http://www.costabookawards.com/short-stories/shortlist.aspx

Anyone make the cut?

It's probably unethical to reveal I suppose. A shame really, as I feel the short story writers are prevented from gaining the full benefit of a couple of months of publicity - unlike the book writers.

Have you had a chance to read or listen to any/all finalists yet?

I can't identify any 'big names' by style or content so it'll be fascinating to see who the writers are.

I'm also trying to guess whether the writers are male or female (just to pass the time). Do the sexes of the readers reveal the sexes of the author?

If it's possible to tell by style/content I would go for an all female shortlist.

Oooh, I like the sound of all of those. Will def have a listen. Many thanks for sharing MartinEx!

Just listening to "Don't Try This At Home". Brilliant.

Read a bit of each but none of them made me want to read on. Is this really the best of the entries?

Have to agree - not what you could call 'challenging' work. Chuffed I managed to 'almost' get the all female shortlist prediction correct - only one chap.

Shame really - it should be harder than that.

But I think the Costa doesn't have (anymore?) any pretensions to be the 'best' of writing - rather it aims for the broadest appeal/most popular work.

Not that the two categories of best and most popular are necessarily mutually exclusive but it's a very rare piece that manages to combine the two.