Showing results by author "Niamh Campbell" in All Categories

This year's shortlist of six exceptional stories each take the listener on an intense and gripping journey into the human heart. With poise, precision, and a light-footed grace, they conjure dramatically different, starkly real worlds. Hailing from Ireland, the United States and The Bahamas, the finalists of 2020 share stories on subjects as far apart as their settings, exploring among them romantic and marital discord, dark secrets, homelessness and even a high school football team; yet each one opens doors into its characters' lives in surprising and moving ways.

When Alannah was 23, she met a man who was older than her - a married man - and fell in love. Things happened suddenly. They met in April, in the first bit of mild weather, and in August, they went to stay in rural Ireland, overseen by the cottage's landlady. Six years later, when Alannah is newly married to another man, she sees the landlady from afar. Memories of those days spent in bliss, then torture, return to her. And the realisation that she has been waiting - all this time - to be rediscovered.

Cormac is a photographer. Approaching 40 and still single, he suddenly finds himself 'the leftover man'. Through talent and charm, he has escaped small-town life and a haunted family. But now his peers are all getting divorced, dying, or buying trampolines in the suburbs. Cormac is dating former students, staying out all night and receiving boilerplate rejection emails for his work, propped up by a constellation of the women and ex-lovers in his life.

Niamh Campbell, a senior in high school and full-time student-athlete, shares her story as she works to increase her mental strength and conquer competition anxiety. Niamh tells listeners about her personal journey in junior tennis—from being a carefree Red ball player, to (almost) smashing tennis racquets, and having an epiphany about her mindset. In a world that is becoming increasingly aware of mental health in professional sports, the pressure on younger athletes is just as real. Hear a story from a student-athlete, who is learning to maintain her mental health while trying to earn her ...