JUDGE’S REPORT: 2006 Short Story Competition

 Fourteen stories were shortlisted this year, out of a total of over 100 entries. It has been an absolute pleasure to read the shortlisted stories, all of which were of a high standard and told in strong, original voices. Though much is made of the demise of the short story in the UK, it is certainly not due to a shortage of good quality stories, more, I suspect, a culpable prejudice on the part of publishers.

 It has not been easy to choose a winner from among so many great competitors, but in the end I have decided on ‘Jam’. The author really hits the ground running and, using strong, straightforward language, quickly draws us into her traffic-clogged dystopia. At the same time, her deft and subtle characterisation, and poetic imagery such as a car ‘filled with darkness as though with water’ or conversations falling to the ground ‘like one-winged birds’, lifts ‘Jam’ far from the conventional futuristic nightmare of more run-of-the-mill dystopia fiction.

 ‘Jam’ is, in the end, a life-affirming, warm-hearted tale, with its jumbles of children packed into cars and its delicate portrait of a long relationship. It reminds us that the human heart will triumph in even the most adverse circumstances. I loved it. 

Three other stories were close contenders for the top slot. These are: ‘What Are the Chances of That?’, ‘Haddock Bone’, and ‘Dragons in the Walls’. ‘What Are the Chances of That’ appealed to me firstly for its terrific sense of place. The author develops the story with subtlety and is skilful in showing character through close observation of people’s behaviour – their mannerisms, their body language and their conversation. The narrative voice, however, is a little uncertain. I did not feel the author had navigated a route between colloquial English and American country with sufficient confidence. 

‘Haddock Bone’ is beautifully constructed and the author demonstrates good control of plot and story in bringing us to the darkly humorous series of misunderstandings which break up the narrator’s family. Again, however, the narrative voice of the young girl is not quite there. 

‘Dragons in the Walls’ is a powerful drama of revenge with a complex structure. The complex chronology does not always work but is amply compensated for by the fast pace, vivid imagery and the chillingly normal narrative voice of the plainly insane protagonist. His matter-of-fact accounts of eye-popping violence reminded me of Bret Easton Ellis at his blackest and funniest.

 Also commended are: 

‘A Tree Is Known By Its Fruit’
‘Ants on the Wall’
‘So Special’
‘Single Figures’

Adjudicator Sarah Bower has published fiction and non-fiction in Spiked, QWF and MsLexia among others, and was the winner of the 2005 Cafe Writers Short Fiction Competition. A graduate of the UEA Creative Writing MA programme, she currently works as Literature Development Officer at Creative Arts East. She will be reading from her newly-published first novel, 'The Needle in the Blood', (Snowbooks 2007).