swconline

To read the winning stories, click HERE

2025 Organiser’s Comments

The 2025 Southport Writers’ Circle short story competition showed once again the creativity and talent which exists out in the world.

This year’s contest attracted entries from such exotic locations as Madrid, Switzerland and – it says here – Slough. Really? Anyway, we’re still waiting for a story from Antarctica, hopefully the new postbox that the King sent over will encourage entrants for the 2026 edition. The vast majority of stories were submitted electronically, with only a few envelopes being sent via the Royal Mail.

All of the entrants are to be praised for their bravery. Putting one’s work out there to be judged takes a lot of courage and fortitude. Everyone who didn’t make this list of winners should remember that another judge on a different day might have selected their entry over another.

A special thank-you to the “volunteers” from the Circle who read through all of the entries between them, ensuring that only the very best made it into the final selection. Their dedication and hard work is much appreciated.

I’d like to thank our chief judge for 2025, Richard Hooton. He had a very difficult task in selecting the winners, the quality of the stories selected for his consideration was extremely high. Richard has won prizes in SWC short story competition before. He was third in 2022 with The Gobbledygook and second in 2021 with How To Fake A Heart Attack. His first novel The Margaret Code is now available in paperback from all good bookshops (and a few less reputable ones, too).

And so over to Richard for a few words about the contest and his comments regarding the winning stories.

Judge’s Report– Richard Hooton

Firstly, I’d like to thank Southport Writers Circle for inviting me to judge this year’s short story competition, which was a privilege and a pleasure, as well as everyone who took the time to craft and enter a submission.

The long list presented to me, carefully selected by Circle members, was a delightful pick n mix of genres and styles, from historical to sci-fi, and tragedy to comedy. They were all extremely well-written and entertaining, with several gems catching my eye as favourites. It was difficult to decide on the placings and I felt the weight of responsibility as I tried to compare and contrast them.

Having entered many competitions myself, I know the elation and validation that can come through being placed. I’ve also seen how subjective it can be; I’ve had stories that have come nowhere in some competitions only to be awarded first place in another. And having been on judging panels, I’ve seen the variance in opinions and tastes. So please don’t be disheartened if your story wasn’t chosen; there were some fantastic stories that only just missed out. Another judge on another day may well be more favourable.

Having said that, I’m pleased and confident with my choices and thrilled that they will be published online where others can be enthralled by them too. They form an eclectic mix that evoke a range of emotions.

First Place: The Gaze of Picasso

Michael Ranes

A strikingly original story. Having loved it on the first read, I liked it even more the second time around and knew it was the winner when I was finding even more to like about it on the third read. It felt insightful about art, alongside messages on beauty, body image, character and superficiality. The descriptions are sensuous and there’s flirtatiousness yet wariness between artist and muse. It’s playful and humorous, though at times dark and unsettling, and plays with the pretentiousness and pompousness of art, while showcasing its power and purpose. Like the character Sophie, I was captivated.

Second Place: Revivification

Dianne Bown-Wilson

Aheartwarming story on the power of reading with some excellent lines and similes. Emotional, but with a gentle humour throughout that softens it. Great characterisation in Arthur’s backstory and his depression is sensitively and powerfully conveyed with his journey of revivification fulfilling and convincing. It brought a cheer at the end with a brilliant last line.

Third: Heartbreak Ends at 6.50pm

Hannah Retallick

A very clever and original take on a love triangle, the shifting of friendship and hidden feelings. It’s unusually, but successfully, written in second person with seamless, natural transitions between actions and flashbacks. The self-deprecating humour, selflessness and kindness of the narrator makes you bond with them and feel for them. It’s subtle, bittersweet, and emotional. Great title as well.

Highly Commended: Kaleidoscope

Alan C Williams

Beautifully written, in a magic realism style, it’s about grief and not giving up on relationships. It’s intriguing, fascinating and moving throughout. Great descriptions and metaphors with the kaleidoscope of butterflies perfectly captured.

Commended: Obedience

Jaime Gill

A tense story on homophobia, discrimination, and defiance in the face of bigotry. Authentic setting and descriptions with Jack’s weariness well conveyed and his backstory carefully built. We care for and applaud him as he stands up to aggression, threats and prejudice and calmly and bravely earns his self-respect.

Commended: The Screaming Piano

Vicky Ellaway-Barnard

A quirky, absurdist, surreal, amusing story on artistry and obsession. A student creates a piano made from musical grey hairs to compose a unique sonata. Startlingly original and unexpected, you’re drawn in and swept away by this bizarre tale’s logic and authentic detail, and it convinces all the way to its inevitable, abrupt and ambiguous conclusion. Madness? Quite possibly!

Commended: The Odd Couple

Elizabeth Adam

The brilliant twist works really well in a story full of nostalgia, sadness and loneliness. With plenty of pathos and great descriptions, it’s very evocative and cleverly done.

Winning Poems Available to Read HERE

First Prize: I am Soil

Jane Burn

A deeply imaginative and empathetic engagement with the more-than-human written in carefully constructed free verse with a focus on detailed diction and phrasing. The language use is as vivid and inventive as the theme and the poem avoids the potential pitfalls of anthropomorphism as it recognises the strangeness and alterity of the natural world to honour the agency and integrity of soil. 

Second Prize: The Matriarchy

Julie Burke

A contemporary sonnet in praise of the women who are often overlooked or forgotten in family and class histories. The lines are carefully written to emphasise the sound patterning of the language. There is a pleasing use of sibilance and half rhyme as well as end and internal rhyme. These devices though as not over-stated but underscore an accessible and conversational poetic voice which uses colloquial phrasing to celebrate the value of ordinary work and, indeed, the unrecognised work of the women who hold families together.

Third Prize: Marthe de Meligny

Jim C Wilson

An evocative and carefully-written poem which evokes the art work and the historical context with vivid narration. Lines are well-judged to create flow across the complex implied narrative which brings the painting to life through the ekphrastic approach to the theme. The poem is researched and diction is skilfully selected to convey the historical narrative alongside attention to repeated sound patterning to create an elegant poetic voice.

Highly Commended:

The Chat

Sam Szanto

My daughter has made a devi

Suzanna Fitzpatrick

A Place

Gareth Culshaw

Humour Prize: Beryl, the Rogue Librarian

Jane Burn 

A detailed and well-observed narration offers a humorous account of life in the library. The use of long lines creates a prose-poetry which offers enough space for reported speech and multiple points of view in the narrative voice alongside carefully chosen diction to evoke Beryl’s world. This skill with scene and character creates a witty and wry exploration of human foibles.