This year’s Leicester Writes Short Story Prize was a competition with a difference.

2026 was the tenth and final year of this popular award, coordinated by Dahlia Books publisher, Farhana Shaikh. So Farhana decided it would be a closed competition, open only to all those who had been previously longlisted for the prize.

My story, ‘XXX’, was longlisted in 2018. It was an interesting story, as it somehow managed to mix domestic abuse, with electric shock treatment, concentration camps and the ‘I Love Lucy’ TV show. A strange combination, which, fortunately, must have worked, as Farhana included it in her final twenty.

Longlisted entries have always been published in an anthology, and it is to be the same this year, together with the work of previous winners – therefore showcasing all the writers who have supported the prize, and whose work Farhana and other judges have appreciated.

Farhana chose ten stories, from a ‘blind reading’ as a ‘strong-list’ (her word!) and these were then considered by Mona Dash, a Dahlia Books author. 

I am very pleased to have been awarded joint third prize, for my story, ‘Bear’.

First prize went to Jay McKenzie; second prize to Tracy Fahey, and the other third prize winner was Robyn Jefferson. Congratulations to them, and to the other long-listees – and to all those who entered. To write a story is, in itself, an achievement.

I am very much looking forward to being in the anthology. Having a story I am happy with published, so that it can be out in the world, and, hopefully, read, is one of my aims in writing. 

There is an online event at the end of the month to officially announce the winners and celebrate the results. A discussion about the use of AI will also take place. I’ll write about that, after it has taken place.

Thank you to Farhana and Mona for liking my work, and to Dahlia Books for producing the anthology. Farhana and Dahlia Books have been long-time supporters of the short story form, which is very much welcomed by those of us who love to write short fiction.