Creative Writing Winners 2024
Shortlisted Poetry and Short Fiction works from the 2024 Prize are published in the Creative Writing Anthology 2025.
Poetry – Toby Campion
When someone asks if I think I’ll have children I whip out the Tarot
Toby Campion is an award winning poet, playwright and performer. A former UK Poetry Slam Champion and World Poetry Slam finalist, he won the Aurora Prize for Poetry in 2019 and Poetry on the Lake Prize 2017, awarded by Carol Ann Duffy.
Short Fiction – Nicholas Petty
Close Your Eyes
Nicholas is a British writer living in the Netherlands. His work has appeared in publications like the New England Review, The London Magazine and The Moth.
His story, Close Your Eyes, was shortlisted for the Manchester Fiction Prize.
Shortlisted Writers 2024
Poetry
Adam Brannigan – The Weather Spirit (Version 1.2)
Alex Mepham – Carcass of Beef, 1926
Amelia Roberts – Beau Présent: Achilles
Anna Lena Phillips Bell – Endearment
Carlos Andrés Gómez – There were Two Unanswered Voice Mails from You
Charlotte Old – The Language of Rabbits: A glossary of familiar terms
Claire Hamburger – The Gynaecologist of Gaza
Claire Walker – 378 Days
Clara-Læïla Laudette – On smallness
Courtney Conrad – Puss and Dog Nuh Have Di Same Luck
Danny Carlo Pandolfi – alleyway x boy
Denise O’Hagan – The art of waiting
Elvire Roberts – we can always find each other we sloths with secrets
Fiona Lynch – Open sentences…
Gayathiri Kamalakanthan – Him
Jane Wilkinson – Convolvulus arvensis
Jess Richards – Watching Perfume Ads With The Sound Off
Jo Davis – Last Tuesday
Jody Zimmerman – A Swirling Swan
Julia Marshall – Talking about Tom Jones on Llandudno Pier
Justin Hunt – Origin Story
Kizziah Burton – A Mother Counts the Neverfound Girls They Float
Lance Chaney – On Entering
Lila Zokni – epiphanies I undress for…
Luisa A. Igloria – Agon
Mary Gilliland- Pearl Street
Mary Mulholland – fish & chips
Nasim Luczaj – bbq with yu xuanji (c. 840—868)
Nat Norland – Instruction Manual
Oakley Flanagan – In other news
Olivia Le – calculus students
Paula Turcotte – Spoiler alert: nobody in this poem wins
Sarah Rice – From the upstairs flat
Sean Swallow – Hill
Stephanie Green – The End of Writing about my Mother
Stephen Spiller – Lessons The Central Intelligence Agency Taught Me
Toby Campion – When someone asks if I think I’ll have children I whip out the Tarot
Victoria Spires – Post-Mountain Blues
Wes Lee – Possession
Yanita Georgieva – Wrong Time, Right Time
Short Fiction
Anne Welsh – Fingerprints
Bruna Amorim – smoke in a fishbowl
Clara O’Hare – This breath was never mine
Ellen Macpherson – Do You Live Here
Fred Bruce – The Apiary
Harry Dobbs – Now
James Mitchell – The Frances Method
Jay McKenzie – Less Removed
John Tait – Masha
Kerry Andrew – King Henry
Leila Murton Poole – Professor Malloy’s First Lesson Back Teaching University English 101 After An Extended Maternity Leave
Mary Ethna Black – Beloved
Natalie Robinson – Blessings
Nicholas Petty – Close Your Eyes
Richie Jones – Death Rituals
Riley Rockford – Err
Tom Farrell – The Black Pool
Victoria Griffin – but only for a limited time
Images by Ibai Acevedo