I’m over the moon to have my story chosen as the winner of the Mairtin Crawford Prize. It came after quite a run of writing rejections which we always expect, but that had knocked my confidence. The story is part of my short story collection in progress so having recognition has given me confidence to continue to work on it and seek publication. I’m hoping to make progress on this during the Time To Write package that comes with the award and can’t thank the judges enough for seeing something in my work.

Sarah Davy is a writer, facilitator and mentor living and working in rural Northumberland. Her short fiction is published online and in print and her short plays have been performed in Newcastle, Manchester and London. Sarah was awarded the Finchale Prize for Short Fiction at the Northern Writers Awards in 2023. Her winning story, Shepherd, was published by The Lonely Crowd. She was commissioned by Hexham Book Festival in 2020 and won the Women On The Wall flash fiction competition, judged by Natalie Haynes, in 2018. She is working on a short story collection set against a backdrop of climate change, a full-length stage play and a comedy TV series exploring life as a childfree woman.

 

We are also delighted to reveal the runner-ups and Shortlist of the Short Story Award are as follows:

1st Runner Up: Conor Griffin 

2nd Runner Up: Conor Crummey

 

Shortlist (in alphabetical order): Gary Finnegan, Catherine Heffernan and Frederick Reilly. 

Many congratulations to all the nominees!