The People's Prize

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Have your say and decide which two shortlisted stories should jointly win the "People's Prize." You can vote for three stories from the fifteen shortlisted pieces that haven't otherwise been awarded a prize. Voting is open from the 26th January and closes on the 31st January at 15:00 GMT. Voting is via Google Form. One vote per person.

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The two winners will receive a £10 prize.

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Read the stories here.

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Cast your vote here.

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Shortlist 2025

 

Here is the shortlist for The Welkin Mini 2025. Congratulations to everyone whose entry is listed below. Where the writer has accepted publication, these wonderful pieces will be published over the next twenty days leading up to the five winning entries at the end of January.​​​

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• A Parable of Slow Songs

• Abstract Exploration of Fragmented Relationships in a Work that Embodies Themes such as Obsession, Loss, Alienation, the Breakdown of Formal Ideas, and the Manipulation of Control through Sexuality

• de Ville

• Haineko (Grey Cat)

• Heat of Fusion

• Later, looking back, I was embarrassed I hadn’t realised I was dead

• Like a memory, or maybe only a dream

• Mayday

• Nine One One

• Pantoum for an Interrogatory

• Plaint of a Slug in a Field of August

• Rotten Rats

• Suki ought to exorcise the spaceship

• They won’t let you in

• Things I imagined caused the tears of Bragolin’s The Crying Boy which hung on the wall in my childhood home

• Unreliable Narrators

• We Are Waiting

• We built a time machine in your ward

• You Say When the Rain Comes, it Will Be a Message From God

• You want to peel back your skin

 

Longlist 2025

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Here is the longlist for The Welking Mini 2025. Congratulations to everyone whose entry is listed below. Feel free to celebrate on social media, but since judging is still ongoing, please don't reveal the title of your piece for the time being. Commiserations to everyone else. The standard was incredibly high and some brilliant stories just missed out on the final fifty.​​​

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• ​A Parable of Slow Songs

• Abstract Exploration of Fragmented Relationships in a Work that Embodies Themes such as Obsession, Loss, Alienation, the Breakdown of Formal Ideas, and the Manipulation of Control through Sexuality

• After the Final Radiation Treatment

• After the Party

• After What Happened at the Pond

• At the Funeral of a Student I Taught Last Year

• Car Thieves

• de Ville

• Forbidden Obituary

• Haineko (Grey Cat)

• Hampstead, Summer 1985

• Heat of Fusion

• How Do I Get Out of Bed After the First Alarm?

• I'll be back in an hour

• Later, looking back, I was embarrassed I hadn’t realised I was dead

• Like a memory, or maybe only a dream

• Mayday

• Nine One One

• Pantoum for an Interrogatory

• Papaya

• Parentification

• Pieces Left On The Dining Table After Reading the Newspaper at an Aid School

• Plaint of a Slug in a Field of August

• Remembering Akinfesi 

• Rotten Rats

• Rumors

• Suki ought to exorcise the spaceship

• The Curiosities Section

• The Day They Find the Loch Ness Monster

• The Development of Language 

• The ER nurse says she needs to ask you some routine questions before you can be admitted

• The Person I Would Usually Talk To About Things Like The Fact That You’re Dying Is You

• The Sentence

• The summer the sky burned, our town got a new pool and only opened it three times 

• There’re only 144,000 people going to heaven when the world ends

• They won’t let you in

• Things I imagined caused the tears of Bragolin’s The Crying Boy which hung on the wall in my childhood home

• This Time

• To Unchoose You

• Tonight Only Thin Skin

• Unreliable Narrators

• Watch the Birdie!

• Watching the Coen Brothers’ Remake of True Grit, We Realised

• We Are Waiting

• We built a time machine in your ward

• What Frida Kahlo Wished She Could Say to her Ten-Year-Old Self

• What he does not know

• Where do I belong?

• You Say When the Rain Comes, it Will Be a Message from God

• You want to peel back your skin

 

January 2nd 2025

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Entries for the Welkin Mini are now closed. We've received 819 entries from all across the globe. The longlist will be published here on Wednesday 8th January with the shortlist to follow a few days after that.

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December 1st 2024

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Entries for the Welkin Mini are open from today until the 2nd January.

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Nominations 2024

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We're pleased to announce our nominations for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction and the Pushcart Prize:

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Best of the Net: "It's Negro Day at the Fair" (Barbara Diggs)

Best of the Net: "After too many wines at the student club, your friend shows you a photograph of her infant daughter" (Gillian O'Shaughnessy)

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Best Microfiction: "Digestion" (Amy Barnes)

Best Microfiction: "Ballgame" (Lori Cramer)

Best Microfiction: "Dead Whales are Washing Up on Beaches Everywhere" (Dawn Miller)

Best Microfiction: "Taking Flight" (Audrey Niven)

Best Microfiction: "Stellate" (Michelle Walshe)

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Best Small Fictions: "The 27th Letter of the Alphabet" (Mario Aliberto III)

Best Small Fictions:  "The Nest" (Karen Baumgart)

Best Small Fictions: "It's Negro Day at the Fair" (Barbara Diggs)

Best Small Fictions: "After too many wines at the student club, your friend shows you a photograph of her infant daughter" (Gillian O'Shaughnessy)

Best Small Fictions: "Clean Floors" (Dawn Tasaka Steffler)

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Pushcart Prize: "In a sprawling, frost-dusted monastery on a Himalayan mountainside, you contemplate a past life" (Eleanor Luke)

Pushcart Prize: "The Ocean of Kindness" (Sarah Oakes)

Pushcart Prize: "My Grandmother Paati Says She Will Show These Vellaikaarans How To Do Colonisation Properly, Isn’t It?" (Sumitra Singam)

Pushcart Prize: "Clean Floors" (Dawn Tasaka Steffler)

Pushcart Prize: "How Far Away is the Storm?" (Sharon Telfer)

Pushcart Prize: "Please friend, let's not start a cult today" (Tom Walsh)

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Winners 2024

 

Congratulations to the five winning writers - Mario Aliberto III (highly commended), Tom Walsh (highly commended), Karen Baumgart (third place), Dawn Tasaka Steffler (second place) and Gillian O'Shaughnessy (first place). Read their wonderful stories here.

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We also have the two winners of the People's Prize, Barbara Diggs and Sumitra Singam. Read their stories along with the other shortlisted pieces here. 

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The People's Prize

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Have your say and decide which two shortlisted stories should jointly win the "People's Prize." You can vote for three stories from the fifteen shortlisted pieces that haven't otherwise been awarded a prize. Voting is open from the 26th January and closes on the 31st January at 15:00 GMT. Voting is via Google Form. One vote per person.

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The two winners will receive a £10 voucher to be used on Matt Kendrick's courses or editorial services. You could also win one of these vouchers since there will be a lucky dip raffle to choose one person who has taken the time to read the stories and cast their vote!

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Read the stories here.

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Cast your vote here.

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Shortlist 2024

 

Here is the shortlist for The Welkin Mini 2024. Congratulations to everyone whose entry is listed below. Where the writer has accepted publication, these wonderful pieces will be published over the next twenty days leading up to the five winning entries at the end of January.

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• After too many wines at the student club, your friend shows you a photograph of her infant daughter 

• Ballgame

• Clay Pit Remains

• Clean Floors

• Dead Whales are Washing Up on Beaches Everywhere

• Digestion

• How Far Away Is The Storm?

• I Am the Candy-Striped Stilettos You Stuck in the Back of Your Closet

• In a sprawling, frost-dusted monastery on a Himalayan mountainside, you contemplate a past life 

• It's Negro Day at the Fair

• My Grandmother Paati Says She Will Show These Vellaikaarans How To Do Colonisation Properly, Isn’t It?

• Please friend, let's not start a cult today

• Stellate 

• Story Hour

• Taking flight

• The 27th Letter of the Alphabet

• The Nest

• The Ocean of Kindness

• The Spoils of Love

• The Time Pirate Who Waits Ashore

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Longlist 2024

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Here is the longlist for The Welking Mini 2024. Congratulations to everyone whose entry is listed below. Feel free to celebrate on social media, but since judging is still ongoing, please don't reveal the title of your piece for the time being. Commiserations to everyone else. The standard was incredibly high and some brilliant stories just missed out on the final fifty.

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• 21st December 1916

• A Life

• A Shocking Experience

• After Grief

• After too many wines at the student club, your friend shows you a photograph of her infant daughter 

• All the Ways We Tried to Float Before We Were Drowning

• At sunset, a trail of footprints lead to a boulder and wet clothes on the sand

• Ballgame

• Clay Pit Remains

• Clean Floors

• Coda

• Dead Whales are Washing Up on Beaches Everywhere

• Dear Albino Pumpkin

• Digestion

• Dragonflies

• Forbidden Thoughts In The Shade

• Hindsight is when you're tall

• How Far Away Is The Storm?

• I Am the Candy-Striped Stilettos You Stuck in the Back of Your Closet

• In a sprawling, frost-dusted monastery on a Himalayan mountainside, you contemplate a past life 

• It's Negro Day at the Fair

• Kevin Next Door

• Legs of Montmartre

• Little Bird

• My Grandmother Paati Says She Will Show These Vellaikaarans How To Do Colonisation Properly, Isn’t It?

• My Two-Legged Dog Has Taken Up Stargazing

• November

• On Pilar's First Day of School

• Please friend, let's not start a cult today

• Radio Free Europe Calling

• Satsumas

• Saturday Night: The Real Sound of Music, Hillview Rest Home, 2001

• Seeing Things Not There

• Setting the Scene

• Sex, Sighs and Masking Tape

• Stellate 

• Story Hour

• Taking flight

• The 27th Letter of the Alphabet

• The Fire

• The Legend of Swamp Girl

• The Nest

• The Ocean of Kindness

• The Revelation

• The Scene: Hamlet, but your Cat just Walked Onstage

• The Spoils of Love

• The Time Pirate Who Waits Ashore

• Voice Notes

• What We Were

• Why do you have burns at the side of your eyes?

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January 2nd 2024

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Entries for the Welkin Mini are now closed. We've received 490 entries from all across the globe. The longlist will be published here on Monday 8th January with the shortlist to follow a few days after that.

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November 21st 2023

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Introducing the Welkin Mini, a free-to-enter writing competition to celebrate micro fiction and creative non-fiction up to 100 words. Entries open 1st December and close on 2nd January 2024.

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Nominations 2023

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We're pleased to announce our nominations for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and the Pushcart Prize:

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Best of the Net / Best Small Fictions / Pushcart Prize: "Scientists are reporting a heartbeat signal in space" (Sara Hills)

Best of the Net / Best Small Fictions / Pushcart Prize: "There are a million ways to say goodbye, and how can I possibly choose?" (Lindy Biller)

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Best Small Fictions: "Earthbound" (Sarah Wallis)

Best Small Fictions: "Following the siren song" (Maria Thomas)

Best Small Fictions: "The Wedding Quilt" (Susan T. Landry)

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Pushcart Prize: "A Girl Again" (Brianna Barnes)

Pushcart Prize: "Mountain Song" (Busayo Akinmoju)

Pushcart Prize: "The Rant" (Fiona Milne)

Pushcart Prize: "Where the Hippobit Swims" (Liz Falkingham)

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Winners 2023

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Congratulations to the thirteen winning writers including Lindy Biller (1st place), Sara Hills (2nd place), Susan T. Landry (3rd place), and Liz Falkingham (4th place). Read their stories here.

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Shortlist 2023

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It has been an absolute pleasure to read and consider the longlist for The Welkin Writing Prize over the past couple of weeks; fifty wondeful pieces that demonstrate the many possibilities available to a writer when approaching short-form narrative prose. Given the standard of entries, whittling the fifty longlisted pieces down to a shortlist of twenty was a considerable challenge. Congratulations to everyone whose entry is listed below. Because I was so spoilt for choice, I've decided to award not only first, second and third, but also to create a new £25 prize for fourth place. This is in addition to the category prizes. The category winners (some of whom have been picked outside of this shortlist) will be announced between the 13th and 24th April. This will then be followed by my top-four picks between the 25th and 28th April. Good luck!

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• A Girl Again

• Bog iron

• Earthbound

• Following the siren song

• How Life Goes Sometimes

• Lo(o)se Connection

• Men Like Them (Marks Park, Sydney, 1988)

• Omen of Victory

• Scientists are reporting a heartbeat signal in space

• Sky Water

• The Firefly

• The Girl Made of Dirt

• The Troll Was A Woman All Along

• The Wedding Quilt

• There are a million ways to say goodbye, and how can I possibly choose?

• There Are Four Words for 'You' in the Malay Language

• There was the time the clocks made us luminous

• Trap

• Two Lost Souls

• Where The Hippobit Swims

 

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Longlist 2023

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Here is the longlist for The Welkin Writing Prize. Congratulations to everyone whose entry is listed below. Feel free to celebrate on social media, but since judging is still ongoing, please don't reveal the title of your piece for the time being. Commiserations to everyone else. The standard was incredibly high and some brilliant stories just missed out on the final fifty.

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• A Girl Again

• Bartholomew Makes Wigs

• Bingo

• Blackberries

• Bog iron

• Catching a Day

• Catching Rainbows

• Chasing the Dark

• Dear Desire

• Earthbound

• Ekay is Okay

• Following the siren song

• Girls Are Made Of

• Home Front, 31st July 1932

• How Life Goes Sometimes

• Lo(o)se Connection

• Low altitude

• Men Like Them (Marks Park, Sydney, 1988)

• Middle-aged woman in rip current

• Mountain Song

• Observing the Speed Limit in Liminal Space

• Omen of Victory

• Paradise by the Dashboard Light

• Real Life Problem (Unsuitable for Middle-Graders)

• Rudaali

• Scientists are reporting a heartbeat signal in space

• Siren

• Sister Vitalis walks the waterside

• Sky Water

• Soundtrack

• Swipe Day

• #TFW you happen on her profile because his is still private

• The cloak of secrets

• The Firefly

• The Girl Made of Dirt

• The Helmet of Knowing

• The Language of Cobblestones

• The Rant

• The Roiling of the Waves

• The saw is an instrument of love

• The Tree Wife

• The Troll Was A Woman All Along

• The Wedding Quilt

• There are a million ways to say goodbye, and how can I possibly choose?

• There are Four Words for 'You' in the Malay Language

• There was the time the clocks made us luminous

• Trap

• Two Lost Souls

• Where the Hippobit Swims

• Who's winning now?

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March 1st 2023

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Entries have now closed. We’ve received a staggering 1232 entries from writers in 55 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Benin, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Eritrea, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, UAE, Uganda, UK, Ukraine, USA.

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Over 500 entries have been received from new writers (with fewer than 5 publishing credits), and we have also received a wonderful number of entries from LGBTQ+ writers (170), writers with a disability or chronic health condition (220), working class writers (240), writers whose first language isn't English (240), and carers for an adult dependent (60). We look forward to awarding the category prizes for each of those groups as well as deciding our overall first, second and third place winners, and our winners of the category prizes for "historical fiction", "speculative fiction", and "humorous prose".

 

The reading process is already underway and we are hopeful that we'll be able to announce our longlist of 50 on the 31st March. However, due to the overwhelming response, it may be necessary to push this back by a few days. If this is the case then we'll announce the delay both here and on our social media pages, so please keep checking back.
 

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February 2nd 2023

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With just under a month to go until the 28th February deadline, we've now reached 400 entries. Thank you to everyone who has trusted us with their words and thank you to everyone who is still pondering an entry.

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Our reading team are excited to start reading through the entries from the 1st March, and we're thrilled to announce additional members of the team: Helen Chambers, Kim Murdock, Marcy Dilworth, MM Bailey and Noémi Scheiring-Oláh.

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January 13th 2023

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Thanks to some wonderful members of the writing community, we've now rocket-boosted our prize pot as follows:

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1st place (£250 + annual membership of Writers' HQ worth £190)

2nd place (£120 + AdHoc Fiction book voucher worth £25)

3rd place (£60 + a copy of "Deflection" by Roberta Beary)

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We've also got our nine additional prizes on top of that.

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December 1st 2022

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Entries are now open and the first stories have been received. How exciting!

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October 12th 2022

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Announcing our brilliant team of readers: Amy Barnes, Anne Summerfield, Chloe Banks, Fiona McKay, Gillian O'Shaughnessy, JP Seabright, K Devan, Karen Walker, Kathryn Aldridge-Morris, Katie Oliver, Katy Madgwick, Lauren Voelltz, Liv Norman, Marcus Moore, Mehreen Ahmed, Myna Chang, Rebecca Field, Serena Cha

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October 3rd 2022

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Introducing the Welkin Prize, a free-to-enter writing competition. The competition is open to all forms of narrative prose (up to 400 words), be that flash fiction, short-short, vignette, haibun, hermit crab, prose poem or work that sits outside such labels. There is a whole universe (or welkin) of possibilities.