Biscuit Short Story Competition 2009

First Prize

First Prize went to Douglas Bruton (Scotland) for Darius And The Bloody Big Fish. Douglas was offered the choice of either £1,000 or to have his own collection published and receive 100 books; he chose the cash prize, which has now been paid to him.

Douglas Bruton is a teacher at a high school near Edinburgh. His children's book The Chesspiece Magician will be published by Floris Books later in 2009. He writes short fiction and is currently at work on a novel for grownups. He has been published in many literary magazines and competition anthologies, and was a runner-up in the Biscuit Flash Fiction Competition 2009.

Read the Judge's comments on Douglas Bruton's winning story.

Second Prize

Holly Patrone (USA) won the Second Prize of £200 (in US dollars) for Nadya. Holly lives on Long Island, New York with her husband, five children and two Boston Terriers. She is working on a humorous novel in addition to regularly writing shorter pieces - to satisfy her need for instant gratification. Her work has been highly commended in the EM Koeppel and Tom Howard Short Story Competitions.

Read the Judge's comments on Holly Patrone's story.

Third Prize

Third Prize winner was Beth Duke (USA) for In The Heat Of The Moment. Beth receives £150 (in US dollars). Beth Duke is the author of Delaney's People: A Novel in Small Stories. Married to Jay and mother of Jason and Savannah, she enjoyed a career in marketing before embracing writing full-time. She recently returned to her beloved home state of Alabama, where she hopes her muse will visit often.

Read the Judge's comments on Beth Duke's story.

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The following four runners-up are not listed in any order of merit. All of them are Highly Commended:

Paul Gresty (England) for Tiger In, Tiger Out: Paul Gresty studied for a Master's Degree in Novel Writing at the University of Manchester. Currently based in Paris, France, he works as a freelance commercial translator. He has recently completed his first novel.

Pauline Plummer (England) for Snow on Snow: Pauline Plummer is a poet and short story writer who though originally from Liverpool has lived in the North East for several decades. Several collections of her poetry have been published and she is hoping that an editor will be interested in publishing her collection of short stories which reflect the nature of multi cultural Britain. She teaches creative writing at Northumbria University and Open University and also abroad in France, Greece and Sierra Leone.

Richard Knight (England) for Some Of Us Are Trying To Sleep: Richard Knight lives with his family in Saddleworth, Oldham, where he combines teaching and writing. His stories have been published by Arc and Comma and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. His first children's book is published by Barefoot Books in September 2009.

Koraljka Mestrovic (Croatia) for A Bullet In Her Side: Koraljka Mestrovic was born and learned how to write in Zagreb, Croatia. She teaches screenplay writing, and writes screenplays for film and TV, and radio plays. She also draws and writes comics.

Short Story Judge's Comments - Brian Lister

406 short stories were submitted. There were no disqualifications. Our team of literary and lay readers (the latter being the more important, in terms of end-user value, in my opinion) read them all and after much deliberation whittled the list down to a short list of seven. I read the 'magnificent seven' and sorted them into their final placing. What a task! It was wonderful to be reassured that real story-tellers are still thriving amongst us.

Darius And The Bloody Big Fish takes First Prize.: A very enjoyable read. Here we have a story that uses comedy as a vehicle, and employs social realism under-layered with heavy erotic symbolism. Late evening in a public bar-room: a raconteur, of sorts, tells his tales of fighting the big fishes. Like the character in The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) this old codger hunts his prey and engages it in violent combat. Or is it really a gentle seduction? Douglas Bruton shows that, as with story-telling, there is more to fishing than catching fish.
Nadya takes Second Prize.: The words and phrases have depth and the subject matter is strong. There is poignancy, but the writer avoids over-sentimentalism. Pacing is well controlled. The story unfolds scene by scene, transporting the reader through painted and charcoaled landscapes. The author manages the development and controls the progress with calm precision and great skill.
In The Heat Of The Moment takes Third Prize.: It opens cleanly, without preamble, holds the reader's attention from paragraph to paragraph using well-placed hooks, and it has a clever ending. I confess, I am not a great fan of twist-in-the-tail endings, because so many of them are clumsy, ham-fisted and glaringly predictable. Beth Duke's story, however, has no truck with any of that nonsense. These closing lines will catch you by surprise, they are wry, droll, darkly comic.
Tiger In, Tiger Out: made me laugh out loud when I read the ending. Not so much by what happens, but in the way the happening is described. In one short sentence a braggart gets his final come-uppance. But that's not the only reason this story is highly placed. It's there because it excels in real dialogue and the characters are believable. The reader's attention is maintained by way of well-sewn hooks as well as an interesting landscape.
Snow on Snow: is another skilfully created story, a proper story. There is under layering. Something luminous beneath the surface. The plot structure is well assembled, it has a strong opening, solidly constructed middle, and a neat conclusion. The story is imaginative and economically described. The descriptive passages have a warming, gentle and sensual feel to them; I could sense the hand of a poet long before I discovered the author's identity.
A Bullet In Her Side: held a strange fascination for me. Well, when someone states so matter-of-factly that "I have a bullet in my side!" it does tend to grab your attention. Here again is a story with sub-layering, more going on beneath the surface than first appears. A story with a ghost or another shadow of a story lurking below. The dialogue is terse and very real.
Some Of Us Are Trying To Sleep: is an eye-in-the-wall narrative. A disturbing commentary, a blow-by-blow description of violence in the night. Made all the more emotionally disturbing because one so easily becomes reader-as-voyeur. And the feeling is profound. Forgive me for digressing, but this feeling reminded me of my own childhood in WW2 when I witnessed a German aircraft caught like a moth in the full glow of searchlight beams, ducking and swooping and weaving, then shot from the sky, followed by the raucous noise of neighbours clapping and cheering as they watched its death-dive. Good 'literary' stories work on your mind and your senses in this way. They reach your subconscious, stir up memories and excite your imagination. And maybe that is what separates 'literary' creative writing from the rest.

Brian Lister