2024 Short Story Competition Shortlist
Congratulations to our 2024 Short Story Shortlisted Entries
| A War Of Nature | Yvonne Birch |
| A Warm Hand To Hold | Kayleigh Jones |
| Adder Lessons | Laura Hayward |
| And Only I Remain | Michael Pearson |
| Bowie On Amsterdam | Matthew Hurt |
| Colourist | Fay Dickinson |
| Dame Gothel Defends Herself | Sarah Ang |
| Dead Dreams | Sandeep Kumar Mishra |
| Dear Sirs | Sandra Barnes |
| Fragments | Barbara Crass |
| In Praise Of Toes | Julia Thorley |
| Justice | Tanya Aydon |
| Made You Bold, Gave You Fire | Janet Jones |
| Property Rights | Abigail Williams |
| Rearing To Go | Anna Searls |
| The Art Of Listening | Jody Cooksley |
| The Best Of Friends | Lucy Judd |
| The Girl In The Gallery | Nick Durston |
| The Good Of All | Valerie Bowes |
| The Mumbai Theme Tune | Anil Classen |
| The See-Saw Life Of Siblings | Christine Human |
| The_Rota | Annie Fox |
| Tiger Ma | Natasha Laroya |
| Traveller’s Checks | Kevin Chant |
| Who Goes To Poland For The Jazz | Tim Kiely |
The Short Story Competition will be judged this year by Susmita Bhattacharya. Susmita’s debut novel The Normal State of Mind was long-listed at the Mumbai Film Festival 2018. Her short story collection Table Manners won the Saboteur Award for Best Short Story Collection and was a finalist for the Hall & Woodhouse DLF Prize in 2019. The collection has also been serialised on BBC Radio and her latest commissioned Radio 4 short story The Gift is available on BBC Sounds.
Susmita is a lecturer of creative writing and mentors under-represented writers through the Middle Way Mentoring Scheme. She is co-founder of the Write Beyond Borders Mentoring Project and is currently co-running the ACE funded ‘Bridges not Borders’ project in the Solent region.
Prize Giving and Poetry Reading takes place on Friday 25 October starting at 10am as part of the Festival.
Book your ticket here.