Short Story Competitions

A Slice of Life

The theme of the competition was "A Slice of Life". We asked writers to take us into the world of a female protagonist and show us something of her life. It could be a moment, a day or a particular event. This protagonist could be any age, from any period in time and of any nationality.

Judges Comments

We were overwhelmed by the volume and quality of stories for our latest competition and thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your entries. Due to the high standard of entries we decided to award a first and second prize and to publish a shortlist of stories that very nearly made it as runners up. We have also listed some stories that were highly commended. Geoff Bagwell will have his story recorded for Short Story Radio and receive a free critique from best selling writer Sophie King. Sue Anderson will also have her story recorded for Short Story Radio. Listen out for these stories on the website and podcast in November.

Our three runners up will have their stories posted on the Short Story Radio website. The stories will be published in late October.

Short List

The following stories very nearly made it as runners up in the competition and were particularly enjoyed by the judges:

Nana Cash, Maj Ikle; Decisions, Decisions, Juliet Boyd; The Fall, Rachel Amphlett; The Woman in the Window, Ian Burton.

Highly commended

The following stories were highly commended:

Red's Tale, Felicity Shakespeare; Red Bus, Vicki Jarrett; Pomona, Angela Williams; A Dollop of Mother, Chloe Banks; Dead Wood, Cat Sweeney; Still the Same Old Catherine, Judy Walker; Soup in a Cereal Bowl, Juliet West.

The judges

Ian Skillicorn, Founder and Producer, Short Story Radio.

J Carmem Smith, author of Chasing Shadows (Appin Press). J Carmen currently runs a Creative Writing Group and Reading Group for a North West England branch of The University of the Third Age.

Other short story competitions

Short Story Radio runs three short story competitions a year. Members of our Writers' Club get free entry to competitions. Our next competition will begin in October 2009. If you'd like to be informed when the next short story competition opens then sign up for our newsletter.

The winner of the Winter 2008/9 Short Story Competition was:

Terry S. Kidd for Exit Interview (Click to listen to it now)

The four runners up were:
Nick Cook for Dare;
Donna Ashcroft for The Librarian;
Malcolm Bray for Dinner At My Place;
Beverley Sims for Tracks

Once again the judges were impressed by the quality of submissions for the short story competition. We'd like to thank everyone who submitted a story; we enjoyed reading them all and are pleased to note that there are so many engaging and entertaining stories being written at the moment. We finally decided on one overall winner and four runners up (one more than we had advertised because we wanted to include all four of them!). Congratulations to the winners, in particular to Terry S Kidd, and thanks again to everyone for taking part.

Honourable Mentions: Short Story Radio Competition Winter 08/09

The judges would like to mention the following stories and writers from our winter competition. Although they just missed out on being in the winning five entries, each was of a very high standard and enjoyed by the judges: This is Not a Pipe by Gayla Cordell Chaney; Medicinal Mud by J Graham Ducker; Ripples by Jennifer Feather; Payback by Patrick Hickey; Desert Mirages by Taisia Islamova; Waiting for Brian by Kym Marlow ; Shine by Jess Richards; The Blue Vase by Roger N Taber; The Hidden Path by Steve Wade.

Listen to current and previous competition winners