The Potteries Prize for Flash Fiction 2018!
We’re thrilled to announce the results of our second Potteries Prize for Flash Fiction competition in conjunction with Stoke-on-Trent Libraries. We had a huge mark up on number of entries from last year and the stories did not disappoint. Many thanks to our judges Joely Dutton, Adam Lock, Debbi Voisey and -our winner from 2017- Bev Adams for their careful consideration of each and every entry. Our judge Joely said ‘The standard of the entries was very high. It’s been a joy to read the submitted stories. There was a good variation in the styles and genres of the pieces – I read horror, sci-fi, memoir, romance, comedy – each unique but all sharing great creativity. Stoke is home to big ideas! I was impressed by how these stories grabbed me emotionally, or made me laugh out loud; the humour was wonderful.’
Here are our shortlisted stories… Each placed entry will have an excerpt printed on a postcard, copies of which will be available across the city and be published on Stoke-on-Trent libraries website page. Shortlisted entrants will be invited to a prize giving event in November where our head judge, Steve Campbell from https://www.ellipsiszine.com/ will announce the overall winner. Congratulations everyone!
Most entertaining story
First place: ‘A Haunting’ by Lisa Culligan
Second place: ‘Love is…’ by Sam Palmer
Third place: ‘Baubles’ by Michelle Richardson
Highly Commended (in no particular order): ‘Countdown to Nothing’ by Jan Edwards
‘From Tunstall to Australia in five minutes’ by Mary Lewis
‘The Glory Hole’ by Gill Evans
Most beautiful use of language
First place: ‘A Story of the Bird People’ by Jacoby Hayward
Second place: ‘Wonderland’ by Dave Proudlove
Third place: ‘ The Mermaids Pool’ by Alison Hill
Highly Commended (in no particular order): ‘Sankofa’ by Jason Smith
‘Eternal Connection Dot Com’ by Dan Weatherer
‘Green Fire’ by Iona Eyre
Best character/ voice
First place: ‘Second Chance’ by Mary Bennett
Second place: ‘Pride of Place’ by Dawn Lacey
Third place: ‘The Lighthouse Wives’ by June Palmer
Highly Commended (in no particular order): ‘The Diamond’ by Whitney Bryan
‘Crime, Punishment and the Idiot’ by Craig Walker
‘Driving Lesson’ by Alex Harford
Best line
First place: ‘The Cat came back’ by Beryl Crawford (last line)
Second place: ‘Soul Music’ by Jacqueline Diffey (first line)
Third place: ‘There came a Viking riding on a Sunbeam’ by Francis Lloyd (title)