Just in time for Christmas, the results of Ringwood’s first ever annual short story competition are in. Following a slew of enjoyable and pleasingly eclectic entries, a shortlist of eight was reached and, from this, our winner and runner-up chosen.

So, without further ado, a huge congratulations to this year’s winner, Mónica Ferreira, for her story, ‘The Shoes’. In what one might call a very impressive hat-trick, another two of Mónica’s entries made the shortlist, as well. Her story is now published on Ringwood’s website and she will receive a monetary prize of £50. Read the winning story here.

Mónica first began publishing stories on Wattpad, with one of her books garnering over 55,000 reads. In high school, she wrote and directed a play inspired by The Breakfast Club, and now writes for the Satire and Opine sections of Aberdeen University’s newspaper, ‘The Gaudie’.  Her short story, ‘In Which You Only Miss the Chances You Don’t Take’, won ‘Most Powerful Expression’ at the HelloGrads Content Makers Award Competition.

Likewise, a huge congratulations to Mila Daskalova, whose entry, ‘Teeth’, was selected as the runner-up. Her story has also been published on our website. Read the story here.

Well done, too, to those who made the shortlist, which is as below:

  • ‘The Shoes’ – Mónica Ferreira  [WINNER]
  • ‘Teeth’ – Mila Daskalova [RUNNER-UP]
  • ‘The Last Earthman in the Universe’ – Xuan Liu
  • ‘Last Night’ – Hannah McDonald
  • ‘Hourglass’ – Megan Willis
  • ‘A Brief History of Butter’ – Catriona Patience
  • ‘Struggles Needed’ – Mónica Ferreira
  • ‘This Old Dog’ – Mónica Ferreira

Thank you so much to everyone who entered our debut competition and for sharing your stories with us. The diversity of voices marks a promising beginning to what we hope will become a lasting Ringwood tradition. Have a wonderful Christmas and see you in 2021.