Many thanks to everyone who read and voted in this month’s contest. We’ve made our decision at Retreat West HQ and our second prize winner is also the winner of the People’s Prize vote!
Well done to everyone who made the shortlist. It’s a tough decision for us at this stage and all of the stories have so much that is great about them.
Shortlist
- Five Uses for Milk We Hadn’t Heard of Until Louise’s Wedding by Jo Withers
- How To Grow and Care for Grapevines by Kinneson Lalor
- Instinct by Josie Lane
- Milking It by Georgia Cook
- Mixing Milk Thistle Tea by Rae Cowie
- Notes Left for My Sleeping Husband in the Final Six Months by Kristina Thornton
- Pina Colada by Nancy Freund
- Residue by Gail Warrick Cox
- Till Death Do Us Part by Denise Bayes
- The Winter of Relationship by Dettra Rose
We loved the darkness of this and the vivid use of the senses. We were completely transported to this room with these people and although it feels like a complete story, it also conjures up such a larger world and made us wonder about what came before, and next.
First Prize: Mixing Milk Thistle Tea by Rae Cowie
Second Prize & People’s Prize Winner: The Winter of Relationship by Dettra Rose
We loved this take on the theme and how it was used to show that the narrator’s loss of her cat was so much more devastating than the failure of her marriage.
Congratulations Rae and Dettra!
Rae wins £130 and Dettra wins £87. They both also get a free entry to the RW Flash Fiction Prize, which closes next month.
For winning the People’s Prize vote, Dettra gets access to the recordings of 2 sessions of her choice from our Online Flash Fest.
Next month’s prompt goes live on Monday so get ready to write!