Shock news at the Costas last night — and not about Andrew Miller's triumph, either. Before the winner was even unveiled, Costa CEO John Derkach took to the stage to announce that the prizes – currently comprising awards for the year's best novel, first novel, poetry collection, biography and children's book – were poised to add another string to their bow. As of 2012, the coffee chain will also be sponsoring – doubtless with the requisite helping of pride – a Costa short story prize.
Back in July, the short story was dealt an ugly blow by its one-time champion (and sponsor of the National Short Story prize) the BBC, when controller Gwyneth Williams announced that Radio 4's story output would be cut from the current three a week to just one. So clamorous was the outcry that the broadcaster eventually backed down and settled for two – but the protestors' victory was partial, and failed to remove the taint of the no confidence vote. A form already marginalised by publishers (who prefer novels) was being pressed further into the margins; the mainstream, it appeared, didn't want short stories, despite their obvious fitness for the digital age. For a prize as blithely generalist and unashamedly commercial as the Costa to take up their cause so emphatically, therefore, is unequivocally marvellous news. Short stories have awards of their own, of course, but for them to gain a seat at this particular table is one in the eye for all those who cast aspersions on their relevance.
It's a canny branding move on Costa's part too. The prizes have benefited enormously from the 2011 Booker's baffling race to the bottom: with the judges of the UK's foremost literary award apparently engaged in a brow-lowering contest, it was notable, on this books desk at least, that everyone was talking about the Costas instead. Andrew Miller's Pure is a great and worthy winner, but part of the pleasure in the run-up to yesterday's announcement was the sense that Carol Ann Duffy's The Bees and Matthew Hollis's scholarly Now All Roads Lead to France were also hotly in contention (compare that with the fatally underpowered and hamstrung Booker). Costa appeared to making inroads into the high-end literary territory that last year's Booker judges were so keen to abandon; adding a short story prize into its roster is the equivalent of raising a flag and staking a claim. And good on it: by boosting the profile of short stories and forcing the Booker to up its game, it benefits the rest of us twice over.
