Meet the 2024 Sunday Post Short Story Competition winners

Sir Alexander McCall Smith, Anne Forte (second place), Lin Anderson (back), joint winners Carol Kirkwood and Paul Durrant, The Sunday Post Editor Dave Lord, Peter Bray and Alex Gray at the Royal Scot Club in Edinburgh.

The word is out. The judges have completed their deliberations and today we can reveal the winners of the second, hotly contested and highly acclaimed Sunday Post Short Story Competition 2024.

Our champion wordsmiths gathered recently in the historic library of the Royal Scots Club in Edinburgh.

Against a backdrop of tome-laden mahogany bookshelves and sparkling military silver, they were presented with their awards by our glittering panel of multi-award-winning, best-selling authors – Sir Alexander McCall Smith, Alex Gray and Lin Anderson – who were joined by The Sunday Post editor Dave Lord.

We knew from the success of last year’s inaugural contest for amateur writers that the 2024 event would yield more great talent, but we could not have anticipated how much!

We were looking for original, never-before-published stories of between 1,500 and 2,000 words in the categories of Romance/RomCom, Thriller/ Crime/Mystery, Comedy, Historical, Family/Drama/Tragedy, and Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

And you did not disappoint, with the number of quality entries topping last year’s figure – creating a tough job for our judging panel: king of feel-good fiction and No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency author Sir Alexander, and thriller royalty and Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival founders Lin and Alex, along with The Sunday Post’s P.S. magazine books editor Sally McDonald.

So high was the standard, our literati could not decide on an overall champion and had no choice but to bestow first-prize on two winners. And we are delighted to announce the title of Sunday Post Short Story Writer 2024 goes jointly to Carol Kirkwood, 66, a retired teacher and former NHS project officer from Linlithgow, for her story Blue Hen, and to Broughty Ferry’s Paul Durrant, 69, director of a not-for-profit community interest company, for his tale, In A Frozen Eye.

In second place is Anne Forte, 71, a retired art teacher and painter from Fife, for her tragedy Marjery Is Leaving, while third place goes to Paul Rees, 46, a managing director from Cardiff for his satire The Second.

First-place winners each receive a 12-month Gold Star membership with the Writers’ HQ that gives access to all its online courses and workshops, along with three one-day writing retreats. All 10 finalists in the contest receive a certificate of commendation and book tokens. Their stories will appear, starting today, in our award-winning lifestyle magazine P.S.

Also present for the ceremony at the beautiful and atmospheric Royal Scots Club – launched in 1919 in tribute to the fallen of the First World War – was last year’s winner Peter Bray, 69, a retired psychiatric nurse from Glasgow who captivated judges with his tale, My Changing Face.

A delighted Carol said: “I’m thrilled to have jointly won The Sunday Post Short Story Competition for 2024. The prize ceremony was a lovely experience that I will always remember.”

From left to right: The Sunday Post short story prize winners Anne Forte, Paul Durrant and Carol Kirkwood

Paul Durrant added: “Providing opportunities like The Sunday Post Short Story Competition is one of the strengths of independent newspaper publishers like DC Thomson. Their understanding of local, regional and national audiences adds tremendous weight to the opportunity for would-be writers like me. They are also able to bring together such a pre-eminent and relevant judging panel. It was inspirational to speak with them at the awards.”

Editor Dave Lord said: “We had a bumper crop of entries for this year’s competition and were blown away by the standard of writing. Heartfelt thanks go to all who made it happen, not least to our amazing and esteemed judges, and to the Royal Scots Club for making the awards ceremony such a memorable affair.

“Everybody who took part should be really proud of themselves. To be able to provide this opportunity for aspiring writers is a source of enormous pride. I can’t wait to do it all again.”

Speaking on behalf of the judges, Sir Alexander said: “A short story competition is often the way in which a writer begins a professional career. These competitions are vital in the discovery of new literary talent. With this competition, The Sunday Post is doing a great service.”

Royal Scots Club General Manager Adrian Hayes said: “We were delighted to be able to host the judges and winners. Our congratulations go to those who won.”

And the final word went to prize sponsor Sarah Lewis of the Writers HQ, who said: “It’s such a privilege to be able to support the competition again, and so exciting to see it grow.”

What the judges said

Blue Hen by Carol Kirkwood

Sir Alexander McCall Smith: “I knew within a few sentences that this lovely story was the work of a natural writer. There is a wonderful clarity and simplicity to the prose. Every word seems to be measured and just right.”

Alex Gray: “This story really won my heart. It is a simple tale of a boy, Lawrie, coming to terms with loss and displacement. Beautifully written with convincing dialogue, it avoided sentimentality whilst capturing the deeper feelings of the boy.”

Lin Anderson: “A lovely story, perfectly told. We are immediately drawn into Lawrie’s life.”

In a Frozen Eye by Paul Durrant

Sir Alexander McCall Smith: “This is a remarkable piece of writing, as powerful as it is subtle. The sense of place is very strong and the whole story is intensely atmospheric. There is a grave beauty to this story.”

Alex Gray: “This story was immediately outstanding for its lyrical use of language and ethereal subject matter. The final twist was both credible and satisfying. A most moving and captivating story.”

Lin Anderson: “Arresting and lyrically beautiful, this story takes us on a walk to Hallaig on Raasay. It is a walk of remembrance, for the distant and the not-so-distant past. In search of those who were loved and lost, their souls perhaps still haunting the broken and grassy stones of the abandoned shielings.”

Marjery Is Leaving by Anne Forte

Sir Alexander McCall Smith: “A moving story. The author handles her theme with sympathy and subtlety.”

Alex Gray: “Beautifully written and centred around an old lady from a nursing home. The reader sees a lot of Marjery’s life in this tale, some of which is tragic.”

Lin Anderson: “Confined to an old folk’s home where she alone can still dance along the corridors, Marjery decides to be mistress of her own destiny, and to say goodbye to the foxes she loves.”

The Second by Paul Rees

Sir Alexander McCall Smith: “The author handles the unconventional structure of this story very skilfully.”

Alex Gray: “This story consisted of cleverly imagined texts from different media platforms concerning the possibility of ‘a being’, purported to have been created from DNA found on the Turin Shroud. Cynical, but realistic…”

Lin Anderson: “A satirical and clever look at how stories are born, raised and die in the fast-moving world of news and social media.”