A roiling, raw, gut-punch of a debut collection, best read in one sitting ... I sat motionless for about half an hour after reading them; I can't wait to see what she writes next' PANDORA SYKES I remember having to reel myself in quite a lot, having to resist making my characters too jaded, too weak, or too mean. It was an experiment in suspending judgement, in recognising that there’s always a reason for the way a person behaves. We loved the freshness and the spirit in the writing of ‘Blue 4eva’ – Saba Sams not only brilliantly captures the nuances of blended family dynamics, the jealousies and stresses, the efforts and the rejections, but she gives her young women credible and laudable agency and energy. We recognised them and laughed with them. We were delighted too, to discover that we had chosen a writer who has already, at 26, created such an exciting body of work that she has published her first short story collection. This award has always sought to reward excellence and dedication to the unique and challenging form of the short story and this year’s winner more than fulfils our ambition.” Di Speirs, Editor of Books at BBC Audio and judge of the Award since its launch. Despite these criticisms I still recommend this collection, well parts of it. Tinderloin, Here Alone and Snakebite are all 5 star stories, I also enjoyed Blue 4eva and Overnight. But the other five stories I either didn’t care for and in the case of Send Nudes, the Mothers and the Girls and Flying Kite I actively dislike - and i usually eat up mother/daughter stories!! Meg isn’t the only one having unenthusiastic sex. Two other girls in two different stories have sex they don’t enjoy, and in the course of the act they cannot find the words or the will to insist the man use a condom and apparently have never heard of hormonal bill control like the Pill, so they both inevitably fall pregnant. “I thought it made me seem aloof not to ask the boys I slept with to put a condom on.” Yeah, ok. The girls are so indistinguishable they tend to say things that any of them could have spoken. “The future, to me, was something that would just happen.” I wrote that one down in my notes, I can’t remember which story it’s from, truly could have been any of them.

This story was included in your debut collection, Send Nudes. How did publishing earlier this year impact you as an author?Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. Also announced today was the winner of the BBC young writers’ award with Cambridge University, an award created to inspire and encourage the next generation of short story writers. The award was won by Elena Barham, 19, from Barnsley for a story set in the 1940s, Little Acorns.

Did you set out to write a collection of stories about girlhood or did the connective tissue in these stories develop organically?Saba Sams’s Send Nudes is the latest in a plethora of extremely well-written books by young women, about (predominantly, although in Sams’s case, not exclusively) the experiences of young women. It has already received much hype from many sources, and will no doubt sell well among its intended audience (girls and women, as well as some enlightened young men, happy to read a pink book on the bus). Frank drives the girls into town, pulling into a bus stop to drop them off. He passes Stella a roll of notes through the window, to pay for dinner. The girls begin to eat. Blue and Jasmine talk about learning to drive, which Jasmine is doing and Blue is avoiding. Writing can feel really boring and lonely a lot of the time. I think if you can lean more into having fun with it, into keeping yourself energised, then that will come across in the work. I still remember where I was when I first encountered a Saba Sams story' NICOLE FLATTERY 'I fell for this stunning collection with a rare, consuming passion' MEGAN NOLAN ____________________________________________________________

Digital natives reared on Snapchat and Tinder, Sams’s characters are largely blase about sex. In Here Alone, seduction begins as a game for Emily – “this was her favourite part: the exchange of signs” – but she loses control. The ensuing tale of delusional desire and casual male cruelty nails rejection with stinging clarity. Family offers little by way of a safety net, as beleaguered parents inhabit an extended adolescence of their own. Roles are reversed: one daughter tries to shield her inebriated mother from social services, another fashions a consolatory beach in a high-rise flat when the pandemic scuppers a long-awaited holiday.It was the digression into childhood (in a hippy family? and circus?) that the the authors inexperience was obvious, the humour of previous stories felt too mature and there seemed to be no discernible change to writing style despite our protagonists now being children. These stories felt shoe-horned in, perhaps for variation but instead gave me whiplash. Whilst I admire any artist that pushes themselves there’s nothing wrong with writing what you know and where your strengths lie, especially as a debut author. Blue leans forward, catches Stella’s eye, and winks. Hey bestie, she says. You wanna split the last fig? Frank cut a slice of manchego and lay it down in front of her. Jasmine didn’t touch her cheese. After some minutes, she announced that she’d invited Blue out to join them. Frank threaded his fingers together on the table. The point of this trip, he said, was to spend time together as a four. The salad has green beans in it, and the water next to Stella’s plate has been poured into a pint glass. She takes a sip.