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The Bedford Competition 2022 Results

The 2022 Judges

Tim Jarvis

Short Story Prize Judge

Timothy J. Jarvis is a writer of supernatural fiction. He grew up in north Bedfordshire, and now lives back in Bedford. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Anglia Ruskin University. His 'last man' novel, The Wanderer, was first published in 2014 (Perfect Edge) and was reprinted in a new edition in 2022 (Zagava)...... Read More

Jessica Mookherjee -Main Poetry Prize

Jessica Mookherjee

Poetry Prize Judge

Jessica Mookherjee is author of two poetry collections and her second, Tigress (Nine Arches Press) was Shortlisted for best second collection in the Ledbury Munthe Prize 2021. She has been twice highly commended in the Forward Prize for best single poem (in 2018 and in 2021) and her work is included in notable anthologies such as 'Staying Human' (Bloodaxe).... Read More

Katherine Mezzacappa

Cygnature Story Prize Judge

Katherine Mezzacappa is Irish but now lives in Carrara, between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea. She writes mainly historical fiction on the themes of love and culture clash. Writing as Katie Hutton, she is the author of The Gypsy Bride (2020), The Gypsy's Daughter (2021) and Annie of Ainsworth's Mill (2022) published by Bonnier Zaffre. Her first novel under her own name, The Virgin of Florence, is in press with Impress Books for September 2022..... Read More

Cameron Staurt

Cygnature Poetry Prize Judge

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.... Read More

Guy Russell

Bedford Story Prize Judge

Guy Russell was born in Chatham, UK, and has been a holiday courier, purchasing clerk, media analyst and fan-heater production operative. He currently works in Milton Keynes for the Open University.... Read More

Liam Coles Bedford Poetry Prize

Liam Coles

Bedford Poetry Prize Judge

Liam Coles is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge. His project focuses on sound and religiosity in twentieth-century US poetry. He researches how poetic sound forms can interrelate with cognitive understandings of consciousness, and traces an historic lineage from pulpit to lectern heard in the voicings of American poets during performance... Read More

The 2022 Winners

Main Short Story

1st Prize

Six Foot Track

David Shelley Jones

.

2nd Prize

Chattels

Diana Powell

3rd Prize

Bog Summer

Jean Ann Pollard

Main Poetry Prize

1st Prize

The Bees

Damen O’Brien

2nd Prize

On a Cold Day in New Orleans

G H Plaag

3rd Prize

My Mother’s Watch

Norman Goodwin

Cygnature Short Story

CygnaturePoetry

Molly Bloom at University

Eve Naden

Short Cycle

Scott Lilley

Bedford Short Story

Bedford Poetry

Troubled Nights

Jesse Perrin

Holy

Lucia Wilde

Short Story Competition – Shortlist

Story titleAuthor
Fish KnifeJuna BineUSA
One ShotDavid ButlerIreland
Most LikelyClaire GleesonIreland
At the StepwellAnita GoodfellowUK
The Oboe PlayerJuliet Hill Spain
Six Foot TrackDavid Shelley JonesAustralia
Pietersen in the Black CountryAndrew KingstonUK
Sacred ArrowJudy KootNetherlands
StargazingJohn LanganUK
Bog SummerJeanAnn PollardUSA
ChattelsDiana PowellUK
I Can't Hear YouMatt ThomasUK

Poetry Competition – Shortlist

Poem titlePoet

From the dark side

Linda BurnettUK
Emptying your wardrobesLucy CrispinUK
My mothers watchNorman GoodwinUSA
Sweet Briar Plantation Burial GroundMatt HohnerUSA
The Ancestors Get Questions About Your DNA Test ResultsG.R. KramerUSA
Sous Les EtoilesHarry LoweryUK
When I was Anna PavlovaMary MulhollandUK
The beesDamen O'BrienAustralia
On a Cold Day in New OrleansGriff PlaagUSA
The Daughter You Almost HadRicky RayUSA
When your Jamaican Grandmother Sings to YouLaura RosUSA
Seducing Tom Jones at the Travelodge in SloughDi SlaneyUK

The Bedford Competition is an established nonprofit group that runs annual short story and poetry competitions. We are an internationally recognised competition with a carefully curated panel of judges who are either acclaimed writers or agents from renowned literary agencies.

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Tim Jarvis

Short Story Prize Judge

Timothy J. Jarvis is a writer of supernatural fiction. He grew up in north Bedfordshire, and now lives back in Bedford. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Anglia Ruskin University. His ‘last man’ novel, The Wanderer, was first published in 2014 (Perfect Edge) and was reprinted in a new edition in 2022 (Zagava). Short-fiction has appeared in Harvard Review, Infra Noir, Bitter Distillations, An Invite to Eternity,The Far Tower: Stories for W.B. Yeats, The Shadow Booth Vol. 1, 3:AM Magazine, Leviathan 4: Cities, and New Writing 13, among other places. He is a member of the committee of the Friends of Arthur Machen, a society dedicated to the life and works of the Welsh author of the fantastic, and co-edits the Friends’ journal, Faunus.

Liv Maidment

Short Story Prize Judge

Liv Maidment is Head of Books and a Literary Agent specialising in literary, upmarket, and book club fiction. Liv came to the Madeleine Milburn Agency from The Blair Partnership and United Agents where she worked with bestselling and award-winning authors and global literary brands. She joined the agency in 2020 where she represents a stellar list of literary, upmarket, and book club fiction. As Head of Books, Liv works closely with the directors to implement strategy across the agency.

Jessica Mookherjee

Poetry Prize Judge

Jessica Mookherjee is author of two poetry collections and her second, Tigress (Nine Arches Press) was Shortlisted for best second collection in the Ledbury Munthe Prize 2021. She has been twice highly commended in the Forward Prize for best single poem (in 2018 and in 2021) and her work is included in notable anthologies such as ‘Staying Human’ (Bloodaxe). Her latest pamphlet is Playlists (Broken Sleep Books). Her next full collection is called Notes from a Shipwreck and out with Nine Arches Press in August 2022 . Her long poem Desire Lines will be published by Broken Sleep Books in 2023. She is a co-editor of Against the Grain Press and a Board Member of the Poetry Society.

Katherine Mezzacappa

Cygnature Short Story Prize Judge

Katherine Mezzacappa is Irish but now lives in Carrara, between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea. She writes mainly historical fiction on the themes of love and culture clash. Writing as Katie Hutton, she is the author of The Gypsy Bride (2020), The Gypsy’s Daughter (2021) and Annie of Ainsworth’s Mill (2022) published by Bonnier Zaffre. Her first novel under her own name, The Virgin of Florence, is in press with Impress Books for September 2022.

Katherine’s short fiction has been published by The Copperfield Review, Ireland’s Own, Erotic Review, Me First, Asymmetry, Ariel Chart, Turnpike Review, Yours and My Weekly and in anthologies. She also writes romance under the pseudonym Kate Zarrelli (eXtasy Books). Her stories have been shortlisted in competitions by The Writers and Artists Yearbook and The Fiction Desk, and longlisted for the 2018 Colm Tóibín Short Story Award and in 2019 for the Dorothy Dunnett prize. She has also published academically in the field of 19th century ephemeral illustrated fiction, and in management theory.

Whilst Katherine currently earns a living in management consultancy, which pays the bills but doesn’t nourish the soul, she has in the past been a museum curator, library assistant, lecturer in History of Art, sewing machinist and geriatric care assistant. In her spare time she volunteers with a second-hand book charity of which she is a founder member. She has two teenage sons and a husband who fortunately enjoys cooking.

Katherine is a member of the Irish Writers Centre, Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann, the Irish Writers Union, the Society of Authors, the Historical Writers’ Association, the Historical Novel Society and the Romantic Novelists Association, and reviews for Historical Novel Review. She is a manuscript assessor for The Literary Consultancy. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from Canterbury Christ Church University, and is represented by Annette Green Authors’ Agency.

Stephen Bywater

Cygnature Story Prize Judge

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 currently teaching English at a college in Cambridge 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

Cygnature Poetry Prize Judge

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.

Guy Russell

Bedford Short Story Prize Judge

Guy Russell was born in Chatham, UK, and has been a holiday courier, purchasing clerk, media analyst and fan-heater production operative. He currently works in Milton Keynes for the Open University. Work in No Spider Harmed (Arachne Press), Somewhere This Way (Fiction Desk), Brace (Comma Press), To Hull And Back 2018, Madame Morte (Black Shuck), Northern Stories vol. 3 (Arc), Troubles Swapped For Something Fresh (Salt), The Iron Book of New Humorous Verse (Iron), Liars League, The Rialto, The Interpreter’s House and elsewhere. Competition first prizes: HE Bates Award; Leicester Poetry Society; Ware Sonnet Prize; Cannon Sonnet or Not; Flash500. He occasionally reviews for Tears in the Fence and its blog.

Liam Coles

Bedford Poetry Prize Judge

Liam Coles is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge. His project focuses on sound and religiosity in twentieth-century US poetry. He researches how poetic sound forms can interrelate with cognitive understandings of consciousness, and traces an historic lineage from pulpit to lectern heard in the voicings of American poets during performance. He secured a scholarship for his master’s degree at the University of Oxford (2017-18), where he wrote mainly on nineteenth-century religious poetry, including the work of the Rossetti siblings and Keats. He has a first-class BA in English Literature from the University of Bristol (2013-16), and his undergraduate dissertation concerned the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Born and raised in Bedford, Liam now lives in London and enjoys cooking and nature, but poetry is his real joy, and outside of his academic work he loves to discover writers he has not yet heard of!