January 2021 – Long List

Once again, a mountain of short stories has kept the judges very busy at Cranked Anvil HQ, and as always we’ve loved reading all the eligible entries.

We had quite a few comments from writers at the close of our last competition, telling us that our ‘4 entries for 3’ offer had been a very welcome bonus during these ‘writing in lockdown’ times. So, although it was due to end with the close of the January deadline, we decided to keep it open one last time.

So for our current short story competition – deadline 30th April 2021 – you can once again take advantage of entering four stories for the price of three. So what are you waiting for – get writing and get entering! (Also, if you’re quick, you still have just over 3 days left to enter our current 500 word flash fiction competition.)

More free content on our website

Also, we’ve recently started to expand our website, in order to engage more with our writers, authors and contributors – as well as our readers. We’ve started by publishing a couple of new article series:

‘On The Shelf’ is a feature in which our authors tell us about the top five books that they absolutely MUST HAVE on their bookshelves. You can read the first of these, from Cath Barton (whose story Radio Times was included in our first print anthology) here.

And our occasional series of ‘Author Profiles’ will give us a bit more of an in-depth background on our writers; how they work, what they like to write, and any writing advice they have for other writers. The first from Carole Garrett (who also appeared in our first anthology with her story New Baby)  is here.

But now, we’re delighted to reveal our long list of authors for the January 2021 competition:

Holly Barratt (for 1 story)
John Biglands
Dianne Bown-Wilson (for 1 story)
Harry Brickwood
Jack T Canis
Caroline Clark
Anita Davie (for 2 stories)
Mark Demeza
Ciaran Doran
Eoghan Doyle (for 1 story)
Caroline Drew (for 4 stories)
Daisy Ella
Nick Fordham (for 1 story)
Mary Francis (for 1 story)
Natalie Gregory
James Hancock (for 3 stories)
Peter Hankins
Jay Harold (for 1 story)
John Holland
Erin Howell (for 1 story)
Bridgett Kendall (for 1 story)
Barbara Kuessner Hughes
Richard Layton (for 3 stories)
Gwenda Major
Caitlin McAllister
Lindsay McKean (for 2 stories)
L F Mills
Steven Patchett
Pat Pickavance
Pete Pitman
K R Reeve
J D Revitt
Rachel Robbins (for 1 story)
Sarah Robin (for 1 story)
Kevin Ross (for 1 story)
Michael J Rush (for 2 stories)
Claire Schon (for 1 story)
Edward Sergeant (for 2 stories)
Kerri Simpson
P J Stephenson
Hannah Sutherland
Gilles Talarek (for 3 stories)
Sue Wilcox (for 2 stories)

A few familiar names there – welcome back! – plus lots of new ones, which is great. Congratulations to you all!

The short list and winners will be announced, and the three placed stories published, here on our website, on 14th March.