GALLEY BEGGAR PRESS SHORT STORY PRIZE 2025/26
Ten questions with GBP Short Story Prize author Lynda Clark
HELLO LYNDA AND CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING LONGLISTED FOR THE GBP SHORT STORY PRIZE WITH YOUR STORY ‘HEAD BABIES’. CAN YOU INTRODUCE IT TO OUR READERS, IN TWO OR THREE SENTENCES?
As part of a class project, Cadi has to take care of a severed head. She names him Cael and dotes on him as if he were a child. But her plan to revitalise him has an unexpected impact on her family and things begin to unravel.
PLEASE TELL US A BIT MORE ABOUT ITS INSPIRATION AS WELL, AND THE PROCESS OF WRITING IT.
I’ve always found those school projects where children are paired up to look after an egg or a bag of sugar, or even a baby doll that cries, somewhat disquieting. I’m not keen on the assumptions it makes about relationships and parenting and our goals as humans. So that was what I had in the back of my mind when writing this — what if a society had a slightly(!) different summer project and what might that say about their cultural norms and ours? As the story developed, Cadi went from being a plucky girl scientist to more of a Victor Frankenstein character — driven by ambition and the pursuit of scientific renown above all else and therefore oblivious to the mistakes she's making.
… AND ON THOSE ACTUAL HEAD BABIES – THE SEVERED HEADS THAT, IN THIS WORLD, SCHOOL CHILDREN HAVE TO TAKE HOME AND LOOK AFTER, AS SUMMER PROJECTS. TELL US EXACTLY HOW THAT IDEA COME TO YOU – AND ALSO WHETHER YOU HAVE AN IMAGINATION THAT OFTEN STRIKES YOU WITH SIMILARLY VIVID images?
I can’t remember why, but the title came to me first. I had been reading something on social media about someone having a terrible time at school having to look after an egg with the school idiot and it reminded me of my own similar experience at school. We had taken care of runner beans instead, and it had been presented more as a gardening task, but we were put in boy—girl pairs and encouraged to name and otherwise humanise our beans and looking back I realised how odd it was and yet how easily I had accepted it at the time. And for some reason the title ‘Head Babies’ popped into my mind, and the idea of something like the classroom dynamics and rivalries of Anne Fine’s Flour Babies but with heads!
Many of my stories come from trying to make sense of the lingering (weird) images from dreams, but this one was a more conscious decision.
ONE OF THE FANTASTIC THINGS ABOUT ‘HEAD BABIES’ IS THE WITHHOLDING OF DETAIL – YOU NEVER EXPLAIN THE SET UP, THE WORLD, OR THE SETTING; YOU SIMPLY PRESENT IT, AND WITH JUST ENOUGH DETAIL FOR THE READER TO TAKE AWAY, AND BUILD AN IDEA FOR THEMSELVES. THIS IS A VERY HARD THING TO DO. HOW DID YOU DO THAT – AND IS PART OF IT EDITING (I.E., ARE THERE THINGS THAT YOU CUT)?
I knew how the opening scene would go, because I remembered two of my favourite drag queens discussing being at Beauty School and the teacher coming round with the bag of hairdressing training heads and everyone fighting over them to get ‘the best ones’. So I wanted readers to initially wonder if that was what was going on here before coming to realise no, it's much worse. I struggled over the ending a lot, though and that's what has changed the most. I tried ending at the point where Cael awakes but that seemed too abrupt, and then a much longer ending where Cadi deliberates over what to do and reflects on the loss of her brother and the events that led up to his death as she buries Cael, but that seemed like it was giving too much away about the world and Cadi's internal motivations. I even tried a version where she ran away with the awakened Cael on a bus to who knows where but it seemed too much like the ending of Let the Right One In and didn't feel earned!
OK! HOW ABOUT YOUR WRITING GENERALLY. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING? DO YOU HAVE A DAILY ROUTINE? ARE YOU WORKING ON SOMETHING AT THE MOMENT?
I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. I was a precocious, annoying child who wrote long short stories as a five year old and forced my poor family to listen to ‘readings’. I've been writing professionally (whatever that may mean these days!) for about ten years or so now. I don't really have a daily routine at the moment, because I’m wrapping up a couple of things and have put others on hold until those are sorted because work often gets in the way and I only have so much time outside of it. When I’m writing I try to do at least 200 words two or three times a week. I usually write more like 1000 per session, but if I set myself a nice low target it means I’m more willing to sit down and do it. I currently have a new novel in the works which should hopefully be out in November and a non-fiction book proposal that's on submission.
WHAT’S THE BEST WRITING TIP YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED, AND WHAT’S THE WORST?
I think the best is very simple and oft repeated, but completely true — writing is rewriting. I always look askance when big names who should know better claim their books come out perfectly formed. It gives so many of my writing students anxiety about their own processes and I just refuse to believe it's true for even the most experienced and arrogant writers. Editing can be a slog, but it's so satisfying when you finally figure out how to make something work! Worst was someone saying: ‘Stephen King writes 5000 words a day so you need to do that too.’ King was a coke fiend when he initially did that and now it’s his full time job. I don’t think it’s something to aspire to as a new or part-time writer unless it comes naturally to you to hammer out that many words.
HABITS, TOO. WHAT’S A BAD WRITING HABIT YOU HAVE – AND GIVE US ONE THAT’S PROVED FAIRLY USEFUL.
My absolute worst writing habit is tinkering before something is finished. Getting into line edits when the overall structure isn’t even done. I know it’s pointless and I shouldn't do it, but I can’t help myself. I’m often quite ambivalent about my writing once it’s finished, and odd as it may sound, I think that’s helpful. Obviously I take feedback and I’m willing to edit, but I usually reach a point with my work where if someone slags it off I either think: ‘No, they’re wrong, it’s good enough’, or ‘Yeah, they’re probably right, but it’s done now.’ I’m not about to torture myself over it. When my first novel got a rather snarky review from Publisher’s Weekly, my lovely publisher were really worried about telling me about it, but I thought it was funny and I didn't disagree with all of it. I know I’m an acquired taste.
and OTHER WRITERS. NAME A FEW FAVOURITES. AND TELL US WHAT YOU’RE READING AT THE MOMENT.
I adore Kelly Link. She's probably my favourite living writer. While it may seem odd in the context of ‘Head Babies’, I like fantasy and sci-fi comedy writers a lot — Terry Pratchett, Rob Grant, Douglas Adams, Robert Asprin. Because my next/current book is a weird non-fiction/memoir sort of affair, I've been reading a lot of memoirs and am currently slowly making my way through Michael Pedersen’s Boy Friends. (I’m a slow reader at the best of times and also trying to learn from it, so the slowness is in no way a reflection on the content!) I also read a lot of short stories and most recently read Megan Taylor’s ‘The Grandchildren’ which is one of those lovely standalone editions by Nightjar Press. ‘Head Babies’ had just been longlisted when I read it and I’m glad I didn’t read it before then because I might’ve worried about being influenced — it's quite different but there’re some definite similarities in tone and worldbuilding!
(AS I’M WRITING THIS, I’M REMINDED OF TWO WRITERS: KELLY LINK AND KAREN RUSSELL. DID THESE OR ANY OTHER SLIPSTREAM WRITERS INSPIRE YOU, IN TERMS OF ‘HEAD BABIES’ SPECIFICALLY?)
Kelly Link wasn’t an intentional influence, but she's always in the back of my mind just because I love her work so much, as is Kurt Vonnegut, purely because he seems to be a fellow genre-ignorer. I haven’t read Karen Russell, but will add her to my list now!
“THE HORROR OF THE BLANK PAGE.” DO YOU FEEL THAT HORROR? AND HOW WOULD YOU ADVISE OTHER WRITERS TO GET BEYOND IT?
No, not really. It’s more the horror of too many spinning plates! I think having low writing targets is really helpful, though. I do believe in building a writing habit, but I think it's just that — a habit. It’s not 5000 words a day or 100 perfect edited words a day. It’s just getting some words down regularly, whether daily or weekly or whatever, even if they aren't for anything. The writing’s the thing. Once you’ve got that habit there, it’s much easier to then direct it towards particular projects.
LYNDA CLARK is currently Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. Her debut novel, Beyond Kidding (Fairlight, 2019) is in development with Film4 and BAFTA winner William Stefan Smith. Her collection, Dreaming in Quantum (Fairlight, 2021) contains the highly acclaimed ‘Ghillie’s Mum’, which won the Commonwealth Prize for Europe & Canada and was shortlisted in the BBC Short Story Award and the Tom Gallon Prize. A new weird novel is on the way in November 2026. She lives on the East coast of Scotland with her husband and dog, Badger.