New Writers 100-Word Writing Competition 2026 – Results

Massive thanks to everyone who entered the latest New Writers 100-Word Writing Competition. We received more than 800 entries, the most we’ve ever received for one of our competitions, which raised more than £700 for Duchenne UK.

Many congratulations to the authors whose entries have been awarded a prize, selected as honourable mentions or picked for the shortlist or longlist. As ever, the judges were extremely impressed by the brilliance of the entries we received. It’s no easy task producing an effective, emotive or powerful piece of writing when you have just 100 words to play with, and many of those who didn’t make it to this page certainly produced excellent entries.

Note that the deadline for our annual Poetry Competition (also with a £1,000 top prize) is 15th July 2026. Details HERE.

And so, to the prize-winning entries, and the entries that stood out. Note that the runners-up, honourable mentions, shortlist and longlist will be presented in alphabetical order based on the entry titles. Click on the titles below to read the top-five winning entries.

100-Word Writing Competition Winners 2026

First Prize (£1,000): “Guangzhou Sees First Snow In 67 Years” – China Daily, January 24, 2016 by Jaime Gill

Author bio: Jaime Gill is a British former music journalist, now working for non-profits across Asia. He writes, reads, runs, boxes, and occasionally socialises. His stories have appeared in Missouri Review, The Forge, Sun Magazine, Trampset, Fractured, Pithead Chapel, and others. He’s won multiple awards, including a 2024 Bridport Prize and the 2025 Luminaire Prose Award, and been a finalist for the Tennessee Williams Prize and Bath Short Story Award. He’s a three-time Pushcart nominee. No pets or children, but he’s keeping a few houseplants alive, just about. He’s writing a novel, a screenplay, and more short stories. Website: jaimegill.com | Newsletter: jaimegill.substack.com

Judges’ Comments: A story that presents beautiful imagery while evoking a range of emotions, from wonder to sadness to nostalgia, is a rare treat, and with his winning entry, Jaime Gill achieves this in just 100 words. This bittersweet tale is visually vivid, contrasting the fleeting beauty of a once-in-a-generation snowfall with the possibility (inevitability?) of an untimely end. Brilliantly crafted, this thought-provoking entry lingers in the reader’s mind, revealing new layers with repeated readings.  

Prize-Winning Runners-up

Runner-up (£100): Fallout by Letty Butler

Author bio: Letty is a multi-disciplinary writer based in Brighton. Her debut novel will be published by Abacus (Hachette/Little Brown) in Spring 2027, and her short films have been shown at LOCO and Aesthetica Film Festivals. Awards include the Fish Short Story Prize, The BPA Pitch Prize, the New Writers Flash Award, Mslexia and a Northern Writers Award. Letty has also been shortlisted for The Bridport Prize, The Letter Review Prize, Silver Apples, The Funny Women Awards, The Kay Mellor Fellowship and Reflex International. She has an MA in Creative Writing from SHU and is represented by Alexander Cochran at Greyhound Literary. Website: lettybutler.com | Instagram: @lettybutler

Judges’ Comments: Letty Butler won our very first Flash Fiction Competition back in 2022, and she’s back in the prizes once again with her excellent entry, Fallout. Exploring how ageing can rob a person’s identity and dignity, the story captures the pride of a man whose body has failed him but whose sense of self remains defiantly intact, while also highlighting his daughter’s role as protector of the man who once protected her.

Runner-up (£100): Kintsugi by Lucy Grace

Author bio: Lucy writes fiction and non-fiction, often linked with geology, geography, time and the natural world.

Her fiction is published and widely anthologised in print and online: she won the 2019 Writers and Artists Yearbook Short Story Award, and the 2021 Blue Pencil Pitch Prize, was runner up in the 2019 Bristol Prize and others, and has been long and shortlisted in the Lucy Cavendish Award, Bath Novel and Mslexia Novel awards, Aesthetica, Alpine Fellowship, Aurora Writing Prize, Berlin Writing Prize, Bridport, Elipsiszine, Fish, Scottish Short Story Award and others. Website: lgracewriter.co.uk | Instagram (and other socials): @lgracewriter

Judge’s Comments: The opening line immediately demands attention and piques the imagination, hinting at the story before the story and the events that caused the heart to crack. The symbolism of the crows (representing death, transformation, or both) is beautifully handled, and their tenderness, alongside the witch-marks and gold, creates a mystical quality. The promise of healing breaks through the melancholy and ultimately provides a hopeful ending that resonated with the judges.

Runner-up (£100): Love and Kitchens by Jack Barrie

Author bio: Jack Barrie (he/him) (@jackstrynawrite) grew up in a forgotten place in the English East Midlands. His writing has won two Royal Television Society awards, was nominated for Best of the Net 2026, and has been published or is forthcoming in Split Lip Magazine (where he’s now a flash reader), The New Flash Fiction Review, Blood Pudding Magazine, The Indiana Review, NUNUM, and others. He pays rent right now by gardening, and building trails in the forests of Vancouver Island. Find him at jlbarrie.com.

Judge’s Comments: A subtle yet powerful entry that explores a family navigating repeated displacement while attempting to build a sense of home and connection. This piece highlights a much-needed sense of hopefulness and underscores the power of human love and familial bonds in the face of instability and hardship. The judges were drawn to the possibilities of the implied backstory and ultimately won over by the quiet emotional weight of home being carried into Nola’s future, regardless of where she may be living.

Runner-up (£100): The oldest art by Natasha Wielogórska

Author bio: Natasha Wielogórska is a Plastic Surgeon from the UK who spends a good deal of her spare time whittling away at creative writing. She writes poetry, flash fiction, longer-form prose and scientific writing. She is particularly interested in the complexity of human beings, including their feelings, interactions and anatomy.

She has been shortlisted for the Outspoken Press Emerging Poets Development Scheme and long-listed in the Farnham Flash Fiction competition. She has won essay competitions, and has published in Abridged magazine, Feels Zine, Royal College of Surgeons Bulletin, Flash Fiction 2026, the upcoming Winter Chills 2026 and (of course) PubMed!

Judge’s Comments: Another entry with a cracking, attention-grabbing opening line, this story subverts expectations with its amusing observations, compelling the reader to continue just as the protagonist is compelled to keep watching. Although playful in tone, the story demonstrates a strong control of voice and builds an unsettling sense of fixation that lingers after reading.

Honourable Mentions

These four entries were in contention until the final round of judging, and all emotionally moved and/or excited the judges.

• 1986 by Steven Van Der Heyden
• A Cracked Vessel by Wendy Hurrell
• A Troubling of Finches by Chris Cottom
• Juno Beach, D-Day 1997 by Lucy Mac

Shortlist

These entries were also very much in contention for prizes until the final stages of the process.

• A Conversation About Resetting by Thomas Romeo
• Anarchist by Issy Alderson
• Clams by Emma English
• Herd Mentality by Jonathan Greenhause
• In the Slip by Adele Gallogly
• Much Appreciated by Tansy Witt
• Radical Divine by Tem Rae Wilder
• Self Destruct Sequence by Nick Havergal
• Sleeping Beauty by Camden Cleveland
• Undertow by Tem Rae Wilder

Longlist

These entries impressed the judges enough to make it to the longlist and stood out from the crowd for various reasons.

• A Ridiculous Day by Eman A. E.
• A Young Drunk Couple Go Stargazing by Gracie Christopher
• Alone in the Bitter Sweetness by Sharon Murphy
• An Angelfish Circles a Too-Small Tank by R. S. Vaughan
• Auguries of Innocence by Beatrice Noel-Smith
• Bore by Jimmy Gleeson
• Brisket and Bruises by Sukie Shinn
• Clause by F.M. Rosey
• Corporate Captivity by Vanessa Green
• December 22nd, 1986 by Mike Kilgannon
• Demons Up North by Quaid Jepson
• Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You by Amelia Gaunt
• False Widow by Kelly Jackson
• Fifty years of snow by Samantha Kent
• Forever Chemicals by Paul atten Ash
• Foxes by Madeleine Deacon
• Girl by Sarah John
• He / Him by Finn Bergstrom
• HIDDEN MOMMA PORTRAIT BEHIND A SOLE by DILDAR M
• How the Other Half Live by O.G.H. Savage
• I have grown old in a rush by Leo Smyth
• Is Anyone There? by Tracey McBain
• Laundry by Ed Toms
• Legible by Susmita Mukherjee
• Like Cinnamon by Jonathan Greenhause
• Lived by Jaime Gill
• Many of the Things You Count by Lee Hope
• Morning musings by Millicent Dunne
• Nettles by Dan Cook
• Normal People by Paul Lenehan
• Notice Board 28th April 2026 by Patrick Dunne
• Obligatory Sex Poem by Scott Linder
• Seasons Change by Isabella Rooney
• Spectacles, Testicles, Wallet & Watch by Geoff Leach
• Temporal Lobe by Robin Keith Hickson
• The Bear Is Asleep by Grace Treston
• The Colour of May is Green by Liz Gwinnell
• The Digital Whisper by Tony Lee
• The Empty Chair At Every Table I’ll Ever Sit At by Aurora Rose
• The End Is An Orange Is The End by Teodora Vamvu
• The Ingredients of Grief by Megan Dawson
• The Old Man on the Rug by Chris Boyd
• The Worst Case by Scott Reynolds
• Things Mother Left Behind by Christine H. Chen
• things my father taught me by Letty Butler
• This woman won’t cry by Emma Dandy
• What I Remember of My Forty First Birthday by Lindy Newns
• When my turn is over by Issy Alderson
• Whenever I Felt Tummy-Sick About Monday Mental Maths by Chris Cottom
• Where she lives by Jordan Kelly
• With The Best Intentions by Jenna Burns
• Worship by Andy Crichton

Once again, thank you to everyone who showed the courage to send us their writing. It’s a significant thing to share your creative work, and even if it didn’t win a prize this time, we hope you are sufficiently encouraged by the competition and the winning entries to continue writing. Many entries that didn’t make the longlist or shortlist were excellent, and perhaps just needed one more edit or slight refinement. Hopefully, your entries will find homes in other competitions or publications in the future.