Hello booklovers,
We are thrilled to share some exciting festival news with you – the longlist for our 2015 short story competition has now been revealed!
This year our theme was ‘in the margins’. We felt that this would be an exciting and thought-provoking brief, as it can be interpreted in so many ways. It emerged from a discussion about Felixstowe’s unusual spot in the world – on the edge of Britain, and distanced from its European neighbours, but connected by its shipping links with the whole world.
Whether you chose to recount the experiences of those in the margins of society, focused on the ‘grey areas’ in life or considered the margins of a book or piece of paper as your starting point, the possibilities seemed endless, and so we waited with much anticipation for your entries.
We certainly weren’t disappointed! We had over 60 entries and the standard was very high, with lots of interpretations of the theme.
The longlisted stories are:
A Cup of Tea and a Kit Kat
If This Is Your First Night, You Have to Read
The Edge of The Marsh
Fair Trade
On Shingle Street
The Stacks and the Fifty Foot Woman
Blackcurrant Pie
My Lucky Trainers
The Smuggler’s Sweetheart
Fellos
The Night Visitor
How to Pack A Lady’s Suitcase
Truth
Where We Are Now
Bound With Love
The Final Score
Congratulations to all of those who recognise their work in the list (I’m afraid that we can’t reveal the writer’s names just yet, as the judging process will take place anonymously), and thank you to all of those who entered. Commiserations to those who didn’t quite make the cut – it was a very tough task for the judges to whittle down such an impressive array.
We will be revealing the shortlist in a week’s time, on Saturday 6th of June, and the winner will be announced on Saturday 20th of June. The winner and two runners up will join us to read aloud their stories at our ever-popular ‘Bedtime Story‘ event, which will close the festival on Sunday 28th of June. We can’t wait to hear them!
So what’s in store for our lucky winner? He or she will receive a £50 cash prize, and a year’s subscription to EADT Suffolk Magazine, with the chance of having the winning entry printed in the magazine too! The runners up will each receive a cash prize of £10.
Good luck to all of the writers on our longlist!
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