Gwendoline Christie reading Sunbed by Sophie Ward
11 July 2018
Gwendoline Christie presented Sophie Ward with the RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award for her superb short story, Sunbed, followed by a live performance of the winning story in the new Benjamin West Theatre.
About Gwendoline Christie
Gwendoline is one of Britain’s most exciting actresses, perhaps best known for portraying the warrior Brienne of Tarth in the HBO series Game of Thrones since 2012, and the First Order Stormtrooper Captain Phasma in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). In 2019, she received critical acclaim for her outstanding performance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridge Theatre in London and the National Theatre Live.
About Sophie Ward
Sophie Ward is an acclaimed actor and writer from North London. Her short stories have been published in the anthologies, Finding A Voice, Book of Numbers and The Spiral Path, and The Gold Room. Her novel, Love and Other Thought Experiments was published in February 2020, and her first book, A Marriage Proposal; the importance of equal marriage and what it means for all of us was published by The Guardian short books in 2014. She has published articles in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Spectator, Diva and Red magazine.
About the Award
The RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award is an annual non-profit, open-submission writing prize, staged by Pin Drop Studio in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts. It offers a platform for new writing open to published and unpublished writers from anywhere across the globe to showcase their short fiction. Past winners include Bethan Roberts, Claire Fuller and Cherise Saywell for their extraordinary stories, which have been narrated for our podcast series here by Stephen Fry, Juliet Stevenson and Dame Penelope Wilton.
Many stories discovered the award are included A Short Affair, Pin Drop’s first anthology of original short fiction edited by Simon Oldfield. It features bestselling authors alongside past winners and shortlisted stories from the award with artworks by artists from the Royal Academy of Arts.
David Butler, Scorched Earth
Nat Luurtsema, Howling Pack of Undesirables
Niamh MacCabe, Steer the Dark Skies Blue
Anthony Quinn, Trick Bag
Stefanie Seddon, Breaking Horses in Waiuta
Kathryn Simmonds, The Social Smoker
Stuart Snelson, Space Invaders
Maria Thomas, Lucky
Sophie Ward, Sunbed
Asif Zubairy, Playing God
Now in its fourth year, the RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award
