The Winner of Anam Cara Short Fiction Contest Revealed

The following announcement recently appeared in www.writing.ie:

Judge, award winning writer Vanessa Gebbie, told writing.ie:
I read thirteen pieces of work. All were great, and I am so impressed with the creativity, the writing, the skills out there... thank you to everyone who entered, and special congratulations if your story reached this last stage - I enjoyed them all, without exception, and picking a winner was very hard. I narrowed it down to three who interpreted the theme of A Garden of Eden really well, read them many times, then slept on it. They were both very different...but in the end, I had to choose a winner:

My winner is ‘The Well’ by Rumjhum Biswas, Tamil Nadu. India

.For me, this piece does many things. Firstly, it contains some lovely writing:

"The leaves lay like anchored boats on the water’s surface, until they had soaked up enough liquid to drown.

Secondly, in so few words, a complete world is created, centred on this well -- something that is dark, darkly beautiful, attracts and repels in equal measure. And, as you get to the end, begins to horrify, as we wonder, suspect, begin to question ... and for this reader, that sense continued after every read.

I thought the interpretation of the theme was great -- slightly off-centre, unexpected and original. So many congratulations to the writer."

Rumjhum is thrilled with her win and is booking flights now to take part in Vanessa's workshop in June!

But what of 2nd and 3rd?

Winning a 10% discount on a future workshop, we can reveal that in 2nd Place was "In the Beginning" by Danielle McLoughlin from Donoughmore, Co Cork, Ireland, and in 3rd Place Anne Booth from Canterbury in England, with "Hen Party."

As you know, first prize in this fabulous competition is a place on Vanessa Gebbie's short fiction workshop retreat 'So Much More Than it Seems' 9th-15th June which will be “a chance to explore in depth the craft of short fiction in all its challenging guises, in one of Ireland's most creatively exciting venues. A chance to focus on acquiring skills that will maximise the chances of your work rising to the top and standing out for the right reasons not only in publication slush piles but also in competitions.

In the company of a well-published, multi-prize-winning short storyist, who is also an experienced tutor, this will be a focused, collaborative workshop retreat during which you will create not only complete new work and the seeds of many new stories, but you will also discover tried and tested strategies for editing and revising your existing work to make it as good as it can be. We will make full use of the local resources to find fresh inspiration. Although biased towards the art and craft of short fictions, we will also be able to explore the relevance of the craft issues to prose poetry and longer works.