A Group Of Teenage Boys Take Turns Assessing Each Other’s Changing Bodies Before A Friday Night Disco… A Grieving Woman Strikes Up An Unlikely Friendship With A Fellow Traveller On A Night Train To Kiev… An Unusually Well-informed Naturalist Is Eyed With Suspicion By His Comrades On A Forest Exhibition With A Higher Purpose… The Stories Shortlisted For The 2021 Bbc National Short Story Award With Cambridge University Take Place In Liminal Spaces – Their Characters Find Themselves In Transit, Travelling Along Flight Paths, Train Lines And Roads, Or In Moments Where New Opportunities Or Directions Suddenly Seem Possible. From The Reflections Of A New Mother Flying Home After A Funeral, To An Ailing Son’s Reluctance To Return To The Village Of His Childhood, These Stories Celebrate Small Kindnesses In Times Of Turbulence, And Demonstrate A Connection Between One Another That We Might Sometimes Take For Granted. The Bbc Nssa Is One Of The Most Prestigious Prizes For A Single Short Story, With The Winning Author Receiving £15,000, And Four Further Shortlisted Authors £600 Each. James Runcie Is Joined On The Judging Panel By A Group Of Acclaimed Writers And Critics Including: Booker Prize Shortlisted Novelist Fiona Mozley; Award Winning Writer, Poet And Winner Of The Desmond Elliott Prize, Derek Owusu; Multi-award Winning Irish Novelist And Short Story Writer, Donal Ryan; And Returning Judge, Di Speirs, Books Editor At Bbc Radio.