Comedy producers Chaff have announced the winners of the first Chaff Short Story Competition. The competition opened in April, and after 43 submissions, 32,825 words, and a mid-proofreading discovery of the exact specific uses of the three types of dashes (-, –, and —)... it has finally reached fruition!
The top 20 submissions have been released as a 108 page collection of short stories — each writer was set the challenge of a 500-1000 word story on any subject, to be assessed on a criteria of originality, creativity and humour.
The competition was judged by British Comedy Guide’s Mark Boosey, Funny Women Comedy Writing Award winner Ana Basu, BAFTA-Rocliffe New Writing Competition finalist Rhiannon Shaw, Forgotten History’s Adrian Gray, and all-time top Chaff contributor (and BBC Studios staff writer) Angela Channell.
In a three-way tie, the jointly-winning stories were Skywriter's Block by Hughie Shepherd-Cross, Diar-ey of Gumlint the Time Eater by Eleanor Horne, and The Wife by Luke Richards. They will each receive a prize of £35 and legendary ‘kleos’.
“We’re both really proud of the collection, all the stories were so varied and funny to read. Post-Edinburgh Fringe we’ll definitely be running another competition — perhaps a ‘short-short story’ one where the word limit is 20 words — in the ‘For Sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.’ school of writing, except aiming more towards funny than harrowing,” say Will BF and Amber Ash, Chaff’s curators.
The full list of stories can be found below, or on chaff’s website (chaffcomedymag.com). The book can be purchased on Etsy (chaffcomedymagazine.etsy.com).
- Microplastic Tom by Eleanor Mason
- Her Majesty: Pretty Nice Girl? by Thomas Jeremiah
- My Name is Crime by Vincent Lynch
- My Time in the Company of John Lithgow by Lauren Johnston
- How I Turned a Hostage Situation Into A Valuable Business Opportunity by Charlie Dinkin - But Behind Seats, Cheeks Can Beam by Eliot J Fallows
- Dystopia by Alexander Minto
- My Big Fat Stupid Wedding by Noah Dryden
- The Strange Case of Mr Hyde with a Y by Robbie Sunderland
- Love-Tubing by James Coward
- Blue On Tap by Adam Ernest Pickard
- Nothing but the Truth by Samuel Duggan
- OMELETTE PLEASE by Victoria Blunt
- FORGIVE ME LORD I KNOW NOT WHAT I DO by Hector Laszlo Cosmetatos
- Rest in (P)entertainment by Marina Smith
- Love on the Underground by Leo Thomas
- FWD:RE:RE:RE Pope by Camilla Borges
