Here are the results of the Earlyworks Press £200 short story competition.

The readers agreed that the ‘short short’ list gives us a great crop of stories, and that all on the list deserve commendation, publication and a prize…

the ‘short shortlist’

The Greatest Gift by Gillian Brown

The Volunteer Steward by Cedric Fox-Kirk

Pictures of Paula by Bruce Harris

Nine people who met the late Jake Williams, also known as Williams the Bargepole by David Mathews

Monsieur Anglais by Roland Miles

Transfer by Bethany Ridley-Duff

The Bhaskar Boys by Janet H Swinney

Long Black Veil by Sadie Thompson

Twelve Bar Blues by Mike Wade

… as a result, we are offering all the authors listed above a pick of three free books from Earlyworks Press poetry or fiction titles and a free year’s membership of the Earlyworks Press writers’ online club, as well as their complimentary copy of the anthology when it’s published.

The top three

In the final read, the contenders for first place were The Volunteer Steward by Cedric Fox-Kirk, Long Black Veil by Sadie Thompson and Twelve Bar Blues by Mike Wade.

The winner

We have gone for Mike Wade’s gripping, and highly unusual story as the £200 winner. Cedric Fox-Kirk and Sadie Thompson will each receive £25 commendation prizes but the readers would like to underline that all the above stories are excellent, and we look forward to releasing them as a collection in the spring, along with the best of 2019’s poetry and flash fiction entries, so we can show them off to the world.

Well done all! We are now at work compiling the anthology, details in the next newsletter.   KG March 2020.