Song of the Broad-Axe Publications 2023 Short Story Contest Winners

We are pleased and excited to announce the winners of Song of the Broad-Axe Publications’ 2023 Short Story Contest!

1st place: Thomas Benz, Clairvoyance

A marvelous story that coaxes the fantastical from the confines of the everyday, reflected in Benz’s singing prose. While Judd is waiting to collect his girlfriend’s dry cleaning, he sees an advertisement for a psychic. When he gives in to his curiosity and calls the number on the card, he is thrust into a relationship which will change his perception of the world, as well as of his own desires.

2nd place: Sarah Alderson, The Coward

The story of a man who must grapple with his incapability to live by his principles, The Coward stunned us with its potent horror, made all the more real by the humanity of the players involved. When Sir Brun is forced to make a choice between going forward with the arrest of an innocent woman for witchcraft, or interceding at the risk of his own life, in the fallout of his decision he finds there is one judge he cannot escape; his own conscience.

3rd place: Laura Knickelbine, The Death of Pinky

A weird and wonderful exploration of the boundary between life and death from an unusual perspective, this short piece takes us into the mind of a flamingo confronted with the face of human evil and of inevitable mortality.

Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to everyone who submitted! Those interested in reading Clairvoyance and The Coward will find these stories in the January 2023 edition of The Rialto Books Review, while The Death of Pinky will be featured on our Substack, The Ha’Penny Papers, from January 1st, 2023.