10 - 18 June 2023

Short Story Competition – 2023

Budding authors and creative writers – share your stories with us for a chance to appear in a published anthology and take home a cash prize. There is no theme to the competition.

The closing date for the Short Story Competition 2023 is midnight on Monday 31st July.

Budding authors and creative writers – share your stories with us for a chance to appear in a published anthology and take home a cash prize. There’s a 3000 maximum word limit but no theme to the competition.

Download an entry form here.

The winners of the 2022 Short Story Competition are

First place – ‘Crossing the T’s’ by Philip Sculthorpe

Second place – ‘Once for a Friend, Twice for a Stranger’ by Kayla Martell Feldman

Third place – ‘Sometimes My Annoying Sister is Right’ by Catherine Leyshon.

We were delighted to award Philip and Catherine their prizes at our award ceremony aboard the Teesside Princess on 25 April and welcome many of the shortlisted writers who are included in our sixth short story anthology.

Three stories were also highly commended by judges Jenna Warren, Ian Wilson and James Harris – they are

‘As Above, so Below’ by Laura Timms

‘Erosion’ by Penny Blackburn

‘My Nigel’ by Patrick Belshaw.

All thirty-one shortlisted stories appear in the sixth anthology, which will be available to borrow from libraries across the Tees Valley and to buy from Drake the Bookshop, Stockton and Book Corner, Saltburn.

Shortlisted authors are:

Jenny Adamthwaite – The Day the Spinach Wilted

Helen Anderson – When The Loveliness of Ladybirds Landed

Artemis – Strangers

Aaron Bailey – Orangutan and the Wig

Edward Barnfield – Warscapes (2024)

Jane Bradley – On Thin Ice

Chris Brock – Space and Time

Cathy Bryant – The Creator

Timothy Burton-Martin – Tapestry

Jo Clark – One Lane Closed Due to Incident

Beck Collett – Curiouser and Curiouser