As the leaves turn golden and the nights begin to draw in, several of our creative and talented members have wonderful successes to celebrate this October.
Hearty congratulations to Laura Wilson. Her story, Sunday Chooks, was shortlisted for the prestigious Bridport Prize 2026 in the Flash Fiction category. This competition attracts hundreds of entries from around the world, and this is the second time Laura’s work has been recognised with a place on the shortlist. What a remarkable achievement. Well done, Laura.
Our prolific poet, Damaris West, has enjoyed more poetic success. Her poem Persona Non Grata was published in the latest Fig Tree Women’s Poetry Anthology. Damaris read this poem, as well as a second, Women’s Trouble, at the anthology’s online launch. Fabulous news, Damaris!
Speaking of fabulous news, on 20 October Matthew Richardson’s deliciously dark and atmospheric short story The Navvy’s Bargain was published on Literally Stories, a website that showcases a wide spectrum of short fiction. If you dare, you can read Matthew’s story here: The Navvy’s Bargain by Matthew J. Richardson – literally stories
It’s scarily good!
And on the subject of scary… this month’s theme for Writers’ Narrative magazine on Substack was Ghosts and Gothic. Susan McVey’s engaging article, Gothic Villains, examined readers’ fascination with villains and explored the appeal of monsters with motives. Linda Brown’s Monster Mash looked at mashing up the Gothic genre with others, including romance and comedy, and provided some spooky writing ideas.
October also saw the long-awaited announcement of the Scottish Association of Writers’ Summer Competition results. Having been shortlisted in the James Muir Poetry Competition, Fiona Johnson was delighted to achieve a Highly Commended award with her poem Twinite-Eight.
Meanwhile, Linda Brown, shortlisted in the Caledonian Quaich competition, a short story scrieved in Scots, was a little overawed to be awarded first place and become the inaugural holder of the brand-new quaich. Linda’s cutty tale, Nae Shame, is a historical story set in her hame toun.
Keeping with the Scots language, and completing a hat-trick of October achievements, Linda was also awarded Highly Commended in Ayrshire360’s Post a Poem competition. The theme was ‘Scottish Food and Drink’, and Linda’s nostalgic poem Seturdays at Ma Granny’s looked back at soup, stovies and jeely fluff.
Bringing up the rear in this month’s news, writer Stephen Cashmore had advised us that his short story Messages has been published in Haverin, a collection of stories celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle. Stephen says the anthology enjoyed wide circulation after being launched at the recent FantasyCon, held in Glasgow. He also intends to upload the story to his own website soon.
Just out of this world!
Well done, everyone.