Thank you to everybody who entered The Walter Swan Short Story Prize 2017-18. The competition closed in October with over 300 entries from all over the UK and internationally. The standard was extremely high. Our judges, Anna Chilvers and Angela Readman have compiled the longlist of their top 20 stories all of which will be included in the Anthology, edited by SJ Bradley, which will be published by Valley Press in May 2018.
Our successful 20 writers and their stories are:
The Gap Between Us – Zita Adamson
The Place of the Middle – Tabitha Bast
Growth – JL Bogenschneider
Suits – Dianne Bown-Wilson
The Final Delivery – Andrea Brittan
A Delicate Balance – Sarah Brooks
They Were the Only Ones Dancing – Emily Bullock
The Memory of the Day – David Butler
Tea and Sympathy – Victoria Cowan
The Change – Kim Fleet
Eleh ha-devarim – Dominic Grace
How To Begin – Susan Hodgetts
Already Formed – Mandy Huggins
Wonderland – Maureen Lennon
This Time – Elizabeth Ottosson
She Went Out for Milk One Morning and Only Came Back the Previous Day – Andrey Pissantchev
Touched – Megan Taylor
Unsuitable – Olivia Tuck
All Things Bright and Beautiful – P.V. Wolseley
Congratulations to all of you!
We will announce the shortlist of six in February with the winners being finally announced at the Anthology’s launch on Tuesday 22nd May at the Leeds Library. More information about the event will follow.
The competition is run by the Northern Short Story Festival and the Leeds Big Bookend Festival in partnership with the Walter Swan Trust.