Trinidadian writer Ingrid Persaud won the £15,000 (about $19,525) BBC National Short Story Award for "The Sweet Sop." Judge and former winner K.J. Orr described the winning work as "tender and ebullient, heartbreaking and full of humor." Persaud's story also won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2017.
Chair of judges Stig Abell, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, said they "were unanimous in their praise for a story which keeps a consistency of voice without smoothing over the reality of genuine conflict. The relationship between Victor and Reggie, estranged father and son, who find solace in chocolate, is an utterly convincing and memorable one, a clever inversion of normal parental process."