Poet Mimi Khalvati talking about the judging process
Congratulations to the winners of the inaugural
Brittle Star Writing Competition.
Short story judge David Constantine reading from his judge’s report in Brittle Star
Last night (16th July) we held our prize giving for the winners of our first ever writing competition. The celebrations were part of the launch of issue 34 and we were thrilled to have read for us our short story prize winners (three prizes but only two people – mysterious huh?) and two of the poetry prize winners. We were also delighted to have readings from our three commended poets. Our readers were Poetry 1st Prize winner Di Slaney and 3rd Prize winner Jennie Carr, along with commended poets Myra Schneider, Jan Hermitage and Michael Brown, and Short story 1st & 3rd Prize winner Douglas Bruton and 2nd Prize winner Uschi Gatward. We were joined by our main judges, Mimi Khalvati (poetry) and David Constantine (short stories) who talked a little about the process of judging the competition before announcing the winners and awarding prizes.
Poetry Prize winners
Joint 1st prize – Di Slaney for ‘West of Dolgellau’ and ‘Three-ply’
2nd prize – Julie Mellor for ‘Spermaceti’
3rd prize – Jennie Carr for ‘The Layer’
Commended poems:
Myra Schneider for ‘Magenta’
Jan Heritage for ‘Knots for Climbers’
Michael Brown for ‘Nightjars near Sheringham’
Short fiction Prize winners
1st prize – Douglas Bruton for ‘Our Mam, but not all of her there’
2nd prize – Uschi Gatward for ‘Birth Plan’
3rd prize – Douglas Bruton for ‘Sleight of Hand’
Commended
Vicky Mackenzie for ‘The Floral Clock’
David Mathews for ‘Florence who made mustard’
Katherine Reeve for ‘Flesh and Blood’
