2011, Kerry and Katherine launched The Short Story competition. We ran it for a couple of years for free with a huge number of submissions from countries on every continent.
In 2013, Kerry went solo. She’s a Publisher at an academic publishing house and has published her own short stories in various magazines and journals, both in print and online, including
was longlisted for the Bath Short Story and Fish Short Story Award and in November 2015 she was one of two Highly
had her first child. Her writing has taken a bit of a sabbatical since then, but she did produce one short story for the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations’ 70th anniversary festival, and it was recorded as a podcast
In 2014, she produced an anthology: Best of The Short Story: Volume 1, including honourable mentions and a couple of other stories that had marked her mind over the first 3 years of the competition. It was a painstaking job but was intended as a gift to the authors who had written such great pieces and to everyone who had helped in so many ways to get this competition off the ground and keep it running.
Among her many obsessions – her little boy, dogs, cycling, London, writing, Kew Gardens, Mark Rylance, Nick Cave, making lists – there are a few phobias, including mashed potato, woodlice and I’m not in Love by 10CC. But more than obsessions and phobias, she loves a good story. So, make her laugh, make her cry, intrigue or shock her. Whatever you do, make her keep turning that page.
Much as she’d love to give feedback on every story, the sheer volume of submissions would make this impossible. Please check the top tips as they offer handy guidelines.