A massive thank you to everyone who entered our latest Flash Fiction Competition. With more than 600 entries, we were once again astounded by the quality, power and imagination exhibited by the stories we received.
Our fantastic head judge, Shreya Sen-Handley, carefully considered the varied and impressive entries that made the longlist and has selected the three winners, an additional five entries that made the shortlist, and five more that she felt deserved honourable mentions.
Speaking of honourable mentions, the creative writing charity First Story has been continuing their fantastic work and £1 from each entry to this competition has been donated to the charity (£623 in total from this competition, taking our total donations to First Story to well over £3,000).
To those who didn’t win one of the three prizes or fell short of the shortlist or longlist on this occasion: please don’t be too disheartened. We read so many fantastic stories that are sure to find homes in other competitions or literary journals, so dust your story down, re-read and, if necessary, re-edit it, and go again. Or indeed write something new.
So, without further delay, we’re delighted to announce the winners and the shortlist, honourable mentions and longlist (click on the titles to read the three winning entries).
Winners
First Prize (£1,100): First Kiss by Garglestone
Author bio: Garglestone is a tall glass of water. He lives in Greece with his wife and daughter. His recent fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine and Northern Gravy.
Head judge’s comment: “A wonderfully relatable story, told particularly well, that brings alive a world some of us may have left behind but remember in detail, because it left an impression as this story does.”
Second Prize (£300): Confetti Letter by Chris Cottom
Author bio: Chris Cottom lives near Macclesfield. One of his stories was read to passengers on the Esk Valley Railway between Middlesborough and Whitby. Others have won competitions with Allingham Festival, Cranked Anvil, Free Flash Fiction, Hysteria, NFFD NZ, On The Premises, Retreat West, Shooter Flash, The Phare, WestWord, and elsewhere. He’s packed Christmas hampers in a Harrods basement, sold airtime for Radio Luxembourg, and served a twelve-year stretch as an insurance copywriter. He liked the writing job best. (@chriscottom.bsky.social | chriscottom.wixsite.com/chriscottom)
Head judge’s comment: “Beautifully written story about the mysteries of the heart, and who wouldn’t relate to that?”
Third Prize (£200): The Injecting Capital of Europe by Lisette Abrahams
Author bio: Lisette writes poetry and short fiction. Her work has been shortlisted and longlisted in various writing competitions. She recently had a story shortlisted in the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize and achieved first place in the Fiction Factory Flash Fiction competition 2024. Her work has appeared in several publications including the Kipling Journal, Reflex Fiction Volume 5, Drink and Drugs News, and the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology. She currently works as a substance misuse practitioner in the NHS and lives in Surrey with her husband and sons, as well as her cats, Betty and Gilbert.
Head judge’s comment: “Full of local colour and humanity, a story for our times.”
Shortlist
Here are the other entries that head judge Shreya Sen-Handley selected for the shortlist of the competition (with brief comments):
- Hiroshima Survivor by George Alexandru Dragoi (“A beautifully related warning to us all.”)
- Busy by Helen Matthews (“Relatable and deeply human.”)
- Martian Ramen by Kongming (“Funny and different!”)
- Silent Homage by Kate O’Grady (“Well told tale that brings the dancing duo and the sadness of their lives home.”)
- Proving by Stephen Ward (“Well-crafted tale of people we feel we know.”)
Honourable Mentions
And the five that were just a whisker behind those already mentioned.
- Filthy Tabber by Sally Curtis
- In a Whale’s Stomach by Alina Ivanova
- Out to Dry by Glynn Matthews
- Rainbows by Peter Savill
- The Geology of Solitude by Chris Cottom
Longlist
Reducing 600+ entries to a longlist of approximately 50 was a rewarding but challenging experience. Here are the entries that got the nod on this occasion:
7 Deadly Sins; A Rule Book For Good Girls by Lorraine Bustard
A Conversational AI by Craig Romans
A Universal Tendency Towards Decay and Disorder by Susan Wigmore
Bed to 5K by Susanne Jackson-Mayne
Boots by Kieron Phillips-Craig
Breath & Bone by Letty Butler
Cheer up, darlin’! by Katrina Moinet
Class and Capital by Flora Penrose
Coming to terms with you by Marie Coffey
Fireworks by Gwendolyn Blangy
For Both of them are Mine by Jay McKenzie
How to be Happy by Lily Bastock
Imprints by Amy Durant
In the Shared Kitchen by Gina C. Roitman
Lifetime by Rachel V Green
Lucky by Terry Kerins
Mothering by Cassandra Moore
Mr Right Wasn’t by Joanna Miller
My head is not broken by Terry Kerins
New Life by Abi Ramanan
Nobody Ever Told Her Why A Violin Needs Holes by Nish X. Hegde
Pest Control by Jupiter Jones
Pilgrim by Charlotte Goodger
Pins by Jacqueline Winn
Radical Acceptance by Cassandra Moore
Reminiscent of Drogbel Babies by Jarick Weldon
Roots by Rohini Berry
Six Wings to Ash by George Alexandru Dragoi
The Fear by Mina Manchester
The Healing Road by Joanna Miller
The Little Things by Isobel Cliff
The Long Road Home by Alice Lyon
The Pyjama Party by Tracey McBain
What You Don’t Decline to Feel by A. Berg Jolis
Who do you think you are? by Jo Cora
Why Do The Village Sunflowers Pray So Blindly To The Sun? by Nish X. Hegde
A note on the subjective nature of writing competitions
Having entered numerous writing competitions over the years, the New Writers team understand the disappointment that comes with not making a shortlist or longlist. But if you entered the competition in the first place, you’ve already done something brilliant: you’ve created a story that never existed in the history of the universe until that point. Just as the first crocus of spring is unique, so is your story. But the fact is, some people prefer daisies or snowdrops to crocuses. That doesn’t mean your particular crocus of a story is any less beautiful or unique; it may mean simply that the judges were drawn to other stories to a greater degree.
When only three out of 600+ stories can win a prize, there is ultimately going to be a lot of disappointed writers out there (which we’re addressing a little by increasing the number of prizes on offer in our next competition). But we can assure you, literally hundreds of the stories we received could certainly win prizes in other competitions – though some could do with a little refinement (check out the Globe Soup course, How to Write Stories that Win Contests for some great tips on how to improve your stories). The point is: keep writing, keep editing, keep improving your craft, and keep sending your creative writing out into the world.
Thank you for entering our competition and we wish you all the best with your writing endeavours.
The New Writers Team