Her winning novella, Aerth, is a tale of twin planets Ice Age Urth, and Aerth, which is hot, crowded, corrupt and violent. It will be published on 30 January 2025.

Doors will open from 6:45pm.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road, London, United Kingdom