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Sonnet Competition 2026 – Results

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Our latest free-to-enter writing competition attracted more than 100 entries. We’re delighted to announce that the judges have selected the winner as:

Echoes by Stephen Ward

Bio: Stephen Ward is a part-time creative writing student and full-time orchard manager from North Yorkshire. He spends most of his time listening to the apple trees, and the rest of it writing down what they say.

Stephen has won the prize of £50, plus one free entry to our 100-Word Writing Competition 2026 (which is open to entries until 30th April 2026 and has a top prize of £1,000… DETAILS HERE).

The winning entry is below, followed by details of the entries that made the shortlist. As always, thank you to everyone who entered.

Winning Entry

(PDF Version)

Echoes

by Stephen Ward

Sam likes the docks. He likes to go down there
alone and sit with his feet in the sand,
watching the ships pass by from the old chair
that he found at the shore. Sometimes he’ll stand
on top of one of the pilings, arms out
like a cormorant, waiting. Waiting
for the sound of an oil tanker enroute
to the refinery, whilst he’s basking
in the milky sunlight. This morning though
a wave of thick and seething mist has spread
itself in off the sea, and when Sam goes
to watch the boats he sees the fog instead.

‘Off wi’ yer nah!’ he calls into the grey.
‘Off wi’ yer nah!’ he hears the sea fret say.

Shortlist

Here are the entries that were selected for the shortlist (in alphabetical order by entry title):

  • Ducks and Drakes by Christian Donovan
  • Has Christmas Yet Discovered Its Great Loss? by Anna Wheatley
  • I Mourn by Isabel Macintosh
  • Sting by Rachel Cain
  • The ‘Yellow Line’ by Paul atten Ash

A big thank you to all who entered our latest free-to-enter competition. To keep abreast of our future writing competitions, as well as many run by other organisations, please sign up to our newsletter below. We send one newsletter email each month and never share your email address or other information with anyone else.

If you appreciate our website and the competitions we run, please consider donating at our Ko-fi.com page. Donations will help us offer more regular free competitions, and will fund more free entries to our paid competitions for those on low incomes. 

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