Financially, this is huge for me. Earning a living from being a writer is near-impossible in this climate, so this prize money feels unprecedented.

In fact, Stella’s school made a point not to set homework on the computer. When Stella found out about the holiday, it was the first time she used the desktop for anything other than video games. She looked up the island and sat for hours, hovering her mouse over the images. She didn’t go downstairs again all evening, and Jasmine left without saying goodbye. The water looked so clear Stella could see the shadows of the boats on the sand at the bottom of the sea. She thought that when she swam in it, she’d be able to watch the fish drifting beneath her, an aquarium without the glass. Thanks to Sams’ linguistic mirroring, we know this young character has found her kin. Young women still working out who to be will also find clarity in this original, engrossing collection. Frank went quiet after that, and Blue wasn’t mentioned again all evening. By morning, Stella had forgotten all about her. By afternoon, here she was.Praised for its ‘utter truthfulness’ and ‘authentic portrayal of the dynamics of familial relationships’, ‘Blue 4eva’ is a story about a newly blended family’s summer holiday. It was inspired by Sams’ memories of her own childhood holidays on Formentera and features twelve-year-old Stella as she deftly navigates the powerplay between her voyeuristic new stepfather, eighteen-year-old stepsister, Jasmine, and Jasmine’s best-friend, Blue. First drafted when Sams was a 19-year-old creative writing student at the University of Manchester, the judges were particularly enamoured by the ‘veracity of the writing’ and the portrayal of Stella, whose warmth, agency and strength of character, were both refreshing and empowering. Content Warnings: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Abortion, Alcohol, Body shaming, Drug use, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Miscarriage.

Blue arrives then. She’s jogged down, and her breathing’s loud. I’ve always wanted to do a runner, she says. Frank lifts his camera and snaps it a few times at Stella. She isn’t sure if he’s seriously taking photographs, or if he’s performing for Blue. In another story titled ‘Blue 4eva’, three young girls are on vacation with their parents, enjoying the freedom and fun the trip affords them. As the days progress and tensions develop and relieve in different familial settings, each girl makes a choice seemingly without realising the weight it may carry over their holiday. How long did this story take to write? I read that you began working on it when you were 19 years old, and returned to it later.

Saba Sams’ ‘Blue 4eva’ is a triumphant and unnerving portrait of youthful desire and adult failings. The story’s atmosphere is sensual and dangerous but through detailed observations Sams allows each character space to grow and surprise us. The shortlist for this year’s BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University shows the best writers of our generation using skill and wit to build worlds that are, like our own, troubled and uncertain.” Dr Bonnie Lander Johnson, Fellow, Lecturer and Director of Studies at Cambridge University. I don’t know if I was enjoying myself or just in a continual state of curiosity,” says Meg in Snakebite, one of 10 short stories in 25-year-old British author Saba Sams’s exceptional debut collection. Sams joins the ranks of writers such as Megan Nolan and Frances Leviston with these acute portraits of the fragile intimacies and euphoric moments snatched by a generation of women coming of age into a precarious future. What do you think the judges admired about this story? Why does it connect with readers, do you think? Frank is wearing expensive sunglasses, and the lenses blink in the sun. Lots of things, he says. Tapas. Blue 4eva is about a 12-year old girl who is adjusting to her mother’s remarriage, and the new blended family that comes with it. It’s a story about sexuality, identity, and trying to fit in. What inspired you to write it?