Cherise Saywell Wins BBC Short Story Award for 'Ditto'

Edinburgh-based writer Cherise Saywell has won this year's BBC national short story award, taking the £15,000 prize for Ditto, a "tender" and "taut" story about a young boy caught in the midst of domestic violence.

Judges described the winning story, set against domestic abuse in a small Australian town, as "beautifully told".

Saywell was announced as the winner at a ceremony held at BBC Broadcasting House on Tuesday evening. The award, one of the most prestigious prizes for the short story form in the UK, is run in collaboration with the University of Cambridge.

Ditto centres on a child facing violence at home, tracing the quietly devastating dynamics of domestic abuse within a small community in Australia. Saywell, who lives in Edinburgh, draws on the tautness and restraint that characterise the short story form to render the boy's experience with what the judges called tenderness.

A full audio recording of Ditto is available on BBC Sounds for listeners who want to hear the story in full.

The win places Saywell among the recent winners of an award that has become a significant platform for short fiction in Britain, and it signals continued institutional support — from both the BBC and Cambridge — for a form that often struggles for visibility alongside the novel. Readers can expect the £15,000 prize to raise the profile of Ditto and of Saywell's wider body of work in the months ahead.