Thanks to everyone who entered our Autumn 2020 competition. We received 587 entries from 32 different countries.
Below we’ve compiled a long-list of fifty stories. Congratulations to everyone who made the long-list!
If your story is on the long-list and you ticked the permission box (you can check your confirmation email or get in touch with us if you can’t remember), your story will be published on the website between 23 November* and 31 December. If you didn’t tick the box, your story will only be published if you’ve won a prize. Feel free to send us a message and we’ll let you know if your story is going to be published.
Before we start publishing the long-listed stories, we’ll publish some of our favourites that didn’t quite make the long-list. We’ll be emailing the authors of these stories in the next few days to let them know.
If your story is not on the long-list and you do not hear from us within the next week, it means your entry has not been selected on this occasion.
Here’s the Autumn 2020 publishing schedule in full:
- 2 October–22 November*: Some of our favourite stories that just missed the long-list
- 23 November*–28 December: Non-winning long-listed stories in no particular order
- 29 December: Third place story
- 30 December: Second place story
- 21 December: First place story & Judge’s report
*Dates subject to change due to withdrawals etc.
Don’t forget, the Winter 2020 competition is now open for entries with Tania Hershman picking the winners.
Autumn 2020 Long-List
A Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model of the Universe by Alan Michael Parker
A Shepherd’s Care by E A Colquitt
A View From a Bus by John Wineyard
A Welcome Break From the Apocalyptic Norm by Joanne Clague
Accidentals by Elizabeth Moss
All Breakages by Daisy Saunders
An Apology, of Sorts, to My Brother at His Funeral by Diane D Gillette
Beguiled by a Wild Thing by Danielle Baldock
Blind Side by Lee Nash
Bringing Down the House by Susan James
Deaf Dog by Debra Waters
Delivery by Kathryn Clark
Dragon Dust by Leanne Radojkovich
Fever Van by Julie Evans
Formaldehyde by Jo Withers
Hell Is Alarming by K J Ruga
Hereditary by Hollie Richards
How You Should and How You Will by Elizabeth Moss
Kit by Jay Gilbert
Kittens by Rachel Malik
Leonardo Da Vinci by Ibrahim Salihu
Motherhood Is a Series of Mistakes by Sarah Klenbort
Mouse by Gillian O’Shaughnessy
Negative by Michelle Wright
Nest by Ben Sorgiovanni
No Longer Defined, She Is Beyond Definition by Donna L Greenwood
Oblations by Jane Copland
Part of Me by Charlie Swailes
Peacock Shimmer-Blue, Lips so Pink a Shocker by Nicola Godlieb
Peeling Vegetables by Jamie D Stacey
People Present on Carnaby Street on a Saturday Afternoon in Early May by Matt Kendrick
Rabbit Heart by Georgia Cook
Recovery by Anika Carpenter
Rubble of Longing by Dettra Rose
Sharing by Mimi Kunz
She Loves You by Leonie Rowland
The Bad Baby by Louise Watts
The Big Wheel by Alison Woodhouse
The Complex Art of Matriarchal Duplicity by Kathy Hoyle
The Lesser Light by Aroha Te Whata
The Lovers’ Bucket List by Laura Besley
The Lyrical Lie by Warren Paul Glover
The Other Mountain Is on Fire by Tom O’Brien
The Silent Sacrifices of Mothers by Katie Piper
The Things You Grew by T L Ransome
The Tragedy of Tomorrow by T L Ransome
The Wrinkling of My Glabrous Skin Is Proof That I’m Alive by Morgan Quinn
This Is About the Starfish by Sam Payne
Toadeater by F J Morris
When the Wheels Stop by Christine Collinson
