STROUD Short Stories organiser, John Holland, has won a prestigious international Short Story competition with one of his own stories.

The InkTears contest, based in the United States, received over 600 entries but John won the First Prize of £1,000 and publication for his story ‘Da’.

In second place was another Stroud author, Hannah Persaud, with her story ‘The Fox’.

John, who lives in Ebley, said: “It’s brilliant to achieve a win from such a prestigious short story contest as InkTears. I’m dead chuffed. I never select my own stories for Stroud Short Stories, so it’s great to achieve recognition on the wider stage. With Hannah winning the runner up award it’s a major triumph for Stroud too. I hope it will spur others on to submit to competitions.”

Hannah said of her runner up award: “It’s an honour to place second in the Inktears Short Story Contest, there are so many brilliant writers out there and competition is fierce.

"Entering competitions is a great way to hone writing skills and push yourself outside your comfort zone. It also gets you used to rejections, which is no bad thing in the publishing world. Every now and then though, something like this happens and then all the ink, sweat and tears are worth it.”

John has been running the twice-yearly Stroud Short Stories event for more than three years.

SSS is currently open for submissions from Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire authors – until April 22 – for its 14th event to be held on May 21 at the SVA in John Street, Stroud.

  •  Visit The InkTears website at inktears.com
  • johnhollandwrites.com and hannahpersaud.com.
  • Go to stroudshortstories.blogspot.co.uk for more.