Saboteur Awards 2021: Shortlists!

It’s been a week of counting up the shortlists! Once again, it’s an absolute delight to see the excitement and encouragement that branch out from the Saboteur Awards season, and I’d like to thank everyone who voted, promoted and generally helped us to stir up interest. With the pandemic ongoing, finding a new way to handle the festival and awards (again) felt challenging to begin with. As always, though, the reactions the Saboteur Awards Festival as a whole has been reminder enough that this process is a special and worthwhile one.

Now, one of many tweaks that happened this year was a change to the voting form. The main reason for this was to try to get as much information as possible from voters about who they were voting for, specifically for categories where an author was involved. Thanks so much to everyone who got stuck in and helped us along with this new set-up. To that end, we’ve had as many votes as ever and I’m delighted to be able to announce the shortlists for this year’s Saboteur Awards…

Note: I have endeavoured to provide links to relevant websites and purchases pages. That said, some artists and organisations can be harder to pin down than others and I’m also aware that preferences may have changed in terms of what information is being shared and promoted here. If you would like your information to be edited somehow, please do email me at [email protected].

The voting form for the shortlists is available NOW and you can access it right here.

While you’re here, why not take a browse at our accompanying festival line-up? It’s available just here and all tickets are FREE.

Best Short Story Collection Shortlist 

• Scratched Enamel Heart by Amanda Huggins
• The Yet Unknowing World by Fiona Mackintosh
• Love Stories for Hectic People by Catherine McNamara
• Seventy Percent Water by Jeanette Sheppard

Special mention to:

• The Goddess of Macau by Graeme Hall
• 48 Blitz by Brett Biebel
• These Bodies by Morgan Christie
• Slaughter by Rosanna Hildyard

Best Spoken Word Performer Shortlist

• Luke Wright
• Susan Evans
• Toby Campion
• Robert Garnham

Special mention to:

• Sam J. Grudgings
• Cathy Carson
• Elizabeth McGeown
• Simon Widdop

Best Magazine Shortlist

• Atrium
• Litro
• Magma
• Reach
• Finished Creatures

Special mention to:

• Here Comes Everyone
• Ellipsis Zine
• bind
• Mslexia

Best Literary Festival Shortlist

• Flash Fiction Festival
• Leeds Lit Fest
• Kendal Poetry Festival
• StAnza Poetry Festival

Special mention to:

• UniSlam Festival
• Cambridge Literary Festival
• Poetry in Aldeburgh
• Liverpool Literary Festival

Best Novella Shortlist

• In the Sweep of the Bay by Cath Barton
• When It’s Not Called Making Love by Karen Jones
• Among These Animals by Gaynor Jones
• All Our Squandered Beauty by Amanda Huggins

Special mention to:

• Straw Gods by Tom O’Brien
• The House on the Corner by Alison Woodhouse
• Don’t Tell the Bees by Mary-Jayne Holmes
• if there is no shelter by Tracey Slaughter

Best Poetry Pamphlet Shortlist

• Rootstalk by Ella Duffy
• Making Tracks by Katy Wareham-Morris
• Maternal Impression by Cheryl Moskowitz
• The Weight of Snow by Pauline Rowe

Special mention to:

• Something so wild and new in this feeling by Sarah Doyle
• This Is Virus by Joe Williams
• Where I’d Watch Plastic Trees Not Grow by Hannah Hodgson
• Fledge by Jonathan Humble

Best Regular Spoken Word Night Shortlist

• Find the Right Words (Leicester)
• Live from The Butchery (Digital)
• Fire & Dust (Coventry)
• Flight of the Dragonfly (Brighton)

Special mention to:

• Verbose (Manchester)
• Tonic (Bristol)
• Hammer and Tongue (Cambridge)
• Oooh Beehive (Swindon)

Best Spoken Word Show Shortlist

• Juicy by Robert Garnham
• Within Sight by Elle Renton
• Spark by Sarah Grant
• Not Dying by Jamie Hale

Special mention to:

• Sanatorium by Abi Palmer
• This Script by Jenny Lindsay
• The End of the Pier Show by Jonny Fluffy Punk
• Outlier by Malaika Kegode & Jakabol

Most Innovative Publisher Shortlist

• Ad Hoc Fiction
• Indigo Dreams
• Broken Sleep Books
• Hazel Press
• Louise Walters Books

Special mention to:

• Burning Eye Books
• Reflex Press
• Maytree Press
• Verve Poetry Press

Best Reviewer of Literature Shortlist

• Nigel Kent
• Emma Lee
• Judy Darley
• Isabel Costello
• Maria Taylor

Special mention to:

• Maria Sledmere
• Dzifa Benson
• Juliette van der Molen
• Stella Backhouse

Best Collaborative Work Shortlist

• All Saints Sessions, organised by Cheryl Moskowitz and Alastair Gavin
• Arrival at Elsewhere, curated by Carl Griffin
• Viola, the Virgin Queen, by Ruth Stacey and Desdemona McCannon
• Forest moor or less, by Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling

Special mention to:

• Aloneness is a Many-Headed Bird, by Dawn Gorman and Rosie Jackson
• Fit to Bust, by Pamela Scobie and Hannah Stone
• We Are All Somebody: Street Child United Anthology, compiled by Samantha Richards
• Murmuration, organised by Linda France and Kate Sweeney

Best Anthology Shortlist

• Restore to Factory Settings (Ad Hoc Fiction)
• Rewilding (Crested Tit Collective)
• Bloody Amazing, poetry anthology
• This New North (Valley Press)

Special mention to:

• How to Hold an Umbrella (Retreat West Books)
• Root, Branch, Tree (National Flash Fiction Day Press)
• Crossing Lines: An Anthology of Immigrant Poetry (Broken Sleep)
• These Are The Hands – Poems from the Heart of the NHS (Fair Acre Press)

Thanks again to everyone who voted.

Warm wishes,

The Sabotage Reviews team!