Short Stories of Belgium 🇧🇪 Competition - and the winners are … 🥁
WriteFest Belgium Short Story Competition
The judges were Joanna Booth and Judith Henstra of Book Helpline, professional editors of books and stories bookhelpline.co.uk
(L) Alison Mooney did a dramatic reading of Europa Europa her poem on Europe, (C) the winner of this year’s Short Stories of Belgium competition Elisabetta Giromini, and our treasured guest author from Ireland 🇮🇪 Cauvery Madhavan (R) who’s latest novel ´The Inheritance’ is gaining glowing reviews.
Top Four
1. The Whole Sky in the Countryside is Bigger by Elisabetta Giromini.
This is a story of neglect and abuse told through a deaf child’s eyes. It speaks so powerfully. But it’s not childish. Elisabetta lives in Brussels and had a book and some short stories published in Italian, but this is her first attempt at writing in English. We say: this story was impressive. Well done.
2. Erskine's Childer by Jack Kennedy.
It’s a very believable story about a father who has just been released from prison and is now attending his young son’s soccer match. We see the temptations and challenges our character goes through until he can handle it no more. It’s clever.
3. Free to a Good Home by Terry Kerins. An ingenious story about an older woman who spends time scouring charity shops and listing them on Facebook Marketplace.
4. Like a Family by Irina Papancheva. A woman is asked to host a Syrian woman and her little daughter, who are refugees and have just escaped the war. She resents being put in that position but feels she can’t refuse. We feel the resentment, we live through the experience of living together and the growing fondness towards each other.
Also in the top 10 (in no particular order):
• My Big Brother by Mike Guerin
• Sunday by Jordie Devlin McMorrow
• When Anna Met Not Jack by Kasia Alba
• Hope by Heli Parna
• All That Matters by Mary Walsh Foley