The Costa Book Awards — formerly the Whitbread Literary Awards — added a short story category last year, and this category is separate from the other awards. It’s judged by any members of the public who care to download, read, and vote for six short stories on the Costa website, a remarkably diplomatic approach for this sort of prize.

This prize is open to any previously unpublished short story written in English that is up to 4,000 words. The judges selected a short list from more than 1,400 short stories under consideration, and they chose the finalists without knowing any of the authors’ names.

The 2013 shortlisted stories are “The Forgiveness Thing,” “The Gun Shearer,” “The Keeper of the Jackalopes,” “The Old Man and The Suit,” “The Papakh Hat,” and “Still Water, BC,” all of which are available for download on the Costa site. Avril Joy won the first short story prize in 2012 for “Millie and Bird.”

The Costa book awards will be announced on January 28, 2014 in five categories: first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children’s book. The winner of each will compete for the Costa Book of the Year Award.

The short story winners do not qualify for the Book of the Year Award (presumably because they are not books), a decision that  garnered some negative attention last year, according to The Guardian. But the short story prize comes with £3,500 for first place, a second prize of £1,500, and £500 for third place.