A roiling, raw, gut-punch of a debut collection, best read in one sitting ... I sat motionless for about half an hour after reading them; I can't wait to see what she writes next' PANDORA SYKES Stella finishes eating and gathers up the plates to take inside to wash. Something about having Frank around makes her a better daughter, and she can feel it happening. This seems to work the same for Claire too; since she married Frank, she remembers things like how much water Stella’s drunk that day.

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. They’re midway through the meal when Blue waves at someone. Stella looks over her shoulder to see a man a few tables away. Jasmine looks too. Anyone who has enjoyed these writers thus far won’t be disappointed in Sams. She can craft a sentence and undoubtedly has real talent. The prose is sparse (so sparse, in fact, as to sometimes leave out, presumably on purpose, function words, such as “of”). It is also, at times, quietly lyrical. The stories are scenes more than anything, containing snapshots of lives through which people blindly grope. The characters are lost or approaching despair or finding a brief moment of reprieve. Blue leans forward, catches Stella’s eye, and winks. Hey bestie, she says. You wanna split the last fig? I make the assumption that the stories are well received because they have drawn attention from a new, and different, reading demographic. I’m guessing that this would be predominantly young, and probably female……The protagonist in every single story is young, and female.

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What distinguishes her from millennial writers such as Ottessa Moshfegh, who shares her deadpan humour and visceral style, is that her characters aren’t jaded, but voracious. They’re not immune to existential angst – “Do you ever worry that nothing you do matters?” – but they get on with living, devouring new experiences with gusto. Does this herald a tonal shift in twentysomething fiction? It’s too early to tell, but it’s precisely this earthy resilience and joie de vivre that make Send Nudes so rare and uplifting. Stella turns and runs through the house. In her bedroom, Blue’s velour dress is a loop on the floor. On the dresser, the cherry stones have lost their shine. Stella crawls into bed, pulls her knees up beneath her chin, and waits. When I was writing Send Nudes a few years later, I returned to the story and started working on it again. I’m always thinking about what it looks like to be a young woman: about bodies and power, about friendships and family, about the ways we’re constantly looking to break free. ’Blue 4eva’ engages with sexuality too, particularly with queerness, in a subtle way that I found interesting to write."

Blue arrives then. She’s jogged down, and her breathing’s loud. I’ve always wanted to do a runner, she says. My favorite stories of the collection were 'Tinderloin', 'Snakebite', 'Send nudes', 'Here Alone', 'Blue 4ever' and 'The Bread.' These tales are about passionate friendships, elusive dating rules, and learning to live in your body. I don’t know if I feel that the character in that story is empowered by sending her nude. Certainly I think there is a thrill in her sense of being seen, and that the act of taking the photo allows her to interact with her body in a way that she finds pleasurable. Neither do I feel that she is being exploited, though it’s always true that women’s desires are partly shaped by the misogynistic culture in which we live. It seems near impossible, as a heterosexual woman, to act out a sexual desire without being cornered by the narrow walls of empowerment versus exploitation. Yes, the two exist, but it is more complicated than pitting them against each other as a stark binary. The title story, for me, is about a brief moment of lightness, a rising out of these binds. Threading between clubs at closing time, pub toilets, drenched music festivals and beach holidays, these unforgettable short stories deftly chart the treacherous terrain of growing up - of intense friendships, of ambivalent mothers, of uneasily blended families, and of learning to truly live in your own body. In Tinderloin and Snakebite your protagonists find their animal companions to be more dependable than the humans they invest in. Is this a reflection of their age or are adult relationships just as unreliable?

About the contributors

I still remember where I was when I first encountered a Saba Sams story' NICOLE FLATTERY 'I fell for this stunning collection with a rare, consuming passion' MEGAN NOLAN ____________________________________________________________ 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?

Frank cut a slice of manchego and lay it down in front of her. Jasmine didn’t touch her cheese. After some minutes, she announced that she’d invited Blue out to join them. Frank threaded his fingers together on the table. The point of this trip, he said, was to spend time together as a four. Baume is nominated for her poetic third novel Seven Steeples, which depicts a couple escaping into the wilds of south-west Ireland. Barney Norris in the Guardian called it a “glacially beautiful book”. Gower said Baume had “created a marvellously shambolic and memorable pair of characters” and described the book as “tender and true”. This award is so prestigious that honestly I didn’t think too hard about. I truly never thought I’d be shortlisted, let alone win. Jasmine shakes her head. She’s just using you to wind me up. Blue and I have been best friends since we were practically babies.Discussion around the stories, collectively, is whether the girls featured have a refreshing honesty, and agency, in how they respond to the events that surround them. (I heard Sams at the International Dylan Thomas readings in London in May 2023). Talking about her story, Sams says: “It’s very special to have ‘Blue 4eva’ – a story I’ve been working on, in one way or another, since I was nineteen – be given this kind of esteem. I first wrote ‘Blue 4eva’ in rainy Manchester when I was a student, though it was very different then. The story was very short, more of a vignette, but I had fun with it. When I was writing Send Nudes a few years later, I returned to the story and started working on it again. I’m always thinking about what it looks like to be a young woman: about bodies and power, about friendships and family, about the ways we’re constantly looking to break free. ‘Blue 4eva’ engages with sexuality too, particularly with queerness, in a subtle way that I found interesting to write.”