Aestas 2021
Fabula Press - towards a literary world
Short Story Competition 2024
So here it is – after long sessions of reading, discussions and somewhat heated deliberations, we are delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2024 edition of our short story contest. These are the tales that will shortly grace our 2024 anthology, and also the pages of this website. As you are aware, we started a new format in this edition of the contest – that of having a free submissions section alongside the regular paid entries. And we are indeed delighted to discover that there is representation from both sections amongst the top three. We also saw a rather interesting mix of genre in the final shortlist, ranging from literary fiction to speculative narratives of horror and science fantasy. Given its highly subjective nature, ranking short stories is extremely challenging in itself, and the various styles and genres made it even more difficult. We must therefore thank our judges and the reading team for their patience and perseverance in coming up with this very eclectic collection of thirteen tales. Our heartfelt thanks also go out to everyone who participated in the competition, and to the active readers of short fiction across the world – your contribution is essential to keep the art of the short story alive.
To read the story, please click on its name.
The Shortlist
At 1st place is Michael Golder, for The Earplug
Tourist Information takes the 2nd place, for Tony Osgood
The 3rd place goes to The Dog, The Stick by Brandon Ingalls
A special Editor’s Pick award goes to Greg Billington, for The Entrepreneur
Other works of short fiction that will feature in the Fabula 2024 Anthology are:
If I’m Honest by Martin Jameson
Richard Moore‘s The Seeker of Souls
Shmuel, The Lucky Jew from Julia Grunes
Lament of the Vigilant Guard by Jason J Helmandollar
N.P. Arrowsmith‘s A Painting by Magdalena Rose
Floodwater by Michelle Chuqi Huang
The Fair Child from Dan Fields
Tomas Daniel Asprer‘s Babylonian Meditations on Royal Legacy
A Present from Calcutta by Patricia Cammish
Previous competition results
Aestas 2022
At 1st place is Jay McKenzie, with Liar Billy Tea
Dianne Bown-Wilson takes the 2nd place, with The Incompatibility of Fish
And the 3rd place goes to DJ Mantle, for All the Answers You Need
Also featuring in the list, and soon to be published in the Aestas 2022 anthology are:
Justin Nixon by Howard Englander
Barbara Olic-Hamilton‘s Incorporeality
The Bequest from Barbara Austin
Steve Wade‘s A Knot of Serpents
Reunion by Tim O’Leary
Flying Is a Crime and Punishment by James Vescovi
Tony Warner‘s My curly headed boy
A Stroke of Luck from Chris Humphrey
Michael Uniacke‘s The Alonso Affair
Nivalis 2022
The Woman in the Well from Steve Burford
Carolyn Denney‘s Brother’s Day
Irresponsible by Doug Emory
Killing Kookie by S E Law
Dora Esze‘s The Shadow of a Vein
Don’t Smile by Jay McKenzie
The Courage to Change the Things I Can by Jess Simms
David McVey‘s Lone Raider
The Outing by Maria Giron
Sara Winslow‘s Windows
Sleeping Dogs by Mary Fox
A Murder of Crows by Karen Ekstrom
And the top entries for the Fabula Press Nivalis 2022 Short Story Competition are:
At 1st place is S E Law, with Killing Kookie
The 2nd place goes to Maria Giron, for The Outing
And at joint 3rd place are Karen Ekstrom for A Murder of Crows, and Jay McKenzie with Don’t Smile
Our thanks go out to all our submitters, our supporters, the readers, and the judges. Stay tuned for Aestas 2022, our summer contest, to be announced soon.
A Stitch of Red Cotton, by Richard Westwell
Janet Swinney’s Black Boy Winning
Broken Russian, from Anna Round
Tim O’Leary‘s Dirty Santa
Innocence, by Jonathan Sarfin
Tracy Fells‘ Rogue Bees
Taking Wing by Dan Micklethwaite
Amy Dusto‘s The Eggsperiment
The Queen Bee from Theodore Cohen
Gabriella Rajkai‘s The Roar
The Boughs by Lucy Underhill
Megan Maclaine‘s Lightning on the Lake
If their scores are something to go by, the judges too had a challenging time coming up with the top three names. And these top three entrants for the Fabula Press Aestas Short Story Competition 2021 are:
At 3rd place, with an average score of 8.6, is Innocence, by Jonathan Sarfin
Amy Dusto‘s The Eggsperiment takes 2nd place, with judges’ average score of 8.7
And finally, with a judges’ average of 9.8, is The Queen Bee by Theodore Cohen
We thank all the writers for giving us the opportunity to read their works, and a special thanks to the judges Brett, Sandra, Clare and Anisha for finding time to read and critically evaluate the stories.
The Aestas 2021 anthology has now been published, you can pick up a paperback copy at your local amazon site. The digital edition is on its way.
For any queries please reach out to editors@pressfabula.com
Testimonials
I first came across Fabula Press a few years ago when I started writing short stories, and when I found out I'd made the short list of one of their competitions it was the first external validation that my writing might be taken seriously. My interactions with Anirban/Fabula Press were professional and courteous and the anthology that my story appeared in was a beautiful thing! A few years on and I've had many stories published and have written enough for a collection (a future dream) - and my debut novel The Codes of Love was published by Muswell Press last year. I'll always be grateful to Fabula Press for giving me the confidence to believe in my writing.
I have had the privilege of having stories published with Fabula Press in two anthologies. Apart from being very attractive publications, with striking cover designs, I was treated in a professional, friendly and efficient manner. They were genuinely interested in promoting me and my work, as they were with all those writers included in the anthologies. This was evidenced in the way they included a photo and potted biography with each story. Added to this, each story had a comment by one of the competition judges. But Fabula Press went even further than this to help promote those writers included in their publications. On a couple of occasions, I requested Anirban to personally endorse my work. One time when I wished him to back my story ‘The Hanging Tree’ to a Short Story of the Year Award competition, and another when I was seeking an agent for a children’s novel. Anirban complied with his usual interest and courtesy.
A participant in Fabula Press' Nivalis 2015 contest, Jim was impressed by, yes, our rejection mail! So much so that he penned a blog post titled "Turned down by Fabula Press" and went on to say that it was the nicest turn down letter he had ever received.
Our Judges
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Brett Alan Sanders
Brett Alan Sanders is a writer, translator, and recently retired teacher living in Tell City, Indiana. He holds a BA in Spanish (with an English minor) and an MALS. He has been a contributing writer at Tertulia Magazine, a columnist for the Perry County (IN) News, and the managing editor at New Works Review. He has published original essays, fiction, and literary translations in a variety of journals, and has also authored a YA novella (A Bride Called Freedom) and two book-length translations from the works of Buenos Aires writer María Rosa Lojo. He can be reached through his website / blog www.brettalansanders.wordpress.com
Clare Wallace
Graduating with a first from a BA in Creative Writing and Cultural Studies at Bath Spa University, Clare went on to gain a distinction on the MA in Creative Writing. She has proof-listened to hundreds of adults and children’s audio books for AudioGO and worked for Cardiff University as a research assistant and coach to international students. She joined the Darley Anderson Agency in January 2011. Among others, Clare represents Deirdre Sullivan whose collection of short stories is slated to be published in May21 Clare tweets @LitAgentClare
Sandra Sawicka
Sandra Sawicka joined the agency in 2014. Her main interests are genre fiction (SFF, speculative, crime, horror) and YA. She also handles translation rights for all authors represented by Marjacq. She would love to see: action-packed adventure, accessible SF, crime with a speculative edge, Southern Gothic, campus novels, road novels, spooky mysteries, ghost stories, high concept, atmospheric historical fiction, YA adventure, anti-heroes, popular science non fiction (especially linguistics, cybernetics, and astronomy).
Anisha Bhaduri
A journalist for over two decades, Anisha had a decade long stint at The Statesman in India, and is currently the Web Editor of China Daily, Hong Kong. In 2012, her first published work of fiction featured in the Random House title ‘She Writes: A collection of Short Stories’. The first Indian woman to become a Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Fellow, Anisha won the first prize in a national literary contest for women writers organized by the British Council in India in 2009, and was conferred the Pradyot Bhadra Young Journalist Award for Excellence in 2011. Her crime novella, Murders in Kolkata 26, has recently been published by Juggernaut Books.