1000 word challenge

Winners

‘Thirteen’

We never know quite what to expect when we send a new theme out into the world. For our ‘thirteen’ competition, we were expecting stories about difficult teenagers, bad fortune and superstition. What we didn’t expect were moody checkout girls, harrowing tales of domestic violence and love stories told across cultural divides.

We had stories from all over the world – Austria, Poland, Australia and even Botswana – and the standard was incredibly high. Choosing the winners was a long and sometimes intense process as we weighed the relative merits of some truly brilliant writing.

Special mention for his theme response goes to Daniel Smyth, whose story has the most unhappy of marriages at its heart. One spouse is strangled by bootlaces and the other killed by a drink laced with poison. We genuinely gasped on discovering that lace is the traditional gift for a thirteenth wedding anniversary and were impressed by Daniel’s approach to this competition.

After lots of deliberation, reading and re-reading, we’ve published three fantastic stories. We hope you enjoy them.

It’s fair to say we’ve never read anything quite like ‘The First Death of David Cassidy’ by Dave Swann. It’s a quirky and fantastical story where teenage girls take flight and the earth-bound boys can only watch in wonder. For his humour and originality, Dave wins our first prize of £150.

Alexis Wolfe’s ‘Brand New with Tags’ is a beautiful, small-scale story with a strong mother-daughter relationship at its heart. It asks some big questions. Wouldn’t life be better if they made clothes in those in between, odd-numbered sizes? What stories would your clothes tell if they could speak? And why are we so sentimental about the contents of our wardrobes? We’re delighted to give Alexis our £75 second prize.

We had a lot of ‘unlucky 13’ stories this competition but Alyson Hilbourne’s ‘Thirteenth Floor’ stood out from the start. Alyson’s story has a strong narrative voice and a big dose of imagination. We enjoyed joining Billy on his search for the mysterious thirteenth floor and hope you will too. Alyson wins our third prize of £50.

Thank you to everyone who entered. The standard really was high this time and there were many stories that so nearly made it.

Shortlist

‘Thirteen-Rosed Shirt’ by Chez Cotton
‘Trip North’ by Nell Crawford
‘The Thirteenth Story’ by Joe Gibbs
‘The Thirteenth Floor’ by Alyson Hilbourne
‘13:00’ by Rhian Holvey
‘All the Complaints I Want to Get’ by Chris Milner
‘Happy Birthday’ by Rowan Patterson
‘When Love Is a Crime’ by Mzwandile Poncana
‘The First Death of David Cassidy’ by Dave Swann
‘Brand New with Tags’ by Alexis Wolfe

Longlist

‘Cycles’ by Katie Burchett
‘Hunters and Collectors’ by Kevin Cheeseman
‘Thirteen-Rosed Shirt’ by Chez Cotton
‘Trip North’ by Nell Crawford
‘The Thirteenth Story’ by Joe Gibbs
‘Growing Pains’ by Andrew Hamilton
‘The Thirteenth Floor’ by Alyson Hilbourne
‘13:00’ by Rhian Holvey
‘Perspective’ by Joanna Hunter
‘Pure Salad’ by Rum Ibrahim
‘All the Complaints I Want to Get’ by Chris Milner
‘A Celebration’ by Lorri Nicholson
‘Happy Birthday’ by Rowan Patterson
‘Thirteen’ by Attila Péter
‘When Love Is a Crime’ by Mzwandile Poncana
‘Thirteen Gifts for Sara’ by Daniel Smyth
‘Play Misty for Me’ by Martin Strike
‘The First Death of David Cassidy’ by Dave Swann
‘Brand New with Tags’ by Alexis Wolfe