Short Story Contest Success - encouragement a writer needs

Short Story Contest SuccessI received a surprising and very welcome phone call this week. Graham Jennings of Henshaw Press rang to say that I had won joint second prize in the Henshaw Short Story Competition.

Any fellow writers reading this will know what an incredible boost it is to be placed in a competition. Writing is all about rejection, perseverance and finally prevailing, but sometimes too much rejection can make the perseverance part very hard to maintain. Writers cling on to every tiny bit of recognition to keep them going. I am grateful that so many editors and writing groups take the trouble to organise short story contests. So, thank you to Henshaw Press; you’ve spurred me on. I look forward to reading the whole anthology of winning stories.

My story Cutting Through now appears on the Henshaw Press website. http://henshawpress.co.uk/December2015.html

I found out about the Henshaw Press competition from Writing Magazine. I’ve subscribed to this monthly magazine for years and highly recommend it. As well as running its own competitions, it publicises regional, national and sometimes international competitions for poets, playwrights, short story writers and novelists. Check out the Writers Online website https://www.writers-online.co.uk/