Tian Yi has won the 2023 4thWrite prize for The Good Son, a short story about a young man reflecting on a small-town childhood interrupted by strange occurrences, and a friendship he never fully understood.
The competition, run by the Guardian and publisher 4th Estate and now in its seventh year, is open to unpublished writers of colour living in the UK or Ireland. Yi has won £1,000, a one-day publishing workshop at 4th Estate, and the publication of her story on the Guardian’s website.
The Good Son is “fantastically original”, said Bolu Babalola, award judge and author of Love in Colour, who was previously longlisted for the prize. added Fellow judge Kishani Widyaratna, publishing director at 4th Estate, called it “an impressively realised story of sly humour and tender insight, that playfully subverts familiar narratives of the immigrant experience,”
A special commendation was given to Liberty Martin’s story Bleach, in which a Black woman in 1960s Kansas recounts her experience entering a white beauty pageant. Judge and Guardian fiction editor Justine Jordan said that Martin’s “voice, characterisation and storytelling are particularly impressive”.
The winner and special commendation were revealed at a ceremony in London on Monday. Other shortlisted stories were Micromanageress by Rosie Chen, The Man Who Cried at the Sky by Benjamin Toma James, Back of House by Esther Okorocha and My Last Real Housewife by Melissa Gitari.
Angelique Tran Van Sang, judge and literary agent at Felicity Bryan Associates, said that The Good Son “cleverly plays with well-worn narratives to create something entirely fresh and unusual. It’s convincing, immersive and pulls the reader into its world with such confidence, I felt I was in the hands of someone who knew exactly what they were doing.”
Also on the judging panel, Helena Lee, features director at Harper’s Bazaar and founder of East Side Voices, added that Yi’s “masterful” story “captures the state of being a British east Asian and the nuances that come from being different within the diaspora beautifully”.
“The themes of social mobility, community and the idea of being a ‘good immigrant’ are given texture through this narrative, and exquisite crafting of character,” Lee added. “The story deftly explores those barriers of expectation – and the silence that occurs as a result – which arise from being children of immigrants, mixed with a sprinkling of the otherworldly.”
Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls, was also on the judging panel. Last year’s winner was Olivia Douglass with their story, Ink.
