Chalk Circle
Short Story Competition
2026
Many congratulations to our competition winners and runners-up. Here are the results.
WINNING AND HIGHLY COMMENDED STORIES
Best Story Chalk Circle 1500 Category
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A Blanket, But No Umbrella
D.M. Tomlinson
D.M. Tomlinson works as a lecturer in Germany. Born in the United States to Jamaican parents, she has been writing fiction for her own private enjoyment for several decades. She has only recently decided to enter her work competitively.
Best Story Chalk Circle 360 Category
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The Asymmetry of Truth
Sam Austrums
Samuel is based in London but hails from Yorkshire. He works in communications and enjoys bringing the discipline honed through years of writing for corporate audiences to the creativity and freedom of fiction, with each hopefully sharpening the other.
Highly Commended Story Chalk Circle 360 Category
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House Rules
Lana Dove
Lana Dove is a proud Yorkshire woman who began writing during her rebellious teenage years. Her fiction is drawn to the unreliable and the compromised: narrators who shade the truth to suit themselves, and morally ambiguous characters whose choices are driven by the relentless pursuit of personal gain. Her stories have taken prizes at City Writes, Globe Soup, Underdog Authors, and NYC Midnight.
JUDGES REPORT
COMMENDED STORIES
CC1500
​The Weight Of It Twist Phelan
Until the Sun Goes Down Steff Morgan
COMMENDED STORIES
CC360
For the Love of Mackerel Hilary Smith Landscape Rebecca Kinnarney ​
Sorry Sorry Twist Phelan
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​​​​​​​​The 2026 Chalk Circle Short Story Short List can be seen here.
The prize-winning and highly commended stories can be read in full here.
We were extremely impressed by the quality of submissions, and delighted to see authors from all over the world embracing our challenge. So many wonderful stories. Such a diverse mix of imaginative and entertaining writing. It has been a pleasure and an honour to read your submissions.
The CC1500 category for stories under 1500 words is a familiar format that attracted many excellent submissions. A Blanket, But No Umbrella was a worthy winner – a brilliantly crafted coming of age story, combining a sense of both naivity and knowingness to create a memorably haunting atmosphere.
The CC360 is an exciting new flash fiction category, inspired by the mythical snake, Ouroboros, which eats its own tail. 360 words that turn 360 degrees to finish where they started. The standard of submissions was high, but The Asymmetry of Truth came first – a poignant and prescient examination of our relationship with AI through the lens of a person’s memories and relationship with loved ones. House Rules was highly commended as a close second, a beautifully spare story with a pleasing structure, sensitively told.
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