1000 word challenge

Winners

‘Here we go again’ – 15 December 2018

First things first, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who entered our charity competition. You helped us raise a massive £2,565 for Kirsty, Eva and Ella. Your generosity exceeded our expectations and we are really grateful for the wonderful creative writing community!

We’re also very happy to be back after our short break. We’ve missed your stories arriving in our inbox. You were clearly making up for lost time as this was our biggest competition yet and the standard was exceptionally high.

As always, your stories were a diverse bunch. We met arguing couples, worn-out mums and long-distance lorry drivers. We even encountered a family of talking rabbits and a time-travelling egg!

We were surprised by how many of you told the story of adult children coping with their elderly parents. This clearly resonates with lots of you.

We’re really excited to share three fabulous winning stories with you.

‘Departures’ by Alexis Wolfe is beautifully written. It looks at a dark subject from an unusual point of view. We were particularly impressed by Alexis’ strong and memorable opening line, which draws you straight into the action. We’d love to tell you more, but ‘Departures’ speaks for itself. Alexis wins our first prize of £150.

‘Dreams have been done to death’ by Luke Tarassenko is quirky, funny and just a little bit nuts. We loved this imaginative tale and the interaction between the three characters, though it hasn’t helped our fear of alligators! We’re pleased to give Luke our second prize of £75.

‘Ronald Didcot’s Bench. Or...’ by Wendy Turner skilfully mixes the mundane and the fantastical. We loved her two central characters, who prove that getting older doesn’t necessarily spell the end of adventure. Wendy also does an excellent job of subverting the reader’s expectations. We hope you enjoy our third prize story as much as we did. Wendy wins £50.

Thanks again to everyone who entered.

Shortlist

‘Someone Wrote A Story Using Clickbait And It’s The Best Story We’ve Ever Read’ by Adam Lock
‘Community’ by Helen Matthews
‘Taking Tea With The Other Woman’ by Rob McInroy
‘Nothing to be Done’ by Conor Montague
‘Terry and the Twirlies’ by Rob Nisbet
‘Ad Nauseum’ by Harry O’Driscoll
‘With suburbia slipping past’ by Oliver Stanley
‘Dreams have been done to death’ by Luke Tarassenko
‘Ronald Didcot’s Bench. Or...’ by Wendy Turner
‘What You Left Behind’ by Katie Witcombe
‘Departures’ by Alexis Wolfe

Longlist

‘Breakfast’ by Richard Hooton
‘Deliverance’ by Gary Kittle
‘Someone Wrote A Story Using Clickbait And It’s The Best Story We’ve Ever Read’ by Adam Lock
‘Punches’ by Rafael Malaczynski
‘Community’ by Helen Matthews
‘Taking Tea With The Other Woman’ by Rob McInroy
‘Nothing to be Done’ by Conor Montague
‘Don’t trust the birds’ by Misha Murasovs
‘In Loving Memory of Dom’ by Mary Stein Myers
‘Terry and the Twirlies’ by Rob Nisbet
‘Ad Nauseum’ by Harry O’Driscoll
‘The Wild Tortoise Chase’ by Tony Oswick
‘Styx Solutions’ by A J Reid
‘Pie’ by Lesley Rigby
‘With suburbia slipping past’ by Oliver Stanley
‘Dreams have been done to death’ by Luke Tarassenko
‘Deluge’ by Bob Thurber
‘Ronald Didcot’s Bench. Or...’ by Wendy Turner
‘What You Left Behind’ by Katie Witcombe
‘Departures’ by Alexis Wolfe
‘Moving On’ by Jill Yates