It’s time to announce the winners of this year’s Newcomer Prize for Short Stories.
The standard of entries to our competitions is always high. People send in their best work, and judging the entries is as rewarding as it is challenging. Getting the entries down to a shortlist of ten stories was tricky, and picking two winners nearly impossible. But we’re short story publishers: we’re used to doing the impossible.
And so, here are the winners and shortlist of this year’s prize. First, our shortlist of ten stories. All of the writers below will receive a selection of paperback Fiction Desk anthologies through the post:
- Three More Days by Gayle Andrews
- The Bus Stop by Becky Carnaffin
- Uncle Dougie’s Suitcase by Alastair Chisholm
- The Insurance Policy by Christine Grant
- Not Waving, But… by Maureen Hanrahan
- All Washed Up by Chris Hogben
- The Black Squirrel by Christopher Howard
- Tool by Mac McCaskill
- Recalculating Route by Mat Osman
- Not Like Us by Sherri Turner
And now our two winners:
In second place, with a prize of £250:
- All Washed Up by Chris Hogben
In first place, with a prize of £500:
- Uncle Dougie’s Suitcase by Alastair Chisholm
So congratulations to all of the above, and thank you to everybody who took part in the competition. This year’s winners will be appearing in our twelfth anthology, due early in 2018.
The Newcomer Prize will open again for entries next year, but if you fancy trying your hand at very short stories, our flash fiction competition is open now. You’ll find details of that one over in our submissions section.
