Huge Congratulations to our 2025 HG Wells Short Story Competition winners!
Jane Belle won the Margaret and Reg Turnill Prize (Under 22) for “The Syrup Boy of Whickering Moor” and LM Bestie took the Senior Prize with “Halfway Through The In-Between”.
Congratulations to Jane Belle, LM Bestie and all our shortlisted authors, whose stories appear in our 2025 anthology “The Middle Ground”.
Buy The Middle Ground from Amazon.
Buy The Middle Ground as a Kindle download from Amazon.
Start thinking now for our 2026 competition theme of “The Cheat”. the 2026 competition will open for entries via our website in late January 2026.
Shortlist for Junior Competition, The Margaret and Reg Turnill Prize
| Jane Belle | MA | The Syrup Boy of Whickering Moor |
| Romessa Hussain | GB | The Conductor |
| Gloria Mesa | US | Devil On My Heels |
| Moulika Nandy | IN | The Divorce Bench |
| Anushka Pahariya | GB | Programmed |
| Sarah-Kate Simons | NZ | Confessional |
| Kate Smith | GB | Mrs Summers |
Shortlist for the Senior Competition, The Grand Prize
| L.M. Bestie | MT | Halfway Through The In-Between |
| Timothy Collyer | GB | A Head for Compromise |
| Matthew Dickens | GB | Space of Communion |
| Rachel Desiree Felix | KR | Neither Sea Nor Shore |
| Lisa Ferguson | US | Captain Middle Ground |
| Edward Fry | GB | Cardinal |
| Zack Harmes | US | Hell’s Greatest Dad |
| Isabelle Hunt | GB | The Commute |
| Ken Pisani | US | The Boy Who Wasn’t Dead |
| Simon Rowe | JP | Boy Bites Shark |
| James Skivington | GB | J’Accuse |
| Catherine Strong | GB | Katya |