Anglia Ruskin University is delighted to announce the winners of this new short story competition, open to all our University's students.

This year's judge was novelist and short story writer Ali Smith, whose work has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize (twice), The Booker Prize, and The Man Booker Prize. She has won three Scottish Arts Council Book Awards (in 1995, 2001, & 2002), the Encore Award, & the Whitbread Novel Award. Her recent collection of stories, 'The First Person and Other Stories', was published in 2008.

First prize was won by Michael Sands for 'After the Rain'. This was described as 'vivid with a very promising strangeness, witty and full of questions, assured with a real sense of voice and a way of allowing this sense of itself to remain unintrusive. It feels alive and possible, and much more than the sum of its parts.'

Second prize went to Simon Coard for 'O', which Ali Smith found to be 'rich, unafraid, haunting and very well-handled.'

Joint third prize winners are Hayley Ellis for 'And one wall shall be orange' ('pleasing to read, unsensational and unforced') and Steven White for 'Sinead' ('I liked Steven's use of form, subtle and contrary').

Congratulations go to the winners and we'd also like to commend all entrants for setting such a high standard, making the final decision a very difficult one.

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