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After a year which is memorable for all the wrong reasons we have reached the climax of the poetry and short story competitions and are delighted to be publishing the results below.
Our judges have done an excellent job of selecting the prize-winners from over 2000 entries and we are thankful to them for the effort they have had to put in.
You can read the winning entries by scrolling down this page to the results, and then clicking on the title of the story or poem you wish to read.
Work is now underway compiling the anthology which we hope to publish in April. This will contain all the shortlisted stories and poems as well as the winners of the Rainbow Prize, Bedford Prizes and Young Writers' Awards.
Because of the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, there will not be a live presentation event.
Although we are disappointed not to be able to meet with the prizewinning entrants, we are planning to celebrate their success in a different but memorable way, and more details of the form this will take will be revealed shortly.
Third Prize
The Life and Times of Sam the Wanderer as the End of Days Approaches
by
Anya Christiansen
| Story title | Author |
| Mangata | Christopher Baker - Oxford |
| Mongrel | Robert Carter - STOCKTON NSW, Australia |
| Selfish Kisses and Early Polaroids | James Woolf - London |
| Beacons | sophie holland - Bristol |
| Her Unused Smile | Sarah Dawson - Tunbridge Wells |
| Silver Bird | David Shelley Jones - SYDNEY, Australia |
| White Angel | Paul Chiswick - Birmingham |
| The Life and Times of Sam the Wanderer as the End of Days Approaches | Anya Christiansen - Auckland, New Zealand |
| Onassis and Hoxha | Juliet Hill - Madrid, Spain |
| Traces | Amanda Hildebrandt - Caulfield North VIC, Australia |
| Tell us a bit about yourself | David Shelley Jones - SYDNEY, Australia |
| Broken Blood | Pauline (HUGHES) PLUMMER - North Shields |
| Poem title | Poet |
| Clarifying the protection of birds legislation | Vanessa Lampert - Wallingford |
| Jenny Wren | Ben Verinder - Tring |
| Lost Girls | Federica Peru - Frosinone-FR, Italy |
| Calling my mother | Anne Casey - Northbridge, Australia |
| The Promised Land | Maia Béar - London |
| if I had a lodger I could explain | Tamsin Hopkins - London |
| Toy Mouse, Discovered at Vindolanda Roman Fort, May 2020 | Isabella Mead - Wendover |
| Hymn | Harriet Sanders - Christchurch 8011, New Zealand |
| Manarola - final night - no camera | Han Smith - Bromley |
| Every Black History Month | Wura Arisekola - Portarlington, Ireland |
| Passing and meeting | Molly Underwood - London |
| A Short Film About Love | Joseph Kidney - Palo Alto, United States of America |
| Story title | Author |
| Mangata | Christopher Baker - Oxford |
| Black Bin Bags | Kirsten Udall - Coventry |
| Too Deep | Mel Fawcett - London |
| Memories from Muskwa Creek | Shirlee Matheson - Calgary, Alberta , Canada |
| Watercolour | Roger Selby - London |
| Playing Safe | Valerie Bowes - Caterham |
| The Pig Farm | Anne Wilson - Morpeth |
| Conversations with an Outhouse | Graham McDonald - Denmark, Australia |
| Far from the Poppy Fields | Gillian Brown - Peyriac de Mer, France |
| The Wind from Hola | Fran Maciver - Bedford |
| Starlings | Norma Allen - Llandinam |
| Mongrel | Robert Carter - STOCKTON NSW, Australia |
| Barates and My Father | Fran Maciver - Bedford |
| Jigsaw | Stephen Downes - WATSONIA, Australia |
| Selfish Kisses and Early Polaroids | James Woolf - London |
| Sirens | June Walsham - Frome |
| The Scent of Marigolds | Janet Newman - Leicester |
| Just One Word | Peter Collins - Leeds |
| Beacons | sophie holland - Bristol |
| Scorched Earth | David Butler - Bray, Ireland |
| Her Unused Smile | Sarah Dawson - Tunbridge Wells |
| Silver Bird | David Shelley Jones - SYDNEY, Australia |
| Todd | Emma Williams - Ludlow |
| Into the Light | Maggie Richell-Davies - Langton Green Tunbridge Wells |
| White Angel | Paul Chiswick - Birmingham |
| A Different Version | Janet Newman6 - Leicester |
| Kanto - the Golden Hairpin | Majella Pinto - Campbell, California, United States of America |
| Remembering Her Chords | Linda Grierson-Irish - Manchester |
| She Wolf | Hattie Barnett - Cardiff |
| Red | Penny Young - Croydon |
| The Life and Times of Sam the Wanderer as the End of Days Approaches | Anya Christiansen - Auckland, New Zealand |
| Gone Fishing | Patricia Cammish - Kingston Upon Thames |
| Onassis and Hoxha | Juliet Hill - Madrid, Spain |
| What Happens | Aidan Demmers - Brisbane, Australia |
| Polwygle | Harriet Sanders - Christchurch 8011, New Zealand |
| The Chrysalis | Jeannie Sloman - Bedford |
| Traces | Amanda Hildebrandt - Caulfield North VIC, Australia |
| Tell us a bit about yourself | David Shelley Jones - SYDNEY, Australia |
| The Fall | Nigel Hall - London |
| Broken Blood | Pauline (HUGHES) PLUMMER - North Shields |
| Poem title | Poet |
| Semaphore for Semaphore | Jon Fink - Manningtree |
| Spring Colours Mosaic | malcolm hodgins - Glasgow |
| Swarmies | GARY BILLS - Herefordshire |
| Love in the Old Town of Lijiang | Chaochuan Liu - Kunming, China |
| Clarifying the protection of birds legislation | Vanessa Lampert - Wallingford |
| Suwayq | Taher Adel - Luton |
| Jenny Wren | Ben Verinder - Tring |
| Lost Girls | Federica Peru - Frosinone-FR, Italy |
| Calling my mother | Anne Casey - Northbridge, Australia |
| Empress Sisi | Ciorsdan Glass - Richmond |
| Downs Edge | Olivia Tuck - Swindon |
| The Promised Land | Maia Béar - London |
| Our Shrinking Plot of Earth | Jonathan Greenhause - Jersey City, United States of America |
| Leaf Storm | David Butler - Bray, Ireland |
| Six of Pentacles | Claire Askew - Carlisle |
| if I had a lodger I could explain | Tamsin Hopkins - London |
| Urinals | James McDermott - Norfolk |
| The Moment | Evelyn Lindley - Sittingbourne, Kent |
| The Water Rail | Mark Totterdell - Exeter |
| October | Maya Abraham-Steele - Bedford |
| Toy Mouse, Discovered at Vindolanda Roman Fort, May 2020 | Isabella Mead - Wendover |
| Mi Duende Muerde | Alba Alonso - Leamington Spa |
| age of drift | Mara Adamitz Scrupe - New Canton, United States of America |
| Revenge is Sweet | Linda Burnett - Mansfield |
| Hold Out | Roger Vickery - Freshwater, Australia |
| Hymn | Harriet Sanders - Christchurch 8011, New Zealand |
| Manarola - final night - no camera | Han Smith - Bromley |
| Every Black History Month | Wura Arisekola - Portarlington, Ireland |
| How long does the body last when the girl is gone? | Molly Underwood - London |
| The Midland | Janet Norton - Nottingham |
| getting the summer clothes out of storage | Lucy Crispin - Kendal |
| Monks Chanting at Pemayangtse | Ruth Sharman - Bath |
| Passing and meeting | Molly Underwood - London |
| where to look for lost things | Harriet Sanders - Christchurch 8011, New Zealand |
| A Short Film About Love | Joseph Kidney - Palo Alto, United States of America |
| Story title | Author | |
| Encounter | Peter Hilton - Nottingham | Commended by Rainbow Short Story Prize Judge |
| Down on the Farm.doc | Geoff Dean - Bedford | Commended by Bedford Short Story Prize Judge |
| These Memories are Mine | Jack Alfred Beck - Bedford | Commended by Bedford Short Story Prize Judge |
| The Canal and the Trees and Everything | Rosie Orr - Chipping Norton | Commended by Rainbow Short Story Prize Judge |
| Poem title | Poet | |
| April 1st, 2020 | Rory Jamieson - London | Commended by Young Writers' Poetry Award Judge |
| For the Woods, for Amy | Megan Massey - Bedford | Commended by Bedford Poetry Prize Judge |
| Blackbird and Wolves | Anna Forbes - Edinburgh | Commended by Young Writers' Poetry Award Judge |
| Art for a Baby Sister at Eighteen | Olivia Tuck - Swindon | Commended by Young Writers' Poetry Award Judge |
| Half a honeydew melon | Maya Abraham-Steele - Bedford | Commended by Bedford Poetry Prize Judge |
After graduating with an MA in Literature, Jordan joined The Blair Partnership, literary agents for many renowned authors including J.K. Rowling, in 2016 and was made an Associate Agent in 2020. His reading tastes are wide-ranging and as an agent predominantly represents literary fiction, reading group fiction and crime and thrillers, as well as some non-fiction.
Lesley Saunders is the author of several books of poetry, most recently Nominy-Dominy (Two Rivers Press 2018) - 'a feature of this collection is its sheer ease with and celebration of language itself' (Martin Malone, The Interpreter's House). Lesley was joint winner of the inaugural Manchester Poetry Prize and one of the winners of the 2017 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. In 2016, Lesley won the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation with her English version of a poem by the acclaimed Portuguese poet Maria Teresa Horta; Lesley's latest book, Point of Honour (Two Rivers Press 2019), pays homage to the radical and erotic work of Horta - who celebrated her 82nd birthday in May 2019 - with nearly 100 translated poems. Lesley leads writing workshops and undertakes poetry mentoring; she has performed her work at festivals and on the radio, and worked on collaborative projects and productions with visual artists, musicians, composers and dancers as well as other poets - most recently with Philip Gross in A Part of the Main (Mulfran Press 2018)
In the Nineties Neil won the Sussex Playwrights Award and The Richard Burton Poetry Competition, going on later to take an MA in Creative Writing specialising in Poetry and Novel writing. Two plays Pristine in Blue and A View Of Glass Mountains were professionally performed recently and in 2017 his novel Lemon Seas was published. Neil's poems have appeared in The Cannon's Mouth, Erbacce, Dreamcatcher, The French Literary Review and many other magazines. Having had poetry published in Orbis, he has recently had a short story, Key Notes published in the magazine.
Steve Kendall is a graduate of the Newcastle University / Poetry School MA in Writing Poetry. He is a co-host of the Bedford reading series 'Ouse Muse' and convenor of the North Beds and Milton Keynes Stanza. His work has most recently appeared in Strix and Magma.
Stephen Bywater joined the merchant navy at sixteen before going on to study English at university. After graduating he taught in South and Central America for three years, returning to the UK to complete an MLitt at St Andrews. For the past twenty years he has taught English in Bedford, where he lives with his wife and two daughters. He is the author of two novels, The Devil's Ark and Night of the Damned (published by Headline/Hachette), and is currently working on his third.
Cameron Stuart is a poet originally from, and now back residing in, Bedford. He attended the Poetry MFA at Saint Mary's College of California, and has taught writing at SMC and Berkeley. He is the recipient of Judith Butler and Community of Writers scholarships.
Leigh Russell is the author of twenty-one crime novels, including the Geraldine Steel series which has sold over a million books. Shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award, long listed for the CWA Dagger in the Library, she is Chair of the CWA Debut Dagger Judges and Co-ordinator for the CWA Critiques. She was a Finalist for the People's Book Prize, and is a Royal Literary Fellow. Find out more about Leigh from her website.
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