KEY POINTS:
Auckland writer Charlotte Grimshaw is in with a chance to win the world's richest prize for collected short stories, the O'Connor International Short Story Award, worth €35,000 ($64,455).
Grimshaw heard the news yesterday just before last night's launch of her new book, Opportunity. She has previously written three novels but Opportunity is her first collection of short stories.
By making the "longlist" for the Ireland-based award, she joins her idol, Canadian Alice Munro, and 32 other writers from around the world, including Australian David Malouf.
"It's terrific and unexpected to be on the list," said Ms Grimshaw, 40, winner of last year's Katherine Mansfield Award for short fiction. "What really pleases me is to be on a list with Alice Munro because I'm a fan. I love her stories."
She was pleased Opportunity had made the O'Connor list "because I think of it as a unified composition, a whole project".
"It is not just a collection of short stories that I've thrown together - all the stories are interconnected. The characters recur and reappear and it has an extra layer in a way because one of the characters is the author of all the stories."
Yesterday she still hadn't told her father, writer C.K. Stead, about making the list. "Because of the book launch, I was at home rather nervously thinking about that and then I heard about this [award], so I haven't told my family yet. The news has certainly brightened up the morning."
The next stage in the award process comes in mid-July, when a shortlist of four titles will be announced by the judges, who are all writers - American Rick Moody, Kenyan Segun Afolabi and Nuala Ni Chonchuir of Ireland. The shortlisted authors have 10 days to accept a place on the final list and agree to attend the awards ceremony in Cork, Ireland, in September.
Grimshaw, a former lawyer and mother of three, said she wrote from 9am-3pm when her children are at school.
"I'm having a busy time at the moment as I have the Auckland Writers Festival, then the Sydney Writers Festival where I'm in an event with David Malouf which will be an interesting challenge."
And if she makes the shortlist? "Well, that would be fun, wouldn't it? I could meet Alice Munro."
