We have our winners! Congratulations to those listed below and to all who took part. We love receiving your stories. Please note that if you requested a critique of your story, these are carried out after the competition is judged and you will receive your feedback in late July/August. First Place: Rex Ryan for ‘He Had Cancer’; Second Place: Gerard Ryan for ‘I’ll See’; Third Place: Sis Byers for ‘Another Cookie’. Highly Commended: Malcolm Dixon for ‘The Secret Life of Little Lawrence Flaherty and Harriet Derioz for ‘That’s What I’m Here For’. The results in the local category were as follows: Local First Prize: Ali Bacon, for ‘Nice Poem, Shame about the Place’; Local Second Prize: Harriet Derioz for ‘That’s What I’m Here For’; Local Third Place: Elizabeth Woodgate for ‘Caravan’. Highly Commended: Clare Cunningham for ‘Midsummer’, Robert Hollier for Ghangzou and Timothy Collyer for ‘Eight Half Turns’.
Frome Festival Short Story Competition Short-list 2026
Another Cookie
He Had Cancer
Holding Up The Sky
I’ll See
Moderate Bulge
Nice Poem, Shame About The Place
Not Watching The Whale
That’s What I’m Here For
The Secret Life of Little Lawrence Flaherty
Vanessa Atlanta.
Long-list 2026 (in alphabetical order):
8.22
A Sudden and Unexpected Reversal of Fortune
Another Cookie
Caravan
Crab Village
Crack
Dancing to our own Tune
Eight Half Turns
Father
Fireworks
Flower Child
Fragile
Ghangzou
Gravity
Gut Health
He Had Cancer
Holding up the Sky
How we say Goodbye
I’ll See
Let Me Get What I Want
Long Cripple
Madame Maigret Makes her Case*
Marden
Mayday
Midsummer
Moderate Bulge
Nice Poem, Shame about the Place
Not Quite Brown Bread
Not Watching the Whale
Pesky
Rose Garden
Second Time Around
That’s What I’m Here For
The Black Water of the River Suir
The Fade Out
The Gentleman
The Last Walk Above Glas cwm
The Map of Hurt
The Mysteries
The Secret Life of Laurence Flaherty
The Veil
The White Place
Triptych
Two Across
Vanessa Atalanta
What Happens at the Festival Stays at the Festival