Judges

Dymphna Flynn

Audio producer and books journalist

Dymphna Flynn is a books journalist and audio producer. She blogs about new books on Instagram, reviews on BBC Sussex and writes about contemporary European fiction in translation for the European Literature Network. For over 20 years, she produced BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub and other flagship shows like Desert Island Discs, Front Row and Open Book.

Joe Hedinger

Bookseller, The Book Hive

Joe Hedinger is a bookseller at Norwich's award-winning independent bookshop, The Book Hive. Originally a strategist at creative agencies and the BBC, he’s also a consultant, advising the likes of The National Centre for Writing, the Booksellers Association, the U.E.A. and literary-minded start-ups on book trade innovation and reading culture.

Charlie Bush

Bookseller, Blackwell’s

Charlie Bush is a bookseller. His first job in a bookshop was while he was still at school. Charlie ran a bookshop in Edinburgh, before opening Blackwell's newest branch at Westgate Oxford. He is the Publicity, Marketing and Events Manager at Blackwell's flagship store on Broad Street in Oxford.

Jonathan Green

Senior Retail Manager, Waterstones

Jonathan Green has been a bookseller for 12 years. Born in Leicester, he is now a Senior Retail Manager for Waterstones and supports in the running of the London bookshops. His interests include travel, reading, particularly 20th Century fiction and New Journalism, running and his dogs.

Andrew Wilson

Novelist, Biographer and Journalist

Andrew Wilson is a novelist, biographer and journalist. He is the author of Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith and biographies of Sylvia Plath, Alexander McQueen, Harold Robbins and a group biography of the survivors of the Titanic. He is the author of four novels which feature Agatha Christie as a detective. His first novel, The Lying Tongue, was published in 2007 and in May of this year he published the psychological thriller Five Strangers, under the pseudonym E.V. Adamson. He is a creative writing mentor on the Gold Dust scheme and the new tutor on the Faber Academy crime course.

Ian Duhig

Poet

Ian Duhig has published seven books of poetry, most recently The Blind Roadmaker, shortlisted for the Forward Best Collection and TS Eliot Prizes. Duhig has won the Forward Best Poem Prize once and the National Poetry Competition twice; his New and Selected Poems is due in from Picador in December 2021.

Gill Edwards

Owner, The Little Ripon Bookshop

Gill Edwards opened The Little Ripon Bookshop 12 years ago. She trained as a teacher before working in the buying teams at WHSmith. She is vice-chair of the BA Children’s Group and has previously been a judge for the Indie Book Awards. She runs a children’s book club, and her shop has been shortlisted for Children’s Bookseller of the Year at the Nibbies.

Lucas Maxwell

School Librarian, Writer and Podcaster

Lucas Maxwell was born in Canada and has worked with youth in libraries for thirteen years. For the past eight years he has been the librarian at Glenthorne High School. He is a writer for Book Riot and in 2017 was named the School Library Association’s Librarian of the Year.

The 2021 Costa Short Story Award judging panel

Learn more about this year’s panel of judges here by downloading the PDF below.