Competition Winners 2025

 

Competition Winners 2025

We are delighted to announce the winners of this year's Exeter Writers Short Story Competition:

1st Prize - Salt by Jillian Grant Shoichet

2nd Prize - A List of Some of the Times I Cried On My Mother's Shoulder by Jay McKenzie

3rd Prize - Malachy Doyle by Morgan Brennan

(There is no Devon Prize this year as there were no Devon writers on the shortlist).

Congratulations to all our winners. The stories will be published one by one over the coming week and watch out for interviews with our winners coming soon.

We can now also put names to everyone on our short and long lists, thank you to everyone who entered:

Short List:

A list of some of the times I cried on my mother's shoulder - Jay McKenzie
Broken Boats - Louise Finnegan
Isabel Ravenscroft - Karen Lewis-Barned
Its own reward - Simon Carter
Je ne compte sur personne - Diana Powell
Kalpa - Kaushal Gokare
Malachy Doyle - Morgan Brennan
Military Man of Instagram - Karen Storey
Our Blind Date - Jay McKenzie
Salt - Jillian Grant Shoichet
The Botanist's Tale - Peter Newall
The Revenge of the Ducks of Bharatpur - Jane Thomas
Wait Until the Sea is Calm - Bernadette Stott

Long List:

A Haunting - Bethany Wren
A list of some of the times I cried on my mother's shoulder - Jay McKenzie
Broken Boats - Louise Finnegan
Club Legend - Alex Clissold-Jones
Confession - Jillian Grant Shoichet
Dry - Jacqueline Winn
Genesis - Michael Callagan
Isabel Ravenscroft - Karen Lewis-Barned
 Its own reward - Simon Carter
Je ne compte sur personne - Diana Powell
Kalpa - Kaushal Gokare
Kettlewell or bust - Paul Chiswick
Malachy Doyle - Morgan Brennan
Me and Marie - Rose Yates
Military Man of Instagram - Karen Storey
Not a Haunting - Sophie Petrie
Our Blind Date - Jay McKenzie
Playing God - Thomas Malloch
Playmate - Kip Pratt
Rewriting History - Mark Stobbs
Salt - Jillian Grant Shoichet
Skin - Glynis Gertsch
Slice - Kerry Ryan
Something about Monsters - Jane Miles
Special Facility - Denise Eaton
The Botanist's Tale - Peter Newall
The Clockmaker's Apprentice - Nicole Fitton
The Revenge of the Ducks of Bharatpur - Jane Thomas
The Wayfinder's Tale - Jacqueline Winn
Wait Until the Sea is Calm - Bernadette Stott
Wood Pigeon's Whistle - Martha Lees