ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES by Dima Alzayat shortlisted for the James Tait Black Fiction Prize

We are thrilled that Dima Alzayat’s collection of stories, ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES, has been shortlisted for the James Tait Black Fiction Prize 2021. The other books on the shortlist are The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet and Lote by Shola von Reinhold. Dr Benjamin Bateman, one of the judges of the Fiction Prize, said, ‘These books represent the very best qualities of global anglophone literature – epic, experimental, and engaged with pressing concerns both political and planetary.’

The James Tait Black Prizes were founded in 1919 by Janet Coats, in commemoration of her husband publisher James Tait Black. The three Prizes, for Fiction, Biography and Drama, are each worth £10,000. The judging process for the Prizes are unique, as they are judged by senior staff from within the English Literature department at the University of Edinburgh, assisted by a group of postgraduate students. Past winners include Lucy Ellmann, Olivia Laing, Eley Williams, Eimear McBride and Benjamin Markovits.

The winner will be announced in August at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES was published in 2020 by Picador in the UK and by Two Dollar Radio in the US, and will be published by Tantor in audio. It was also chosen as a finalist for the PEN America Robert W Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection and shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2021.

Dima Alzayat’s first book, ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES is an intricate, thoughtful exploration of what it is to be ‘other’: as a Syrian, as an Arab, as an immigrant, as a woman. Each story of the stories is a snapshot of those moments when unusual circumstances suddenly distinguish us from our neighbours, when our difference is thrown into relief.

Here are ‘dangerous’ women transgressing, missing children in 1970s New York, a family who were once Syrian but have now lost their name, and a young woman about to discover the hollowness of the American dream. At its centre lies ‘Alligator’: a remarkable compilation of real and invented sources, which rescues from history the story of a Syrian American couple who were murdered at the hands of the state.

‘These charged, visceral stories get under the skin and stay there. This collection heralds the arrival of an electrifying new voice.’ ― Irenosen Okojie

‘How does it feel to be an alien at home? . . . Sardonic, monstrous, tender, these well-crafted tales show us circumstances that might be our own, and let us see them through the eyes of others.’ ― Sunday Times

Dima Alzayat was born in Damascus, Syria, grew up in San Jose, California, and now lives in Manchester. She was the winner of the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award 2019, a 2018 Northern Writers’ Award, the 2017 Bristol Short Story Prize, the 2015 Bernice Slote Award, runner-up in the 2018 Deborah Rogers Award and the 2018 Zoetrope: All-Story Competition, and was Highly Commended in the 2013 Bridport Prize. She is a PhD student and associate lecturer at Lancaster University.

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Dima Alzayat's ALLIGATOR AND OTHER STORIES announced as a finalist for PEN America Award

We are thrilled that, ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES by Dima Alzayat, has been announced by PEN America as a finalist for the Robert W Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection category.

ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES (published by Picador in the UK and Two Dollar Radio in the US), is an intricate, thoughtful exploration of what it is to be ‘other’: as a Syrian, as an Arab, as an immigrant, as a woman. Each story of the stories is a snapshot of those moments when unusual circumstances suddenly distinguish us from our neighbours, when our difference is thrown into relief.

Here are ‘dangerous’ women transgressing, missing children in 1970s New York, a family who were once Syrian but have now lost their name, and a young woman about to discover the hollowness of the American dream. At its centre lies ‘Alligator’: a remarkable compilation of real and invented sources, which rescues from history the story of a Syrian American couple who were murdered at the hands of the state.

PEN America is an organisation committed to amplifying free expression globally, and their prizes are some of the most prestigious in the world. PEN America’s 2021 Literary Awards judges join a long tradition of esteemed writers and PEN America members committed to recognising their contemporaries, from promising debut writers to those who have had a continuous, lasting impact on literary excellence. Judging the short story category are Ben Marcus, Elizabeth McCracken, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras.

The winners of the Awards will be announced in Spring 2021.

About Dima Alzayat:

Dima Alzayat was born in Damascus, Syria, grew up in San Jose, California, and now lives in Manchester. She was the winner of the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award 2019, a 2018 Northern Writers’ Award, the 2017 Bristol Short Story Prize, the 2015 Bernice Slote Award, runner-up in the 2018 Deborah Rogers Award and the 2018 Zoetrope: All-Story Competition, and was Highly Commended in the 2013 Bridport Prize.

 Her stories have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Bristol Short Story Award Anthology, Bridport Prize Anthology, and Enizagam. Her short story ‘In the Land of Kan’an’ was included in artist Jenny Holzer’s projection For Aarhus and was part of Holzer’s 2017 exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a PhD student and associate lecturer at Lancaster University.

Praise for ALLIGATOR AND OTHER STORIES:

‘I love the range of the stories here. The title story is outstanding as is the opening story.’ — Roxane Gay (Goodreads)

‘Dima Alzayat proves herself an incredible literary chameleon, writing across history, nationality, gender and age with deep nuance and empathy.’ — Dana Czapnik, author of THE FALCONER

‘Tremendously assured, wise-cracking and elegiac, with a firm pulse on the magical and mundane. I loved it’s hard-edged lyricism and the tremendous empathetic range and distinctiveness of vision that Dima Alzayat demonstrates in this wonderful collection that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt caught between cultures, places and the interstices of memory and the loaded everyday.' — Sharlene Teo, author of PONTI 

‘Alligator and Other Stories is heartfelt, heartbreaking and heart-mending. It's also razor sharp on the shifting layers of history, family, faith, gender, culture and language that make up that strange thing we call “identity”. An important, necessary book.’ — Jenn Ashworth

‘Dima Alzayat's stories are nuanced, unusual and emotionally lacerating. Hers is a voice that is both vital and haunting.’ — Stuart Evers

‘This is a wonderful collection, exceptional in fact. Its consideration of displacement and identity is so nuanced, intelligent and tender, and its modes of telling so dextrous, apt and beautiful. In Alligator and Other Stories, lives are captured with care and formidable compassion.’ — Wendy Erskine, author of SWEET HOME

‘I've just read the first story in this collection and it is superb. I don't think I've ever noticed myself breathing so fast while reading.’ — Lara Pawson

‘Gloriously hypnotic. These charged, visceral stories get under the skin and stay there. This collection heralds the arrival of an electrifying new voice.’ — Irenosen Okojie

‘Dima Alzayat combines superb writing with razor-sharp imagination and focuses on social injustice, racial violence, and global immigration.’ – LitHub

‘Dima Alzayat’s startling, often shocking stories have at their heart a profound sense of dislocation.’ – Eithne Farry, The Daily Mail

‘This rich short story collection exploring gender, identity, family and inheritance packs an emotional punch.’ — Layla Haidrani, Cosmopolitan, ‘49 new books by black and POC authors you’ll be reading in 2020’

‘This debut short story collection has left us stunned’ — Daunt Books

‘Alzayat’s slim, powerful debut collection showcases the author’s deep empathy and imagination in stories about grief, assimilation, and trauma…This intelligent collection is a force to be reckoned with’ — Publisher’s Weekly

‘Sardonic, monstrous, tender, these well-crafted tales show us circumstances that might be our own, and let us see them through the eyes of others.’ —Matthew Adams, Sunday Times

‘Alzayat manages to execute a short but thoughtful meditation on the spectrum of race in America from Jackson’s presidency to present. Here and everywhere, Alligator is a collection about the power and limitations of empathy.’ — Colin Groundwater, GQ

DIMA ALZAYAT WINS THE ALCS TOM-GALLON TRUST AWARD 2019 WITH FOR ONCE WE WERE SYRIANS

We are thrilled to announce that Dima Alzayat has been awarded the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award for her short story, FOR ONCE WE WERE SYRIANS. The award was announced at last night’s Society of Authors ceremony at Southwark Cathedral.

FOR ONCE WE WERE SYRIANS is featured in Dima’s short story collection ALLIGATOR AND OTHER STORIES, which will be published by Picador in the UK in 2020 and by Two Dollar Radio in the United States. The collection explores feelings of displacement as a Syrian, as an Arab, as a woman - always as an ‘other’. Told through the lens of often very everyday scenarios, her stories are rich, relatable, and full of nuance.

Dima Alzayat was born in Damascus, Syria, grew up in San Jose, California, and now lives in Manchester. She was the winner of a 2018 Northern Writers’ Award, the 2017 Bristol Short Story Prize and 2015 Bernice Slote Award, runner-up in the 2018 Deborah Rogers Award and the 2018 Zoetrope: All-Story Competition, and was Highly Commended in the 2013 Bridport Prize.

Her stories have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Bristol Short Story Award Anthology, Bridport Prize Anthology, and Enizagam. Her short story ‘In the Land of Kan’an’ was included in artist Jenny Holzer’s projection For Aarhus and was part of Holzer’s 2017 exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a PhD student and associate lecturer at Lancaster University.

 Praise for Dima Alzayat

‘Originality is met by craft: you can feel, as you read, the wind catching their sails… Dima Alzayat [is] on the cusp of terrific work, has a distinctive take on the world, and a sense of place in her chosen literary tradition, producing work that is sometimes funny and always new.’ — Anne Enright, The Deborah Rogers Writers’ Award