Congratulations to all our shortlisted writers in the 2026 Award, listed here in alphabetical order. We’re looking forward to seeing their stories in print in our 2026 anthology published at the end of this year. Do read judge Gordon Wise’s comments on this list where he speaks of the quality and the imagination of these writers. There’s a fantastic variety of styles and subject matter.

Nat Baker shortlisted with her story, ‘All we want is ice cream’ is a writer based in Aotearoa New Zealand, with stories at Newsroom, Turbine | Kapohau, takahe, Headland and others. She won the 2021 takahe Short Story Prize, was shortlisted for the 2022 Sargeson Prize, and received a Surrey Hotel-Newsroom Writers Award in 2023. She is currently querying her first novel. You can read her stories and book reviews at: www.nat-baker.com

Sally Bothroyd shortlisted with her story, ‘The Snake’, lives in Darwin, Australia. She has worked as a journalist, but prefers to write fiction. Her novel ‘Brunswick Street Blues’ was published by HQAustralia in 2022. Her short fiction has been listed in several competitions in Australia and the UK, and she recently won the Australasian Horror Writers Association short story award. She hopes to one day publish a collection of short stories.

Sam Calcutt, shortlisted with his story, ‘Track’ says: “Most of my stories seem to be about how humans observe, live with and are changed by big infrastructure, like power lines and railways. Firmly believe it’s best out west. Keen to meet other fans of George Borrow.”

Rachel Cameron, shortlisted with her story, ‘Temporary Ghosts’ is a Scottish writer from West Lothian. Her work has previously been published in the Edinburgh Anthology, having been shortlisted for the Edinburgh Short Story Award 2025 and subsequently receiving the Isobel Lodge Award. Her current focus is on writing fiction that explores the everyday through the surreal, taking inspiration from the many ‘what ifs’ of everyday life. In her day job as a librarian, she runs a creative writing group and spends her days happily surrounded by stories in all forms.

Emily Devane, shortlisted with her story, ‘A Keeper’ is a writer, editor, teacher and bookseller from Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Her short fiction has been widely published in journals such as Smokelong Quarterly, Ambit and The Lonely Crowd. She has won the Bath Flash Fiction Award, a Word Factory Apprenticeship and a Northern Writers’ Award. Emily teaches creative writing workshops (@wordsmoor), co-hosts Word Factory’s Strike! Short Story Club and runs regular spoken word nights.

Anders Larsen. shortlisted with his story, ‘Goodnight Gabriel’,is of Danish-Irish parentage and lives in Dublin – after a lot of bouncing around the place in his younger years.The story ‘Goodnight Gabriel’ emerged as a survivor from a train crash of novel, and he has a disturbingly large amount in common with the main character. Unlike the protagonist, Gabriel though, he hasn’t given up. He’s still working on the novel.

Catherine Leung shortlisted with her story, ‘Neighbours You Never Knew’ has also been shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize and has appeared on the époque press é-zine and in the City Lit Between the Lines anthology. As well as writing short fiction, she is a published children’s picture book author and a literary translator from French. Her translations have featured on Asymptote.

Seán McNicholl shortlisted for his story, “Deeper Than It Looks’, is an award-winning writer and GP from Armagh. He is the winner of the Hammond House International Literary Prize, and his work has been shortlisted for the CRAFT Short Fiction Prize, and longlisted for the Bridport Prize, the Fish Prize, the Hope Prize and the Bedford Prize.
His stories have appeared in Epoque Press, The Storms, Fahmidan, ANMLY, Frazzled Lit, and The Belfast Review. He is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best Microfiction.
Find out more at www.seanmcnicholl.com

Candy Neuberg, shortlisted for her story, ‘To be out there’ has stories which have appeared in London Magazine, New Welsh Review, Virago and History Press collections and several broadcast on Radio 4. She worked for ten years as main reader for the Bridport Prize and Guernsey International Poetry Prize. She lives partly in the UK and mostly in South Africa.

Ajayy Pattanshetty shortlisted with his story, ‘Pronouncement’ is a writer of Konkani heritage based in London. His fiction explores inheritance, migration and loss, often through a single domestic object or gesture. His story ‘Time Ravels’ was published by Fiction on the Web in May 2026 and selected as the editor’s Pick of the Month. He is currently writing his first novel, The Good Hand.More at ajayypattanshetty.com.

Sam Rennie, shortlisted for his story, ‘Recommendations’ has been been featured in Harper’s Bazaar and Sonder. He won the Oxford Flash Fiction New Voice Award, and was longlisted for the Writers’ & Artists’ Short Story Competition, the WestWord Prize, and the Anthology Flash Fiction Competition. Sam studied novel-writing at Bath Spa University and is from a small town in Essex where the roads are named after The Lord of the Rings — he grew up on Gandalf’s Ride, a stone’s throw from Hobbiton Hill and Rivendale Vale. He is currently working on his debut novel and he can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @samcsrennie.

Sean Robinson shortlisted with his story, Output Variance’ lives in Caerphilly, Wales, with his wife, two children, a lurcher, and two cats. By day he leads engineering teams; by evening he can usually be found foraging in the woods, restoring something in the workshop, or volunteering as a Scout leader. He collects fountain pens with more enthusiasm than his handwriting really justifies. This is his first short story to see print.

R. J. Slade, shortlisted with her story ‘Obliquity’, is from South Wales. Since completing her BSc in Psychology at the University of Bath, she has been balancing the woes of job hunting with the woes of writing. Comparatively, she finds much joy in music and movies, especially horror. This will be her first published story.

Jennifer Walne shortlisted with her story, ‘These are all great incenlives for your kids’ lives in Cambridgeshire and graduated with first class honours in Writing and English literature. She and her husband spent years battling through the UK visa applications and are finally enjoying the luxury of simply living together. She works part time on the activities team in a care home and is currently preparing to take the Grade 6 piano exam. Jennifer has been published in Popshot Quarterly and The Perito Prize Anthology among others.

Thank you very much to our judge, Gordon Wise for judging our 2026 Award short list and for his detailed and insightful comments on the winners and his general comments on the short list. Gordon kindly donated his fee to The Book Trust.

Judge’s Comments

This is a supremely accomplished selection of short stories. I think they define our age, for the full spectrum of human (and some non-human) life, death, afterlife – and humans’ interaction with what we may pretend is life – is here. Each has a sense of poise, many are supremely resolved pieces of storytelling. I read them anonymised, and in alphabetical order, and with almost each one I found myself saying, ‘could this be the winner?’. I began on the veldt, went to the Lakes, floated (or maybe sank) in pools and seas, felt the earth shake, saw and felt extraordinary things in ordinary neighbourhoods, found myself making life decisions along with characters and trying to fathom relationships as those characters did themselves. Words leapt off each story’s page as well as words and stories leaping out as being the very subjects of some of the stories themselves.

HIGHLY COMMENDED
Three stories outside my top three kept living with me after I had read them. But I finally landed on two I would love to recommend in particular.

‘A Legacy of Tea Coasters’ is an atmospheric meditation on how to do honour to an elder, navigated around the very practical matter of preparing for a death. The fact that life ends is the very definition of being alive. But when it does, how can that help define who we were?

‘Only the Doors’ reflects the consciousness of a house. And not just a house, but a bungalow, with a corridor of secrets, mysteries or doubts. It’s clever, and poignant.

TOP 3
These three very different tales – and approaches to storytelling – exemplify what is great about the form and this competition.

Third Prize: ‘Afloat­’ is a surrealistic micro-odyssey that remains completely grounded in its observations. Its hero progressively shakes off the ties (and literally a tie, at one point) that bind him. Business cards, those talismans of a certain kind of corporate life, are cast across an ocean. Eventually we and he find safe harbour. There is great imagination, focus and consolation in play here.

Second Prize: ‘Letholigica — On the Removal of Words’ is a beautifully conceived memento mori for our age. If language becomes homogenised for the purposes of efficiency, how can we express ourselves any more? Can we truly live, without self-expression? And who or what decides what we can use to say things? A truly splendid skewering of a dystopia, told in miniature. (All words that aren’t yet proscribed…)

First Prize: ‘The Wedding Guest’ is compositionally and emotionally brilliant. If I analyse it, I fear I will spoil if for you. To write in the future tense but (spoiler alert) to write in reverse chronology too is an acrobatic writerly feat not for the fainthearted. But to use this to tell a love story, or indeed (again, spoiler alert) a lack of love story, shows particular accomplishment. And to be emotionally true, not to mention funny and surprising, to boot, is a rare gift.

Many congratulations to all our winning and highly commended writers. This year, the third prize winner Alex Sinclair Lack, who lives in Bristol, has also won the local prize. And Sarah Muldowney, one of the highly commended writers, won the Acorn Prize for an unpublished writer of fiction. Thank you to our judge Gordon Wise who selected the stories. You can read his excellent comments in his judge’s report linked here and do check out the bios of our shortlisted writers We’ll be publishing all these brilliant short stories in our 2026 anthology, out later this year.

First Prize:’The Wedding Guest’ by Charlotte Sinclair

Bio: Charlotte Sinclair is a writer and journalist from London, contributing to the Financial Times and Vogue, amongst others. Last year she won the Aurora Prize for short fiction and second prize in the Ponta Lopud short story competition. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.

Second Prize :’Lethologica – On the Removal of Words’
by Lea Lang

Bio: Lea Lang is a history student from Munich who recently completed a year at the University of Edinburgh. Her academic work focuses on global and imperial history, culture, and the stories people tell about themselves. She writes fiction out of curiosity about language, memory, and the words that disappear just before we need them. ‘Lethologica – On the Removal of Words’ is her first publication.

Third Prize (and local prize): ‘Afloat’ by Alex Sinclair Lack.

Bio: Alex’s Hinge profile calls him an adventurer, his LinkedIn calls him a creative strategist, the Turkmenistan immigration bureau calls him a journalist, and everyone else just calls him a wanker. Keen photographer, terrible mandolin player, stroker of stray cats, Alex is usually somewhere he shouldn’t be, dreaming of making a difference through storytelling.

Highly Commended & The Acorn Award

• for an unpublished fiction writer:

‘Only the doors’ by Sara Muldowney

Bio: Sara Muldowney is a writer from Essex. Her fiction explores memory, family and the quiet mysteries of everyday life.

Highly Commended: ‘A Legacy of Tea Coasters’ by Ayesha Farhat

Bio: Ayesha was raised in Pakistan and moved to Norway in 2013 where she works as a Product Manager, whilst mentoring women in technical fields where they lack representation. Her novel was longlisted in the Bath Novel Award 2022 and shortlisted in the London Festival of Writing 2026 Friday Night Live. Her short stories have been published in the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize Anthology, The Aleph Review a and the Oslo Writers League Anthology. She is also an alumna of the Jericho Writers Self-Edit Your Novel course and the Curtis Brown Creative Writing Your Novel: Three Months course.