GALLEY BEGGAR PRESS SHORT STORY PRIZE 2024/25
Ten questions with GBP Short Story Prize author Toril Cooper
(1) CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR LONGLISTING! ‘HONEY’ IS A WONDERFUL STORY AND DIFFICULT TO SUMMARIZE. IT’S ABOUT TEENAGE FRIENDSHIPS, CLASS, SEX, MOTHERS, DEATH, BEAR-STEALING… WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO INTRODUCE IT TO OUR READERS, IN TWO OR THREE SENTENCES?
Thank you! It’s a joy to be on the list, the other stories are incredible.
‘Honey’ is about two teenage girls who steal a taxidermy bear from a party. It’s about the tension between the admiration, desire and competition we can feel in friendships, and how people, particularly teenagers, can push at one another's boundaries. It’s also about the nuance of complex friendships. People aren’t wholly one thing or another, so although Honey is, to an extent, an adversary to the narrator Jade, she's navigating grief, so we can sympathise with them both.
(2) WE’D LOVE TO HEAR A BIT MORE ABOUT THE INSPIRATION FOR ‘HONEY’: HOW AND WHEN DID IT COME TO YOU, AND HOW DID YOU SET ABOUT WRITING IT?
Thinking of my own teenage years I wanted to write something about the power that friendship held, and about those early sexual experiences, questioning how conscious we were of the choices we made. I can’t remember how the idea of the bear-stealing came about, but I was drawn to what the bear — inanimate yet threatening — could represent. It felt like a good framework, then the rest of the story was built around it. I wrote the first draft last summer, then went about teasing out the right structure and timeframe for the story to come through.
(3) RELATIONSHIPS – AND HOW TO MANAGE THEM – SEEM TO BE A PIVOTAL PART OF ‘HONEY’, NOT JUST THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JADE AND HONEY, BUT JADE AND HER MOTHER (BOTH OF WHICH FEEL FULL OF APPREHENSION). CAN YOU SAY A BIT MORE ABOUT THAT?
There's a brilliant quote that I've heard attributed to Ishiguro, which is that readers are less interested in characters and more interested in the relationships between them. I felt this applied particularly to short fiction — it might not explore a change in character in the way a novel might, but by the end of a short story the central relationship for that character has shifted. Honey has four key characters, and the dynamics between them all move and change shape. I was also interested in what bereavement can do to friendships, especially amongst young people who might struggle to understand the full magnitude that loss. The story’s ending suggests a reconciliation of sorts between Jade and her mum, and there’s a narrative irony there because that reconciliation has been driven by Honey’s loss.
(4) IT’S ALWAYS INTERESTING TO HEAR HOW MUCH WRITERS DRAW ON THEIR OWN LIVES (EVEN JUST FLEETING OBSERVATIONS). … ON THAT, HAVE YOU EVER ENDED UP IN A HOUSE WITH ITS OWN TAXIDERMY WING?
Haha, sadly not, that was really just a tool for the story. But I have been a teenage girl, so the intensity of that time, the friendships, the exploration of sexuality, the desperation to belong, has of course all got its routes in experience.
(5) OK! ON TO YOUR WRITING MORE GENERALLY. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING? DO YOU HAVE A DAILY ROUTINE?
I’ve always wanted to write. I tried a bit in my 20s and it was all terrible. I came back to it a few years ago, in my early 30s, and took a few courses in an attempt to give it more of a ‘shot’. The key shift has come from giving myself permission to write terribly, which is the only way to get started. I’ve been slowly chipping away at a novel over the past few years (mainly thanks to the pandemic cancelling my commute), and more recently I’ve started working on short stories. I love them! I did a brilliant short story course with writer Naomi Wood in the summer. Before that I had no idea how complicated they are to construct, and how hard they are to land, and now I'm hooked!
Right now I have no writing routine. I’ve got a busy job and 1-year-old, so it’s pretty hard to find time. I wrote ‘Honey’ during the last few months of my mat leave — my son was finally sleeping and I wasn't yet working, so it was a delightfully productive time. If I was the person I want to be, I’d be getting up before my son does to get an hour’s writing done each morning before work, maybe that’ll happen one day...
(6) WRITING AND REWRITING: WHAT’S YOUR RATIO?
It’s all in the re write... I like to have a strong idea of the story before I get to work, then I push out a draft which I usually hate, then with each edit I hate it a bit less. I have some very helpful reader friends whose feedback always helps me see things with fresh eyes.
(7) AND WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?
I have some other short stories out there doing the competition rounds, and I'm on the second draft of my novel. I have lots of ideas waiting to be turned into short stories as well. For now I just want to keep going, keep improving, and see where it takes me.
(8) OTHER WRITERS. TELL US ABOUT SOME YOU ESPECIALLY ADMIRE – AND ALSO WHAT YOU’RE CURRENTLY READING.
I’ve just read The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas. It’s a Norwegian novella about an intense friendship between two young girls (so it’s very up my street!). There’s a quote from the incredible Max Porter on the back of it saying ‘I don’t know why this isn't the most famous book in the world’ — and I think he has a point.
In the short story world, Saba Sams Send Nudes helped me have confidence that stories about millennial teenagers can interest people (it's an incredible collection), and I love Lorrie Moore and Julie Orringer for the way they use the child/teenage perspective in short fiction.
In the world of novels, some favourites that spring to mind include Ocean Vuong, Arundhati Roy, Donna Tartt and Caleb Azumah Nelson.
(9) AND HERE’S A SPOT TO NAMECHECK ANY OTHER FAVOURITE THINGS: ARTISTS, ARTS, FILMS, CINEMAS, TV, MUSIC… WHATEVER YOU LIKE.
Oh this feels like a big question! I’ve really struggled to get to the cinema since I had my son, but luckily there’s been a lot of great TV in recent years. Succession has been my ultimate fave, and I’m currently enjoying Severance and looking forward to the new White Lotus.
(10) ‘THE HORROR OF THE BLANK PAGE.’ DO YOU FEEL THAT HORROR? AND HOW WOULD YOU ADVISE OTHER WRITERS TO GET BEYOND IT?
I’ve got a notes app on my phone where I jot down ideas. That doesn't help with trying to translate those ideas onto a blank page, but at least there’s always a nugget of something to start with. I think it really is that cliche though — just get it down, then make it better later.
TORIL COOPER is a London based writer who heads up a creative team for a leading mental health charity. She has a degree in literature from UEA and has taken part in selective creative writing courses with Faber academy and Curtis Brown Creative. She is currently working on a short story collection and on her first novel.