Creative Writing Winners 2021

Shortlisted Poetry and Short Fiction works from the 2021 Prize are published in the Creative Writing Anthology 2022.


Poetry – Dean Gessie
[sic]stemic


Oz Hardwick, Chair of the Poetry jury, notes: “A handful of poems were in the running for this year’s award, but after much discussion we agreed on [sic]stemic. From its memorable opening line to its startlingly humane close, it manages to keep anger and wit in the air simultaneously, right from its almost-too-clever title.”


Short Fiction –Baņuta Rubess
Flotsam


Karen Tobias-Green, Chair of the Fiction jury, commented: “Our winner, the wonderful Flotsam, uses a betrayed mother’s internal monologue to show us the conflict at the heart of realising the one you love is not the one you can trust,  In this year when uncertainty reins, Flotsam resonates.”  


Shortlisted Writers 2021


Poetry


A Cure for Anxiety – Amanda Merritt
In Last 2 Minutes of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown
– Amy Acre
Cycular
– Anita Pati
Killing Floor
– BJ Buckley
Oil on Canvas, Believed Unfinished
Bradley Samore
Aduke, Beloved One
– Bunmi Ogunsiji
Northern California Interior
– Christina Hutchins
Uncanny Janet
– Christine Buckton
After Blue for Derek Jarman
– Christopher Jones
[sic]stemic
– Dean Gessie
Travelogue Dali
– Dominique Hecq
Tower Block Twelve
– Elena Croitoru
Groundswell at the Flood-prone Landfill Site and I
– Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
Knowledge
– Emily Barker
Quarantine
– Felicity Sheehy
Christmas Inferno 2019
– Freya Bantiff
Hate Inroads
– Ingrid Leonard
Ahead Only – Isabelle Baafi
The End of History: A Play in One Act –
Jake Romm
freedoms – Jane Ayres

I was born – Jeda Pearl
Outside Greater L.A. – Jonathan Greenhause
On Being Vulnerable – Karl Iglesias
Mechanism – Katie Hale
Conversation with my father Kelly Davis
Six Things Taygete Had To Learn Without Being Taught
– Laura Theis
Underwater Mile – Lia Brooks
The Tuna Auction – Mariah Whelan
Songbox – Mark Totterdell
False Piety – Maya Bernstein
Jenga Blocks – Natalie Whittaker
Mud – Neil Douglas
Something Always About to Happen – Patrice Wilson
They Don’t Make Gods for Non-Believers – Patrick Errington
Isolations – Paul Hetherington
The Faber Book of Urban Foxes, Shards and Celtic Crosses – Tim Scott
Autoimmune – Vasiliki Albedo
Salsify – Wendy Allen
The City I Love Is No Longer The City I Left – Yessica Klein

Short Fiction


Writing on the Wall – Anietie Isong
Flotsam – Baņuta Rubess
Catching Light – Charlotte Gross
Active and Passive Voice – Dan Brotzel
Bonny and Child – Eithne Gallagher
Italian Food – Elizabeth Allen
Sarah – Emma Jayne Evans
Winston’s Story – Ingrid Persaud
Sound Effects – Jill Korn
English – Kashmir Tutt


Picasso’s Face – Kate Lockwood Jefford
You’re Next – Kathryn Joyce
Nothing as Dirty as a Richard Nixon Hand – Lance Larsen
Black Curls – Lauren Caroline Smith
MUFFINS – Libertad Ansola
“Colonia Libertad” – Michael Sarabia
Save As Untitled – Miss Mietus
The Chain – Nyakomi Adwok
From Where the Kererū Sings – Ruby Solomon
Dear Henry – Sally Siner


Images by Massimo Colonna.