Together with our lovely friends from Stoke Trent libraries, we are delighted to announce the results of (hopefully the first of many) Potteries Prize for Flash Fiction Competition. Local writers were invited to submit short short stories of 100 – 350 words length and our judges were bowled over by the diversity and talent they were faced with, telling us they were truly heartened by the effort and passion that had gone into all of the stories submitted. Our judge Judi Walsh said “I hope every one of these writers continues in their writing journey” and our judge Lee Hamblin said “All in all, a fine selection, and congratulations once again for simply having the guts to hit the ‘send’ button – always a daunting moment.”
All of the ‘first, second and third’ entries in each of our four prize categories are live on the library website here now. Our wonderful shortlisted are entries listed below…
Most Entertaining Story
First Beverley Adams for ‘Mrs Clowder’s Cats’
Second Wendy Mason for ‘Lessons in English’
Third Jean Hill for ‘High Noon’
Highly Commended (in no particular order) Jason Smith for ‘My Sarah’, Jacqueline Diffey for ‘What’s the Spanish for bottle kiln?’ Neal Broster for ‘Snowy’
Most beautiful use of language in a story
Joint First June Palmer for ‘Beneath the Ice’
Joint First Sam Palmer for ‘Sea Change’
Second Neil Chambers for ‘Familiar Spirit’
Third Nic Hale for ‘After David’
Highly Commended (in no particular order) Charlotte Ellis for ‘Alive’, Milton Shaw for ‘All too brief’, Michelle Richardson for ‘The Visitor’
Most Compelling Character
First Mary Fletcher for ‘Brise’
Second Philip Johnson for ‘Our Stanley’
Third Neil Warren for ‘Subways at Night’
Highly Commended (in no particular order) Martin Tudor for ‘A Day Out’, Craig Walker for ‘The Dragon’, Joely Dutton for ‘Dolce’
Best lines (first, last and title)
First Lisa Culligan for the first line in ‘Cows in the kitchen’
Second Jacoby Hayward for the last line in ‘First Class Love, or, A Romance of the Rail’
Third Diane Morris for the title ‘Black Holes in Space and a Journey of Understanding’
Congratulations everyone annnnnd…we’re delighted to have confirmation that we will be running this competition again this year! Watch this space for details….