Kate Kemp

Kate Kemp is Australian and now settled in the UK. She trained first as an occupational therapist in Adelaide, and then as a systemic psychotherapist in Melbourne and London. She has worked in mental health services in Australia and the UK and is currently a full-time parent. Kate has written about power in the systemic field of psychotherapy, but now prefers to explore ideas through fiction. She has completed the Curtis Brown six-month novel writing course. Warrah Place is her first novel.

Our judge, Hellie Ogden, commented: - “Warrah Place”

A blisteringly hot, claustrophobic setting coupled with an original, thrilling plot made this really stand out for me. I loved the focus on the women on the street and old prejudices coming to the surface. The characters felt really distinct and the writing has a brilliant energy and freshness too. Tammy pulls the story together beautifully.

E.J. Pepper

E.J. Pepper grew up in Worcestershire and Co. Donegal. She has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Chichester University and has worked as a marital therapist, university lecturer and magistrate. ‘Arian and Lottie’ is her third book. Her first book, ‘The Colours of the Dance,’ won the First Novel Prize, and her second book, ‘Flight Path,’ was winner of the Exeter Novel Prize. She lives with her husband on the Surrey/Sussex border.

Our judge, Hellie Ogden, commented: - “Arian and Lottie”

A heartwarming novel cleverly imagined. I loved the sense of place and got completely immersed in the narrative. The outline suggests some brilliant twists to come, and an evocative story of a strong friendship building between Arian and Lottie at its heart.

Katherine Black

Katherine Black was born and raised in Texas but has spent most of her life in England, which is why she has a very odd accent. Her background is in art history. She spent years working with museums before leaving it all behind for the glamorous life of a stay at home mum. Now that the children are leaving the nest, she's pursuing her dream of writing and recently completed an MA in Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. Katherine is a lover of travel, art, good food and eccentric people. No Fouler Fiend is her first novel.

Our judge, Hellie Ogden, commented: - “No Fouler Fiend”

This had such a unique hook with a smart, darkly comic tone and a strong sense of mystery at its core. Well realised characters and brilliant pacing. Genuinely funny, I was smiling throughout.

Caroline Sutherland

Caroline grew up beside a lake in the Wicklow mountains and later moved to the rolling hills of Kilkenny near to where her family has lived for hundreds of years. She has taught yoga and archery in Europe and north Africa and loves to meet new people. She is a graduate of the NUI Maynooth Creative Writing course and writes something every day. Her short stories have won the Crediton and the Dalkey Creates short story prizes. They have also been listed in the Riptide Journal, Myslexia, Retreat West, Stories for Homes, Michael Mullan Short Stories, Fish and Exeter short story competitions. Caroline is a community workshop facilitator for short story writing, is the recipient of a writing bursary to the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig and at present has a short story published in Books Ireland Magazine Online.

Our judge, Ayisha, commented: - “The Unfinished Business of Snakeface”

This, to me, was the clear winner, with some lovely description, evocative characterisation and a strong setting. Added to this was a confidence in style and voice that made it a joy to read. Dialogue can be so tricky to get right, but the author here uses it brilliantly to move the plot along, as well as develop character. I know endings don’t have to be hopeful, but this one was, and it felt all the more satisfying as a result.

Kath Kilburn

Kath Kilburn wrote… Some people will allegedly read anything – the backs of cornflakes packets apparently being particularly favoured. Kath, on the other hand, will write anything: notes, memories, stories, non-fiction, even the odd – sometimes very odd - poem. It’s a way of harnessing her feelings and marshalling her thoughts into some sort of order. And anyway, who doesn’t love a new notebook and a well-sharpened pencil? Kath’s jobs and writing have been varied throughout her lifetime and, on the writing front, there have been contributions to a local history series, co-editing a local authority newsletter, magazine fiction, newspaper articles, competition entries and charity anthologies, but for the moment she’s just well chuffed with her success in the Yeovil Literary Short Story Competition!

Our judge, Ayisha, commented: - “Retaining Walls”

RETANING WALLS came a very close second. The opening is so skilled and confident and the story took a turn I wasn’t expecting. The writer also explores themes of grief and loss, using the walls as a wonderful metaphor for the decay of the bones and the character’s relationship. I also loved the plot twist. The author managed to pack a lot into the story and demonstrated their skill as a writer.

Francis Thompson

Francis is Scottish and lives in Cambridge. He’s a member of Cambridge Writers. Wrong Number is the first chapter of his New York based thriller. His murder mystery The Disappeared is set in Cambridge. In 2020 the first chapter of The Disappeared was Longlisted in the Writing Without Restriction Category of The Yeovil Literary Prize. During 2020/21 further chapters from The Disappeared were dramatised for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Thordis Fridriksson’s evening show. The Patron Saint of Print was shortlisted in 2020s Wells Festival of Literature. His short stories include: The Collector and December Moon. The Collector explores the feline connection between Andy Warhol’s mother, Julia Warhola, and the celebrated artist and cat-lover, Louis Wain. Cambridge Writers publish an annual collection of short stories. This year’s publication is titled ‘Visitors’. It includes The Collector and is available on amazon.

Our judge, Ayisha, commented: - “Wrong Number”

This short story demonstrated the efficacy of how a strong voice can pull the reader along, and engage them by giving us an interesting, complicated narrator. The overuse of exclamation marks was sometimes jarring, but the seeding in of mystery was done well, peppered with humour and, I felt, a satisfying ending. I found myself being both puzzled and intrigued by the narrator, with a voice that brought this story to life.

Highly Recommended: “THE GIRL WITH BEES IN HER HAIR” by Tess Burnett

I so enjoyed reading this. It was lovely writing with a beautiful moral about home, belonging and community at its core. The idea of little animals living in people’s beards and bosoms, to me, was enchanting, and the story’s celebration of differences and finding hope was very satisfying.

Jennifer Hunt

Jennifer Hunt is an artist and writer living in a medieval thatched cottage in Dorset. She has had a lifelong love of the natural world, from a childhood immersed in the green depths of Oxleas Woods and her grandparents’ farm in Devon, to the prehistoric chalk landscape of Dorset. Since graduating with an MA from Bath Spa University in 2001, she has had many poems published in magazines and anthologies, and been successful in poetry and nature-writing competitions. She has taught Creative Writing for 16 years and has published annotated sketchbooks, featuring the landscape and wildlife of the Jurassic Coast. She recently had a poem selected by Seren Books to be included in their latest publication, 100 Poems to Save the Earth.

Our judge, Sean, commented: - “Hedgehog”

‘Hedgehog’ shows the poet’s command through economy of line and a sustained tonality, in risking the intensity of encounter to a spacious, playful re-imagining. The result is quietly spellbinding: a flowing, evocative poem in the dark, which shows the hedgehog’s world alive whilst at risk from interventions of human and otherwise.

Marion Lovelace

Marion Lovelace wrote … I was born in Gloucester in 1942. At the end of the War we moved to a village nearby and there I soon appreciated the wonders of the natural world around me. The village primary school encouraged poetry and I came to love it. The first poem I remember, from a school book called 'Silver Bells', was 'The West Wind' by John Masefield. I relished reading the narrative poems of Tennyson and one by Longfellow called 'The Bell of Atri'. The poetry I have written is generally observations of nature, people and true events. Carpe Diem is about a true event. My husband comes from Henstridge. When our family was young, we lived away but would visit his family home at weekends. We regularly picked pears from an old but prolific Conference pear tree. One year a large number of butterflies settled on a pile of fallen fruit. They became very drunk and were staggering about everywhere. Our sons have an abiding memory of eating bottled pears every winter.

Our judge, Sean, commented: - “Carpe Diem”

‘Carpe Diem’ is successful in bringing a meditative mode to an account of fruit picking. The poem charts the intimacy of what happens, binding a symmetry, a diptych of sorts, holding the reader in two temporal zones, the today and the yesterday. The poem is a texture of details, a glimmering of sometimes luminous language.

Marion is also the winner of our Western Gazette Best Local Writer Award.

Anthony Head

Anthony Head is a writer and editor based in Tokyo, where he has spent half his life, but hopes to return to his native Wessex next year. His articles have been published in numerous journals, including History Today, The Edinburgh Review, The London Magazine, and the TLS. His poetry has appeared in Acumen, Orbis, The Frogmore Papers, Obsessed with Pipework and other journals. He is the editor of three volumes of the letters and diaries of John Cowper Powys, and several collections of essays by Llewelyn Powys.

Our judge, Sean, commented: - “Shutting Down”

‘Shutting Down’ uses quiet humour to face the grave reality of age. Its voice speaks to the reader as if an interior. The measures of its stanzas sustain the series of minor jolts under the everyday, and the poem offers, in place of bleakness, a solidarity.

Sue Bevan

Welsh writer Sue Bevan won the international Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize 2020 with Hiraeth, and was a past winner of the Drama Association of Wales International One Act Play Competition with Mum's The Word. Her poetry has been published in Dwell Time, and her first published non-fiction will appear this month in Gwasg Honno Press's Painting The Beauty Queens Orange. Sue is also a performer, and her semi-autobiographical solo show, An Audience With Shurl, won 4* reviews at Edinburgh and was nominated for The Outstanding Performance Award at Prague Fringe. She is currently writing her first novel.

Our judge, Steve, commented: - “Hiraeth”

This is an extraordinary and beguiling piece of writing. The tragic subject matter is handled with a gentle lyricism and lightness of touch while beneath the surface lies a simmering anger, making this a poignant and compelling read. Although it contains satisfying echoes of Dylan Thomas’s ‘Under Milk Wood’, the writing has an originality and freshness all of its own. An exciting new voice and a worthy winner.

Dr Margaret Callaghan

Margaret completed a Master's in creative writing and since then has been working on novels and plays. She has been shortlisted for the Penguin New Writers Award and the Scottish Book Trust new writers and next Chapter awards. She has also won short story and flash fiction competitions. She lives in Glasgow.

Our judge, Steve, commented: - “Love and Longing”

This beautifully written piece is a moving reflection upon the narrator’s formative relationships which have fallen away into fragments of memory and now appear as ghosts, drifting in and out of the narrative as they are once again recalled and forgotten. The carefully observed, specific details (‘Pineapple cakes for breakfast and swimming in the rain’) are particularly affecting and this is a powerful vignette from a talented writer.

Helen Morris

Helen lives, works and swims in Essex. She tries to find time to write in between the chaos of three sons and a mad rescue greyhound. She has short stories published by Arachne Press in ‘Five by Five’; ‘Departures’; and ‘No Spider Harmed in the Making of this Book’.

Our judge, Steve, commented: - “A Tale from the Dying Times”

‘A Tale from the Dying Times’ demonstrates the author’s love of language right from the first stanza as it directly addresses the reader, inviting them to ‘Call me Dardellion / Shape your tongue around it / click your teeth like sea-worn shells’. The lyrical, confident story-telling skilfully portrays love and loss against the backdrop of a changing world and this is an ambitious, thoughtful piece with a powerful and poignant ending.