Top 4 Short Story Entries
(titles listed in order)

Thanks to our judge this year, Vanessa Onwuemezi. All comments listed below are hers.

1ST
THE OUTLAW FIDO McGOWAN
CONOR MONTAGUE (IRE)
‘Great story, you could make it into a longer piece if you wanted, the moments immediately following Fido’s death could be more drawn out to process the information we have just learned about them both, their abuse at the hands of this priest. The police arrive very quickly also, another way of drawing it out could be to prolong the ‘hold up’ and make the most of the excellent tension you’ve built.’

2ND
DIRTY CHICKEN & RICE
SIMON ROBERTS (ENG)
‘Very well executed. There’s scope to make this a longer story, going a little more into who Spence was, or the obvious feelings of grief felt by the protagonist could break through a little more, without it tipping over into something overly sentimental.’

3RD
THE POMEGRANATE LADY
LUCY FIELDING (ENG)
‘Great melding of two stories. I’d look for ways to tighten it, the first couple of pages jump around in focus a bit, and therefore we slightly lose the thread of the story. In the first section in italics, I wonder if you could move ‘Once I was seated opposite her…’ to the beginning, to embed us in the scene first, and then you can expand out to our protagonist’s thoughts.’

HIGHLY COMMENDED
BROKEN DOWN MESSIAHS
CHARLES KITCHING (ENG)
‘I enjoyed the long flowing sentences. This piece really has something original in its language use. Some very formal word use was jarring in contrast to this and interrupted the flow, the use of ‘thus’ and ‘one’, for example. The mixture between the Simple and Perfect Past tenses could be looked at.’

Congrats to these writers, who will be awarded their prizes at our second awards ceremony in Malta, in mid-October, 2024. They will also be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2.

The Plaza Audio Poetry Prize is open to enter. Why not experiment with new technology and a different form? Judge: Paul Farley. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 30th June 2024.