Just over five days to go until the closure of our latest monthly competition, which comes to an end on Wednesday.
This time around we have had most of our entries from the UK as well as those from countries including Ireland, Australia and Canada.
Our judge Fiona Cooper, commenting on the March entries, for which we recently announced the winners, said she was impressed with the high quality of the work coming in, something that delights us.
However, as ever, we would like more stories - so you have five days to try your hand! You never know what might happen.
John Dean

THE winners have been named in the March Global Short Story Competition - and the honours have been divided between the UK, Australia and Canada.

The winner is London writer Mark Frankel, runner-up in February, whose story Detail takes the £100 first prize this time around.

Judge, the North-East writer Fiona Cooper, said: “A unique concept, beautifully handled, subtle use of language and surprising. The denouement of this story is very unexpected but completely satisfying. A very visual story, atmospheric and understated.”

The runner-up is Andrew Frost, from Pearl Beach, New South Wales, in Australia, who wins £25 for Chrissie Lights.

Fiona said: “The story has humour, pathos and reads very well. You can ‘hear’ this story. Unexpected twists lift it above the average and the characterisation is simply and economically built.”

The commended stories were Slim Jim, by Tony Hargreaves, of Holmfirth, in West Yorkshire, England - Fiona said “a very competent handling of the child’s viewpoint and reaction to a drunken vagrant who turns out to be far more than he appears’ -and Frank Talaber, of Chilliwack, in Canada, with Embroidered Ghosts - - “a lovely story. Very good use of imagery and language”, said Fiona.

The competition is run by Darlington-based Certys Limited. The April competition closes on April 31. To find out more, or to send entries, visit
www.globalshortstories.net or send stories in the post to Certys at Livingstone House, 29 High Northgate, Darlington, DL1 1UQ, marked Global Short Story
Competition, and containing a £5 entry fee, made out to Certys Limited.
Well done to all our winners.

John Dean

There are ten days to go in our latest competition and the entries have started to come in.

As usual, there are some excellent stories in there and our judge, Fiona Cooper, will have her work cut out to select the winners.

We are also hoping to hear back from Fiona in the next day or two so that we can announce our March winners.

Good luck!

John Dean

Always nice to add another country to our list of entries, which is what we were able to do when one came in from Switzerland at the end of last week. By my reckoning, that makes 15 countries, and five continents, represented so far.

The presence of writers from such diverse countries does indicate that writing is a truly international pastime.

What has been interesting to read is the way many of those writers use local colour, giving their stories an added power for the reader.

The trick with using local colour is to regard it like everything else in writing, as a tool which allows the writer a means to an end.

It is not enough to write about a place, exotic as it may be. There has to be, in my view, something more for the reader, a sense of drama, tension, of something happening or about to happen.

So, for instance, if you an Australian writer, depicting the vast outback is a powerful tool: add someone lost in the midst of it or two people in conflict hundreds of miles from the nearest town, and it becomes absolutely irresistible.

John Dean April 14

One of the things apparent in the stories that come in to our competition is the way writers tackle difficult subjects.

There are various reasons for this, one of which is, of course, that difficult subjects make for dramatic stories. A story about two people getting on really well for 2,000 words can tend to be a touch on the boring side. Introduce something spiky into the narrative and your story comes alive.

Another reason writers tackle tough subjects is something that we often overlook, I think - that our words can have an effect on those who read them, that we can, in some small way, challenge the way people view the world.

It is not the same for every writer - some of our stories are there purely to entertain, to make the reader laugh, to make the reader smile, without challenging them at all.

That is fine, we all need that sense of escapism and it’s that variety that makes competitions like ours such a joy to be involved with.

John Dean

Glad to see another Australian writer among our early entries for the April competition.

Australian short story writing has an excellent reputation, having experienced something of a revival in the 1960s with a number of authors identifying the art form as a good way of joining the protest movements that so characterised that decade. It was through writing that they found a voice.

Since then, a growing number of writers - heralded and unheralded - have kept that belief in the art form alive, supported by the many writing groups and writers’ centres that operate across Australia.

We have certainly been impressed by the quality of entries from that part of the world. Indeed, our first competition saw an Aussie one-two.

Those Australian writing groups and centres have been helping us to spread the word about our competition and we really do appreciate the support they have given us.

As a relatively small company, we appreciate any help we can get so feel free to tell your friends about us - unless you are worried that their story might outshine yours!

John Dean

Our March competition has closed for entries and judging is about to begin.

Our April competition is now open for submissions.

John Dean