Well done to everyone who sent in a story this month. We received 82 entries so the prize fund is £205. The first place winner gets £123 and second place £82. Congrats to the long listed writers of the following stories. No telling which is yours thought as it has to remain anonymous all the way through the judging rounds.

Longlist

• A Nail-Biting Life
• Angel Numbers
• Bee-He Smells Honey
• Hope In A Box
• Hope Is Where The Heart Is
• Hopeless Optimist
• House of Dunes
• In This House, We Don’t Burn Sage
• Ingredients for a soufflé good enough to unite nations
• Kyiv Christmas
• Lucky and Safe
• May Contain Traces
• My Name is Hope
• Nightingale Floor
• Oh Emily, I Prayed
• Omid
• On Christmas Eve, A Glass Half Full Man Waits For His Estranged Daughter In Wetherspoons
• Present Tense
• The First Time Afterwards
• The Hum of Maybes
• The Myth of Pandors
• Verity
• When All Hope is Lost, Go and Speak to the Wind