Writing duo wins Short.Sharp.Stories award

Writing duo Greg Fried and Lisa Lazarus have won the National Arts Festival Award for the Judges’ Choice of Best Story in the annual anthology of stories chosen for the Short.Sharp.Stories awards.

This year’s theme, Die Laughing, drew many entries, 20 of which were chosen for the collection, which will be launched in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

The husband-and-wife team’s story, This Could Get Messy, was described by the judges as “a simply wonderful story about love … ”

Fried lectures in the philosophy department and co-teaches the master’s course in creative non-fiction offered by the Centre for Film and Media Studies. He also supervises students for the MA in Creative Writing. Lazarus is a writer and writing teacher.

“Our story is about Ilhaam, a passionate and brilliant schoolgirl who has an extensive knowledge of the Koran and a confidential problem involving love, and Gary, a pompous philosopher of mathematics and a man with his own secrets, whom she contacts … We enjoyed finding out what happens when this oddly matched pair interact.”

Story Supplied. Photo Brenda Veldtman.

Caption UCT’s Dr Greg Fried and his wife, Lisa Lazarus, have won the National Arts Festival’s Short.Sharp.Stories award.