We’re looking forward to reading all the wonderful shortlisted stories alongside our winners in our 2021 anthology, which will be published by Ad Hoc Fiction towards the end of this year and available from their bookshop at adhocfiction.com as well as on Amazon in paperback and ebook formats. The authors of all the stories are listed alphabetically below and you can read our judge, Norah Perkin’s comments about the shortlist in her report. Many congratulations to all.

Peter Burns who wrote The Ghost of Your Words holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing, with distinction, and a BA (Hons) in Literature, both from the Open University. He won first place in the Flash 500 competition in November 2020, after several years of being shortlisted and longlisted. He has been shortlisted in the Flash 500 short story competition and longlisted in the TSS Cambridge Prize for Flash Fiction as well as having previously been longlisted in the Bath Short Story Award. He has stories published in FlashBack Fiction and Flashflood journal for National Flash Fiction Day.

Maria Clark who wrote Georgie Three is a writer and lover of languages, travel, photography and history. As a third-year English Literature and Creative Writing student at Lancaster University, her work has been published by Bandit Fiction and CP Quarterly, and other achievements include winning the First Story National Writing Competition (2016) and being shortlisted for the Iggy&Litro Young Writers’ Prize (2017) and the Sunderland Short Story Award (2018). She is currently seeking representation for her debut novel. As well as writing, Maria loves travelling, spending time with family and exploring new cultures. She is particularly excited to move to the Netherlands this summer to undertake a work-based placement.

Elizabeth Cooke who wrote L’Chaim is the author of fifteen novels and one non-fiction work. Living by the sea in Dorset, she has just finished a crime novel, and is researching an eighteenth century biography. She has been writing since her first anthology of embarrassingly puppy-orientated poetry when she was six. Her story L’Chaim sprang from some of her own experiences after contracting meningitis while on a weekend (unavoidably extended to a six week) visit to Berlin in 1989. More about Elizabeth at her website 

 

Paul Bassett Davies who wrote Your Car has Broken Down began his career in experimental multimedia before working in radio and television as a writer and producer. He has made several short films, and wrote music videos for Ken Russell and Kate Bush, and the screenplay for the feature animation film The Magic Roundabout. He is the author of four published novels and a collection of stories. He has also been the vocalist in a punk band, a DJ in a strip club, and a cab driver.

Emily Devane who wrote On The Beauty of Sad Endings is a writer, editor and teacher from Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Her first print publication was the Bath Short Story Award anthology, 2015. She has since won the Bath Flash Fiction Award, a Word Factory Apprenticeship and a Northern Writers’ Award. Her fiction has been nominated for Best Small Fictions (finalist), Best of the Net (finalist) and a Pushcart Prize, and features in Best Microfictions, 2021. She recently won third prize in the Smokelong Quarterly Grand Micro Contest and has work forthcoming in Ambit. Emily teaches creative writing workshops (@wordsmoor) and is a founding editor at FlashBack Fiction.

Karen Jones who wrote Breathing Patterns is a flash and short story writer from Glasgow, Scotland. She has been long and/or shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Bath Flash Fiction, Bath Short Story, To Hull and Back, TSS 400, HISSAC and many more. She has won prizes with Mslexia, Flash 500, Words With Jam, Ink Tears, Ad Hoc Fiction, Retreat West and won first prize in the Cambridge Flash Fiction Prize 2021. Her work is published in numerous ezines, magazines and anthologies. Her story ‘Small Mercies’ was nominated for, Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, a Pushcart Prize, and is included in Best Small Fictions 2019 and the BIFFY50 2019. Her novella-in-flash When It’s Not Called Making Love is published by Ad Hoc Fiction. She is Special Features Editor at New Flash Fiction Review.

Joshua Levy who wrote Pigeons writes in many genres and was last year’s Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC ) Writer-In-Residence. His work has been published by Oxford University Press, Vehicle Press, and Mansfield Press, and has appeared in literary journals such as Maisonneuve, Malahat Review, and The Rumpus. Levy is a recent winner of the CNFC/Carte Blanche Nonfiction Prize, Prairie Fire Nonfiction Prize, SLS Nonfiction Prize, and CBC/QWF Fiction Prize. His first book of poetry, The Loudest Thing, was published in 2019, and he is currently working on a novel. Levy lives in Montreal with his wife.

R. J. Lingard who wrote Part Time Signals grew up in Sheffield, England. After studying Film at University, he spent most of his twenties living and working abroad in Canada, Thailand & Hong Kong. Upon returning to the UK, he established a career in Digital Marketing and began building a self-publishing business in his spare time. After six years of hard work, he left his day job to concentrate on his side business and pen his debut novel. Outside of writing, he spends his time reading, listening to heavy metal and watching American Football. He currently lives in Stockport with his wife and two children.

Rosaleen Lynch, who wrote the story Hail is an Irish community worker and writer in London’s East End with words in lots of lovely places and can be found on Twitter @quotes_52 and 52Quotes.blogspot.com

Samanthi Munasing who wrote Two Samosas And A Bag Of Crisps was born in Sri Lanka and lives in Alfriston. She is an avid reader and loves walking in the South Downs.

Catherine Smith who wrote Jellyfish lives in East Sussex and is a published and anthologised writer of fiction and poetry, some of which has been adapted for Live Literature performances. Two of her full-length poetry collections have been short-listed for Forward Prizes. She is also a self-employed poetry and fiction tutor and mentor, who works with writing organisations including New Writing South and The Arvon Foundation. She buys the BSSA anthology every year but this is her first entry, and she is absolutely delighted to be a contributor.

Rupert Tebb who wrote The Mountain Range Behind the Clothes Rack pilfers bits from queer theory and speculative fiction to write tall tales about twenty first century realities. He splits his time between London and Sanday, a remote Orcadian island with a history of radicalism. Earlier this year he won the Disquiet Prize for literature. His work is published in Granta and Litro.

James Young who wrote At Anderson’s Field is a writer and translator from Belfast. His short fiction has been published by Wasafiri, Short Fiction Journal, Honest Ulsterman, HCE Review and others, and he was shortlisted for the 2019 Wasafiri and 2020 Fish prizes. He is an editor at the Short Fiction Journal and is currently completing an MA in creative writing at Birkbeck.