Delighted to say that my story ‘Uffington’ has won the 2021 HISSAC short story competition – my first ever competition win.
You can read it here: http://www.hissac.co.uk/uploads/Shorts2021.pdf
Month: October 2021
Two Longlistings
It’s been a pretty lean year writing-wise. My decision to enter as many writing competitions as possible has backfired spectacularly, with a tsunami of failures that have penetrated even my rejection-thickened hide.
But two small and very welcome glimmers have come in the form of longlistings in the Cambridge Short Story Prize and the HISSAC Short Story Prize – both for the same story, ‘Uffington’. It’s a story that has been through quite a drawn-out and painful genesis, so I’m delighted it’s received some recognition.
I didn’t progress any further in the first of these competitions, but the second is still in train, so fingers crossed.
Making Nice
This, then, is a state-of-the-nation novel, mainly in the sense of ‘look at the state of this nation’
From my review of Making Nice
Over at the Literary Review I’ve reviewed Ferdinand Mount’s retelling of the Pied Piper story, which I very much enjoyed: https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spads-tale
Ian Critchley 