For the fourth year running I have managed to make the Thresholds Feature Writing Competition shortlist. The competition which celebrates the short story form is now in its fifth year and the shortlist is always crammed with some great writing that gives a fresh perspective on short stories and writers both well known and more obscure.

Here’s the 2016 Shortlist:

Susmita Bhattacharya

Alex Coulton

Tyler Miller

Mary O’Donnell

Jonathan Pinnock

Dan Powell

Over on the Thresholds site, the shortlist announcement post highlights what makes this competition so vibrant and engaging for both readers and writers of short fiction. I’m particularly interested in the fact that so many of the entries this year have played about with the essay form, with some even taking the form of short stories that unfold their own narrative in tandem with their examination of an author or work.

The overall winner and two runners-up will be announced on THRESHOLDS, on Friday 8th April.

And lets not forget the long listed authors. A number of these essays will appear on Thresholds in the coming weeks. I genuinely cannot wait to read the rest of the long listed and shortlisted essays and exploring the many stories and writers they introduce me to or provide fresh insight into.

LONGLIST

David Butler: “Dance, old scarecrow,” she said, “while I dancing with you.” An Appreciation of ‘A Worn Path’ by Eudora Welty

Gina Challen: The Tales of a Traveller: Red Dog by Louis de Bernières

Tracy Fells: The Golden Contract

Eleanor Fitzsimons: Georgre Egerton: Writing a ‘Topsy-Turvey’ World

Sophia Kier-Byfield: Subjective Apocalypse in Lucy Corin’s One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses

Nicole Mansour: Beyond a Barren Landscape: Elizabeth Harrower’s A Few Days in the Country

Stephanie Williamson: The Women History Cast Aside

Sue Wilsea: A Spinning Wheel of Light: Remember, Remember! Winifred Holtby Short Stories

Scott Wilson: How to Kill a Man: Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s ‘In a Bamboo Grove’