Hi, we are delighted to announce the 9 stories that will be published in the anthology edition for the Micro Fiction category of the WestWord Prize. Our judge, Tania Hershman, read the longlist with me to get to this shortlist and she will be choosing the three winners of the top prizes. Well done again to all who were longlisted, and congrats to the writers of these stories! The theme for the micro category was RAIN and we love the ways that these stories have used it.
Shortlisted Stories
After the Storm
Boys on Bikes
But there never was a Big Bad Wolf, was there?
Desertion
Keeping the Watch
Llewellyn, Last King of Wales: his role in the divorce
Orange-Tinted Places
One Last Rain Dance
The Day Grace became more 'Water'
The Magic of Stones
Washed Away
Good luck everyone! The results will be announced and the winners’ anthology published in June.
The WestWord Prize has 2 more categories you can enter this year:
Flash Fiction
Deadline: 31st July 2024
Max word count: 1000
Entry fee: £9 submission only / £30 with feedback
Online anthology publication: September 2024
Prizes:
1st: £200
2nd: £100
3rd: £50
Shortlisted: £15
Theme: Dream
Judge: Amy Barnes
Amy is the Co-Editor at Gone Lawn, an Associate Editor at Fractured Lit and was a reader at Retreat West for several years. She is also the author of three collections: Mother Figures (ELJ Editions, 2021), Ambrotypes (Word West LLC, 2022), and Child Craft, (Belle Point Press, 2023). Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50 in 2021 and 2022, and included in The Best Small Fictions 2022. Read our interview with Amy here.
Short Story
Deadline: 30th November 2024
Max word count: 2500
Entry fee: £12 submission only / £40 with feedback
Online anthology publication: January 2025
Prizes:
1st: £250
2nd: £150
3rd: £75
Shortlisted: £20
Theme: Light
Judge: Nod Ghosh
Nod Ghosh is the author of The Two-Tailed Snake, which publishing with Fairlight Books in September 2023. Nod was born in Birmingham, UK, and currently lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she works as a medical laboratory scientist specialising in the diagnosis of cancers. Her short stories and flash fiction have been widely published in journals and anthologies, and her work has been listed for awards including the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award and the New Zealand National Flash Fiction Day competition. She has had four previous novellas published: The Crazed Wind (2018), Filthy Sucre (2020), Toy Train (2021) and Throw a Seven (2023).
Send us your stories
We have lots of other opportunities to get published with us too through themed editions and contests, as well as the Monthly Micro competition.
If you join us as paid subscriber, you’ll get submission entries to all editions and competitions (apart from the Monthly Micro) included as well as monthly Zoom workshops and subscriber only craft posts. All for just £6 a month, or £60 for the year.
May Workshop
Crafting Short Stories: Reeling Readers In
Date: 18th May, 11:30 - 12:30 PM BST
This workshop with will look at ways in which you can start a short story to ensure that a reader will want to read on. We’ll look at lots of examples and you should bring a short story you’re working on to find ways of editing the first paragraphs to make it compelling.
Free to WestWord paid subscribers or book here for £10.
A reader suggested that we run a competition specifically for writers who are yet to be published, so we’re thinking about it. Would you be interested, are there enough of you who haven’t been published yet to make it feasible? Let us know!
That’s it for now. I hope to see you at a workshop and read your stories soon!
With love,