Winner of The White Review Short Story Prize for 2018

July 1, 2018 2:48 PM

"The Great Awake" by Julia Armfield (The White Review, April 2018): "When I was twenty-seven, my Sleep stepped out of me like a passenger from a train carriage, looked about my room for several seconds and sat down in the chair beside my bed. This was before it became so usual, the shadow-forms of Sleep in halls and kitchens, before the mass displacement left so many people wakeful at uncertain hours of the night." Shortlist announcement. Winning story announcement. Two nominees previously.
posted by Wobbuffet (5 comments total)

I was already contemplating taking a siesta, and then I read this, and I am DEFINTELY taking that nap now because I love sleep. Especially naps. Waking up on the couch with an opportunistic kitten curled against you, a little breeze coming in through the window, the dog napping in the yard...
posted by Grandysaur at 4:01 PM on July 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

I love her evocative, new collective noun “a bleary stagger” for a group of sleepy people!
posted by darkstar at 9:07 PM on July 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

That was beautiful. Thank you.
posted by twirlypen at 2:54 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

I enjoyed that - thanks, Wobbuffet. Searching for more by the same author turned up The Collectables at The Stockholm Review of Literature.
posted by misteraitch at 8:10 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

I really enjoyed this; thank you for introducing me to her work.
posted by karayel at 5:28 PM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]