Pushcart Nomination

Here’s a first for Askance: this week we nominated one of our short stories for The Pushcart Prize. What have we chosen? Our Winter Short Story winning entry Saltwater by Rachael Cudlitz.

When a story stays with you over the months and is just as readable today as the first time we saw it, then the very least we can do is try and bring it to the attention of a wider audience. The Pushcart Prize is an extremely crowded field, the best there is from small presses across the world, but in our opinion Saltwater belongs with the best.

To find out more about the Pushcart Prize click the link.

It seemed like the perfect moment to do this, not only are nominations open this month and next, but the Askance Winter Short Story competition opens again on November 1st. Will we have another potential Pushcart nominee next year?

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Casa Rosa: first reactions

We’re just hearing the first reader reactions to DJ Wiseman’s Casa Rosa. From Vancouver, BC, JG comments “so tender, such a good read, congratulations”; in Maryland, USA, AE “read the whole thing in four sessions, literally couldn’t put it down, I was walking around the house with it in my hand. Wonderful”; in Surrey, BC, TB was “saving this for my holiday, but devoured it in two days.”

Have you read Casa Rosa yet? Leave a comment below if you have.

Exciting Times

These are exciting times! Hot on the heels of the results of our Winter Short Story competition, we’re pleased to announce the first of three planned publications for 2019.

We think you are going to love Casa Rosa, a new novel from DJ Wiseman. It’s set on the Pacific coast of  central America, and is driven by rumours of crime and questions of parentage, themes familiar to readers of the author’s previous novels.

See more details here and take advantage of special pricing for orders placed prior to publication on 27th March.

Winter Short Story Winners

A witty, tongue-in-cheek account of Oxford tuition; a very human vision of the end of the world as we know it; the hidden pain of a family beach holiday.

Three stories about as different from each other as you could wish for, three fantastic stories eventually chosen from our final seven after hours of reading. Then re-reading and weighing each again to put one ahead of the other two. Now it’s results time.

Our winner is: Saltwater by Rachael Cudlitz.

Our two runners-up are: Blueprint For The End Of The World by Laura Duerr and The Essay by Hugh Kellett.

Here’s what we thought about Saltwater:

An intense, moving insight into the life of a mother of two young boys. The layers are peeled away until we share her innermost secrets of love and hate – all laced through with beautiful imagery of the wind and waves, the sun and sand. There’s some wonderful use of language amidst the sometimes excruciating  self-awareness of Saltwater.

 

Winter Short Story Finalists

Thank you to everyone who sent in their short stories to our Winter Short Story competition. We’ve agonised over our selection, which should remind everyone that the difference between stories that make it and stories that don’t is extremely small. That said, here is our short list:

Blueprint For The End Of The World
House Of Smoke And Mirrors
Saltwater
The Essay
The Patient
The Wisdom Tooth
The Wolf

Every story has its attractions, there’s perceptive and original writing, new angles on familiar themes. Getting the list down to seven has been difficult enough, finding the winners will be a challenge.

All the stories have been a pleasure to read, a privilege to judge. Those not among the finalists can consider themselves unlucky, don’t be discouraged if your story didn’t make the cut.

We’re planning a new call for stories in the next month or so, not a competition this time, but an invitation to submit stories for a new anthology. Stay tuned for details and consider getting hold of a copy of one of our previous collections.

World Of Words

Winter Short Story Competition.
The stories are in, the words came from:

Privileged

we’ve started reading your stories

We’ve started reading the Winter Short Story Contest submissions. We usually wait until the deadline has passed, but we’re nervous of having too much to read to do justice to everyone’s stories, so we’ve made a start.

The first read is really nothing more than getting a feel for the story, the critical assessment as to whether it should go further in the process doesn’t start until the second look.

But seeing these first few pages has reminded us what a privilege it is to be reading the stories at all. Most writers are very choosy about who they show their work to. Some won’t even show their partners. True, sending to a stranger can be a little easier, but that moment can be fraught too. If you’ve ever sent a child off for their first day at kindergarten, to their first step into the world without you being there to explain how they like to be treated, to interpret their little quirks and mannerisms, if you’ve done that, then you have an idea how many writers feel about sending their stories to be read by the jaded eyes of judges and editors.

To those who’ve already sent and to those who have yet to share their stories with us – thank you, we are privileged and will treat your stories with the respect and care that they deserve. They may  not be perfect, they may need a comma or two added or subtracted, they may have a typo you missed. It’s OK, we understand, we’re writers too.

*photo credit klim sergeev via unsplash

Flash Fiction Competition Result

We were down to twelve, then six, getting more difficult to choose at each stage. Finding the award winners was agonising, but Caroline Jaine has made her decision, and here’s what she has to say about it:

“This was a very difficult decision, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories. Flash fiction is such an inspiring and fitting genre for our times. Although many of the stories were worthy of praise, Paper Leaves stood out for me as the overall winner. The writer seemed entirely at ease with writing in this short form – there was no attempt to pack too much in, either in terms of content or vocabulary – a common mistake. Paper Leaves felt like a delicate gesture, and yet a surprisingly disturbing one – the loss of a tree, which moved me deeply. It wasn’t quite what I expected to find in such a short piece, and there lies the writer’s skill and strength.”

The final placings are:

Paper Leaves by Antonia Maxwell (UK)

Breath by Phil Arnold (Australia)

Caffeine Dreams by Vincent Wood (UK)

Read each of them, they’re worth a few minutes of your time.

Flash Fiction 2018 finalists

It’s taken a lot of reading and discussion to get there, but finally we’re done. Our 2018 Flash Fiction shortlist looks like this:

Breath
Breeze
Caffeine Dreams
Missing
Paper Leaves
Stage Notes

Every story has its attractions, there’s perceptive and original writing, new angles on familiar themes. Getting the list down to six has been hard enough, now it’s over to Caroline Jaine for the one-two-three.

All the stories have been a pleasure to read, a privilege to judge. Those not among the finalists can consider themselves unlucky, the difference between being there and not is paper thin. Our new competition opens on December 1st. Send us something irresistible.

Flash Around The World

Our 2018 Flash Fiction competition has attracted entries from Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA. Thank you! Now we have the pleasure of reading all those little gems. Choosing the eventual finalists looks as if it will be as difficult as ever.

Meanwhile, authors can start flexing their writing muscles for our next competition, details coming in the next  few weeks. But it’ll be for short stories this time, again with no theme. Likely opening date will be December 1st with latest entries January 31st. Yes, there will be prizes.