Canberra author Felicity Volk has won the Carmel Bird Award for her story “Go, You are Sent Forth”, which explores a retired nun’s wish to experience sexual intimacy.

The award was judged by Amanda Lohrey (recent recipient of the Patrick White Literary Award) and presented by Marion Halligan (made a Member in the Order of Australia in 2006 for services to literature and for her work in promoting Australian literature). Carmel Bird is one of Australia’s leading authors of short stories and a long-time advocate of short fiction in all its forms.

In this, its second year, the Carmel Bird Award took the form of a long-form story competition for works between 4,000 and 10,000 words and was open to women writers only.

Authors long-listed for the award will be published as Amanda Lohrey Selects, a series of digital eSingles by Spineless Wonders — host of the Carmel Bird Award and a publishing company specialising in Australian short stories.

Spineless Wonders publisher Bronwyn Mehan said she was thrilled to have the “three big gals of short Australian fiction” — Carmel Bird, Amanda Lohrey and Marion Halligan — associated so closely with the award.

She also said she was keen to publish short-form Australian writing in all its manifestations from 140-character tweets to fiction just short in word count of the novella.

She later reiterated Amanda Lohrey’s comment that those shortlisted represented “an unusually even list with precious little separating them”.

In presenting the award, Marion Halligan said that back in the 1990s she’d taken umbrage with a reporter from The Bulletin who’d said her short stories were “all very nice” but they reminded him of living in the same building as a musician practising scales.

She was angry, she said, because, she knew short stories were not practice for longer works like novellas or novels but were smaller, perfect works of art in their own right — comparable, say, to Chopin’s Preludes or to a Schubert or even a Beatles song.

Long-form short story competitions were also important, she said, because “3,000 words” was often given as the short story cut off point in award and other publishing contexts. At one time, she said, she had been so aware of the 3,000-word cut off point that she could “hardly write a word more”.

I am really pleased to say that my story, “Shooting Star”, was short-listed for the award.

I was also glad to read an extract from “Shooting Star” during the award ceremony at the Electric Shadows bookshop in Canberra on April 7 (the eve of International Women’s Day).

Joanna Atherfold Finn (NSW), Maria Matta (VIC) and Sue Goldstiver (QLD) also read extracts from their stories and Sally Troy read on behalf of Felicity Volk, who was not able to be present on the night as she was overseas working at an International Women’s Day event.

Felicity Volk’s novel Lightning will be published later this year by Picador.

Volk’s daughters received the $500 Carmel Bird Award prize money on her behalf.

Atherford’s, Finn’s and Matta’s stories were commended and received $50 each.

The Amanda Lohrey Selects digital eSingles will be available from May for $0.99 to $1.99 from the Spineless Wonders website and a range of ebook platforms and independent booksellers.