Winners
(Top 4)

1st place: ‘Just the Way I Like It’ by Alan Sincic (USA)

An arrogant elderly narrator – The Writer, writ large – breaks the fourth wall to explain his superior position to the Reader. Entitled, fastidious, and wholly misanthropic, this Writer is drunk on his ability to wield words like weapons. He speaks as if from outside of time and space itself, in sentences that border on poetry. The irony, of course, is that while he looks down upon “you, dear reader, cast into outer darkness with the creaky bedsprings and the busted AC and the buzz-bomb mosquito ping-pinging at the ear,” we see his utter dependence upon those he derides. No words without readers and printers and book-binders; no life without the waiter there to “gather up all the flammables – my cap, my coat, my teeth, my hair” – and push his wheelchair into the sunlight. A voice reminiscent of Dostoyevsky’s Idiot, this is a strange and beautifully compressed piece of prose poetry.

2nd place: ‘Flicker’ by Tim Byrne (AUS)

Initially, this formally-daring piece reads as a series of factual essays about classic films. But it quickly takes a turn into the experimental realm, and from there into sci-fi. I haven’t read anything like it before, and found myself wanting to watch, or re-watch, many of the films mentioned. A paean to the golden era of film, and a prophetic warning in our age of streaming and A.I. generated content.

3rd place DISQUALIFIED: ’37-Year-Old Father of 3 Seeks Breakup Song Suggestions’ by E.M. Dasche / Joshua Beggs (USA)

3rd place: ‘How to Survive as a Monitor Lizard in Kota Kinabalu’ by Omar Musa (AUS)

Who knew that a monitor lizard – or “biawak,” in Malay – could be so charming? This one lives in a trash-filled drainage ditch in Kota Kinabalu. He explains how he has been able to survive, despite the fact that his skin is a valuable commodity; later, he attempts to befriend and help a young man who is on-the-run. I shudder when confronted with large reptiles – iguanas in Mexico, gila monsters in my native Arizona – but after reading this piece, with its beautiful rendering of place, I may never look at a reptile in quite the same way. A delicate depiction of the tenuous connection between the human and animal worlds.

Highly Commended: ‘I Watch Whales Fall’ by Michael Pearson (ENG)

Short list

Bricklaying by David Joseph

After all, it’s not brain surgery by David Joseph

And Only I Return by Michael Pearson

Keep it in the family by Katalin Abrudan

Tree Stump by Michael Pearson

Long list

The Rise and Fall of William the Conqueror by Sukie Shinn

A Noisy Palette by Conor Montague

Dancing With Tigers by Jo Cora

Snake in the Grass by BV Lawson

No Place Like Home by Jaime Gill

Claimed by Dorey Anderson

Mausoleum by Julie Evans

Times Up by Sherry Cassells

The Opposite of Godot by Guy Ware

The Vape Lord by Omar Musa

Congrats to our Top 4. The winners of the £1000 1st prize, £300 2nd prize, and £100 3rd prize, will be presented with their prizes at our awards ceremony in the Dordogne, France in mid-October, 2025.

The Plaza Short Story Prize (5000 words max) is OPEN now to enter. Judge: Booker Prize-winner, Damon Galgut. 1st prize: £4,000 / $5000. Deadline: 30th April 2025.