Tom Vowler
Dr Tom Vowler , Associate Lecturer in the School of Society and Culture , has won a major international award.
He was one of seven people in the running for the V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize, an annual award organised by the Royal Society of Literature that received more than 1,000 entries, and was announced as the winner at a ceremony in London.
Dr Vowler won for his work Voyagers, which follows two female astrophysicists on a psychedelic journey exploring love, illness and the cosmos. 
Author and judge Julia Armfield described it as being "clean and balanced, combining science and romance with flair and intelligence", while judge Fred D'Aguiar said it was a story "with real intrigue and knowingness that makes compelling reading".
The prize was open to authors of unpublished short stories of between 2,000 and 4,000 words, and was founded in 1999 to commemorate the centenary of the renowned 20th-century author.
As the winner, Dr Vowler received the first prize of £1,000 and Voyagers has also now been published in Prospect magazine.

I'm thrilled to win such a prestigious prize.

My journey with the short story began at the University of Plymouth under the expert tutelage of Professor Anthony Caleshu
Although I also write novels, the enigmatic, transcendent qualities of this compressed literary form ensure I return to it again and again.

Dr Tom Vowler
Associate Lecturer

Dr Vowler is a graduate of the University’s MA Creative Writing programme, and subsequently completed his PhD on the role of trauma and landscape in fiction.
Over the past decade, he has won – or been shortlisted for – a number of prestigious literary prizes, with his work also featuring on BBC radio and being translated into multiple languages.
Tom Vowler - VS Pritchett Short Story Prize winner 2024