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.