Tag Archives: Featured
November 2020 – Flash shortlist and winners
Our first flash fiction competition attracted a huge number of entries, and it has taken longer than ever for the judges to chose the shortlist and the two winning stories. (Christmas and New Year, plus the small matter of relocating the entire Cranked Anvil HQ up to rural Northumberland, didn’t help to speed the process along!)
But the results are now in, and we are delighted to publish the following placed entries:
1st: Hannah Sutherland – Warm Milk
2nd: Rose Walker-Taylor – Soup Kitchen
Prize money is on its way to you, and your stories are published here on our website.
Well done to the following writers who made it to the shortlist:
Benjamin Britworth
David Butler (1 story)
Linda Fawke (1 story)
Mary Francis (1 story)
Martin Kirkbride (1 story)
James Mason
Jodi Moxon (2 stories)
J M Thomas (1 story)
Gillian Welby (1 story)
Barbara Young (1 story)
As you can see from the list above, many of our writers enter multiple entries, and hve made it onto the shortlist with at least one of their stories.
Both our writing competitions are open all year round with quarterly deadlines, so why not have a go and enter your work – we love to read and publish the best, both here on our site and in our annual print anthologies.
Enter our 1500 word Short Story Competition – next deadline 31 January.
Enter our 500 word Flash Fiction Comptition. – next deadline 28 February.
Good luck!
October 2020 – shortlist and winners
An unprecedented number of entries this quarter meant an unusually large longlist, but the judges have worked long and hard to get it down to this final shortlist and the three winning entries.
Every single qualifying entry was read and studied [yes, we are still receiving some entries which go into the disqualified pile because they don’t follow all the rules of entry] and we’re delighted to publish the following placed entries:
1st: Tesni Jenkins – Soldier Boy
2nd: Rachel Robbins – Winning
3rd: Guilherme Ribeiro – A Summer Carol
Prize money is on its way to you, and your stories are published here on our website.
Well done to the following writers who made it to the shortlist:
Emilie Akoka; Cath Barton (1 story); Simon Birinder; Hollie Brennan; Gillian Brown; Rebecca Burns; Colette Coen; Paddy Doherty; Eoghan Doyle (1 story); Jonathan Gurling; James Hancock (2 stories); Radhika Iyer (1 story); Gwenda Major; David McVey (1 story); Sherry Morris; Liane Smith (1 story); Andy Stewart; M Q Tate; Gillian Welby (1 story); James Woolf; Alex Zyms.
Both our writing competitions are open all year round with quarterly deadlines, so why not have a go and enter your work – we love to read and publish the best, both here on our site and in our annual print anthologies.
Enter our 1500 word Short Story Competition.
Enter our 500 word Flash Fiction Comptition.
Good luck!
Short story competition – 4 for 3 offer extends into 2021
Ever get the feeling you’re going through a sense of deja vu?
Yes, here we are in another lockdown in the UK, with all the inconveniences and uncertainties that it brings.
But one thing that remains ever constant is our 1500 word short story competition!
Last quarter we received the biggest number of entries since the competition began. We were delighted that our special offer of allowing 4 entries for the price of 3 inspired so many of our writers – both new and regular – to create even more great work. We’re currently reading through all eligible entries and creating the longlist.
And because we love it so much WE WANT TO READ MORE!
Which is why we’ve decided, for yet another quarter, to extend the offer and do it all over again! (deadline 31st January 2021).
This will be the third quarter in a row that we’ve done this, as we continue to strive to be a thoroughly affordable and accesible writing competition. It’s open to any theme or genre, the only limit is the word count of 1500 words (not including the title).
The fee for one or two stories remains the same – £5 for one, £8 for two – but if you pay the fee of £10 you will qualify to enter FOUR stories, instead of the usual three. This equates to just £2.50 per story entered; we know of very few paid competitions which are better value than that!
So go on – take advantage of the offer once more. Enjoy creating your four new stories – you have three months in which to write them.
We look forward to reading them.
You can enter the competition here. Make sure you carefully read and abide by all the rules of the competition. If you would like to read previous winners and placed entries, you can do so here.
Meet our first Anthology contributors
You may have noticed recently that we’ve been shouting about our upcoming Short Story Anthology.
Well, we make no apologies for that! We’re very proud of it, and we can’t wait to share the fantastic work written by our thirty-three contributing authors.
Publication date is 16th November, and you can pre-order your copies here.
They make a fantastic Christmas present for anyone in your life who loves reading (including yourself!)
If you’re a regular subscriber to our website you’ll know that our competitions are open to any theme or genre, and the anthology really reflects that, with a fantastic mix of humour, drama, sci-fi, supernatural… you name it, it’s in there!
And here are the authors whose work is featured in the book:
Matt Allen
Andy Banks
Edward Barnfield
Cath Barton
Joe Bedford
Peter Boyle
Sharon Boyle
Richard Garcka
Carole Garrett
James Hancock
Alyson Hilbourne
Sue Hoffman
John Holland
Jason Jackson
Alan Kennedy
Gwenda Major
Robbie McHarg
Lindsay McKean
Sherry Morris
Lauren O’Donoghue
Tony Oswick
Nicki Parkins
J D Revitt
Michele Seagrove
Liane Smith
P J Stephenson
Andrew Stott
Annalise Taylor
Sonia Trickey
Betty Weiner
Gillian Welby
Claire Wilson
Barbara Young
We hope you enjoy reading their stories as much as we have.
And if you’d like the chance to feature in one of our future anthologies – as well as winning cash prizes – take a look at our Short Story and Flash Fiction competitions, and GET WRITING!