The National Literacy Trust and Bloomsbury Publishing have announced the winners of the Short Story Prize. The competition, which launched in March, challenged budding authors to capture children’s imaginations by recreating a classic fairy tale with a modern twist, aimed at an audience of eight to 12-year-olds.   Hundreds of 2,000 – 4,000 word entries were received and judged by a panel including award winning children’s author Chris Priestley, members of the Bloomsbury Editorial team and Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust.   The eight winning stories will all be included in an eBook anthology by Bloomsbury and the newly-published authors will also receive £200 each.  
  • Beardunzel by Annie Edge
  • The Perfect Child by Charlotte Goddard
  • VANISHED by Frances Stickley
  • The Mysterious Transformation of the Prince of Amphibia by Stephanie Aslan
  • Sarah Snow and the Seven Spacecraft Engineers               by Mirandy Luby
  • Rapunzel’s Reunion by Emma Young
  • The Giant’s Child by Vicky McFarland
  • The Problem with Mr Woolf by Kelly Archer
  The money raised from entrance fees to the competition will help the National Literacy Trust to continue its work helping to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills they need to succeed.   Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust and Short Story Prize Judge Panellist said:   “Exciting and inspiring literature is vital to our work and we are delighted that the Short Story Prize has helped up to uncover such brilliant new children’s writing talent. A huge congratulations to our winners, who can now say they are published authors thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing.   “A huge thank you to everyone who entered the competition – the money raised will help us to inspire more children to enjoy reading, which has an important impact on how well they do at school and in the future.”   Ian Lamb, Head of Children's Marketing and Publicity at Bloomsbury Publishing Plc said:   “We were blown away by the many wonderfully twisted Short Story Prize entries and are delighted to have discovered fantastic new writing talent with the National Literacy Trust.   “We hope that the published eBook will inspire young people across the country to enjoy reading… and perhaps even write a short story of their own.”   Find out more at www.literacytrust.org.uk/shortstories