How does it feel to be the grand prize winner of an international books contest, especially when this contest is based in a country far far away from your place of living?
I was over the moon! I was aware of how popular and prestigious the Eyelands Award was, and I was humbled to see my name on the shortlist. Then, the announcement came. I was the grand prize winner, and I burst into tears. It was on the same day I lost my daughter years ago. It was a bitter-sweet moment. I dedicated it to my beautiful Milena. The fact that the award came from Greece meant so much to me. Greece has a special place in my heart. My great-grandmother was Greek. I never knew her, but in the family, they had unfading memories of Aia Elefteria, and legends were told about her unbeatable moussaka. For me, now living in Australia, geographically, Greece might be on the other side of the world, but it’s close to my heart.
How did you hear about the contest?
I am a Queensland Writers Centre member, and I learned about the contest from their online magazine. There were many contests, but the Eyelands Awards stood out.
When did you start writing?
It’s hard to say. My first poetry attempt was when I was around six and announced to my stunned parents that I had a poem written celebrating spring. It started like this: the Linden trees smell of Linden trees again… The roar of laughter my novice poetry skills were met with deterred me from pursuing literature recognition for a while. Years passed, and the urge to tell the world about the Linden trees remained. So, it was poetry, then short stories, first published in my native country, Bulgaria. I love short stories. I was lapping up masters like Hemingway. I wrote fragments. It was in my later years that I ventured into longer formats.
You wrote a brilliant book. What was the inspiration for ‘The Coffee Lovers’’?
The Coffee Lovers is not only a text for me. Thank you, that you call it, what? Brilliant! Every word in it is flesh from my flesh. Like Beethoven and Einstein once were, many people are passionate about coffee. Honestly, I think my passion for coffee crosses the line of any rationality. There were periods in my life when I had to have my coffee cup full next to me, even if I was not sipping on it, breathing in the aroma. Travelling around the world, I was getting familiar with local cultures through the unique ways different nations prepare their hot black drink.
Here in Greece it is very common a kind of coffee that I think is very similar with the one you are describing in your book. Are you a coffee lover yourself?
Oh, the Greek coffee! Is there a better coffee? That’s what I prepare at home. That’s what I drink. The magic of the briki, the right proportion of water, Greek coffee, which I buy in Australia, a pinch of sugar – ligo, logo gliko, the way I drank it many times on the Monastiraki square and the Plaka.
How do you feel that your book will be translated into Greek?
I am thrilled and can’t wait to see my book, The Coffee Lovers, translated into Greek! Greece is a coffee lovers’ country. Nothing compares to Greek coffee. Thick, smooth, lots of crema. Delicious! I hope the readers will enjoy the aroma of my book. The text won the prestigious HarperCollins/Varuna Fellowship for Manuscript Development in Australia, and some of the best editors worked on it.
Can you tell us more about another book of yours, the ‘’Parcels’’?
My short story, Parcels, has a special place in my heart. It tells the compelling story of the women in my family who gathered on rare occasions when they were allowed to prepare parcels for the men locked up in prisons and forced labour camps during the communist regime. I was a little girl watching them count the permitted number of olives, tiny packets of lard and sugar, soap bars and rough woollen gloves for working in sub-zero temperatures. The women in my family never cried. Silently, they went about their duty, and in this wall of silence, there was more determination than in any word or tear.
Have you ever been in Greece?
I have been to Greece a few times, and once, I lived in this amazing country for several months. I feel at home in Greece. All the people I met treated me like one of their own. My Greek is quite basic, but every day at 10 am, a radio station here in Brisbane transmits Greek news and music. And yes, I love Greek music!! Pame na acusame: Vasilis Karras, Dalaras, Vertis…I don’t know! Is there anything I don’t love about Greece? The Acropolis, the Parthenon, the Tower of the Winds I love so much. I think all looted marble treasures should be returned to where they belong! Then the islands, Delphi, Great Meteora monasteries… Most of all, I loved to hang out with my friends Yordani, Vaso, Yorgos, Anatoli, Sophia. They were teaching me about the incredible way Greek people conjure their lives, about the language of the krasi and love. Never had I more nourishing meals made of simple thing like melting in the mouth white beans, a piece of fresh crusty bread soaked in the best olive oil from Crete, sprinkled with aromatic dried oregano. To ladi to pharmakon ine!
Have you ever read modern Greek literature?
My knowledge of Greek literature spans my university years when I wrote essays on Ulysses in Homer’s Odyssey and couldn’t hide my disappointment that he returned home. From the modern literature, of course, Zorba, the Greek, by Nikos Kazantzakis. I am a big fan of Cavafy’s poem Waiting for the Barbarians. What a giant!
One of the very first books we have translated and published for Strange Days Books was ‘’Endless July’’ by Zdravka Eftimova. Are you familiar with her writings?
I have known Zdravka Eftimova for many years. She is definitely (one of) the best Bulgarian writers of the 21st Century! Her works have been translated into many countries. Besides being incredibly talented, Zdravka is a highly organised and hard-working writer. She has a big heart and is devoted to the international writers’ cause. She is a great mate! I can’t be happier to land the same award as her.
What are your plans as a writer for the future?
Write, write, write…
How do you feel with the idea you will be the judge for Eyelands Books Awards 2024?
Being a judge for Eyelands Books Awards 2024 will be a privilege. Thank you for having me.
Jennifer Burkinkshaw read English and Classics at Cambridge university before becoming an English and Drama teacher for twenty years in the UK and in Paris. She started the endless journey of fiction writing via an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Now living in Yorkshire, Jennifer is the author of two published young adult novels, Igloo, and the recently-released Happiness Seeker. As well as travel, she enjoys reading, of course, theatre and her growing family.With her ”Igloo” (childrens book category/published) she was the grand prize winner of Eyelands Book Awards 2023
How does it feel to be the grand prize winner of an international book contest?
Winning the grand prize is an absolute delight, thank you, the pinnacle of my writing life so far. I was absolutely astonished to hear the news and still have to pinch myself to believe it’s true!
How did you hear about the contest?
I heard about the contest from a writing friend who won her category in last year’s awards. And now I’m so glad I did, of course!
When did you start writing?
I started the endless journey of learning to write in 2010 when I began an MA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults. Igloo was my debut novel in November 2022, but my scecond novel which just came out in November 2023, Happiness Seeker, is the story I worked on first.
I can see from your bio that you were a Drama teacher for several years. It is a brief bio so I wondered, have you ever written theatrical plays?
I have written and directed two plays for my community and have adapted novels for stage at one of the secondary schools I worked in. I’m now hoping to write the screen play of Happiness Seeker. Happiness Seeker draws a lot on my experience as a drama teacher.
You wrote a brilliant book. What was the inspiration for ‘’Igloo’’?
The setting was the first inspiration for Igloo: my family and I used to own a little chalet in the French Alps when we lived in France, and my sons used to build igloos. I thought, what if two strangers met in an igloo and there’s no way of avoiding talking to each other?
The igloo also becomes symbolically important, of course – it’s the refuge or shelter where you can be free to be yourself. This theme of identity, of having the courage to be yourself, not who others want you to be, is central to the story and very important to me. I suppose this is because it’s how I’ve felt about myself: like Nirvana, I’ve also felt a misfit at times, whilst realizing I can only be me, with both my limitations and my strengths. And, though much later in life, I’ve followed my writing dream, just as Nirvana follows her own ambitions; being a writer feels more like myself than anything I’ve ever done or been before but it’s taken until my 50s to get there!
I really enjoyed being able to bring in all the features I love about the mountains and winter, as well as a little philosophy, including Montaigne and Ruskin. Drawing on my time as an English teacher, I also used East of Eden as a sort of ‘echo text’ as I call it, a story which reflects something of Jean-Louis’s story. Talking of Jean-Louis, he is, of course, is the boy I’d love to have met if I was sixteen!
You won our grand prize participating in the category of Children’s books but after reading it I thought that it is more than this, meaning that could be a book for readers from all ages – do you agree with this?
I feel extremely honoured that you think it could be a book for readers of all ages, as it is my central belief as an author of YA fiction: that young adult is just a starting age, and that YA fiction is for all readers. Being a teenager, growing up, coming of age is the most intense period of our lives, when we go through so many first experiences and feel all of them so deeply. All of us are teenagers at some point and they are formative years we all look back on.
Certainly my reviews are from readers of all ages – teenagers who see themselves reflected in Nirvana but also adults who can either remember conflicts they had with their parents as teenagers, or who are now parents of teenagers and aware of how parents and teenagers so often want different things; and that parents are not always right!
When I take Igloo into schools for writing workshops and author events, I find teenagers do relate to Nirvana’s determination to be herself and the ally she finds in her igloo ‘happy place’; but then adults equally need a refuge and shelter to be themselves.
if your book was to be adapted for a movie script would it be a romance movie?
Igloo would be a coming-of-age first and a romance second, I think. I’d love it to be a movie of course!
How do you feel with the idea that you will travel to Greece for the ceremony?
I’m very excited about going to Athens later in the year and really privileged to come and talk about my writing there. I used to study Ancient Greece and have spent some time doing tours of the main classical sites, as well as enjoying holidays on several of the islands.
How do you feel with the idea you will be the judge for Eyelands Books Awards 2024?
Being a judge for the Eyelands Book Awards next year feels like one more privilege – these awards have given me such wonderful opportunities, thank you.
What are your writing plans for the future?
I’m hoping to write a screen play of my second YA novel, Happiness Seeker. I also have a further novel in draft form, Going West, which I hope to get back to in good time.
Four questions to each of our prize winners. For a short interview. Here are the answers!
1. How do you feel to be a prize winner of an international book contest?
2. Is this your first prize or distinction in your writing career?
3. What was the inspiration of your book?
4. What are your writing plans for the future?
Thomas Gordon Reynolds /NOVEL UNPUBLISHED /Do You Want This Life?
1.I’ve been writing and trying to get published for a long time now so winning a prize — especially an international prize — counts as good news and as encouragement. Although not much changes in the big picture in that there is still a ways to go to my goal of publication, winning a prize like the Eyelands Book Awards comes with the message that I am not a complete idiot for trying to write and that maybe I should have more faith in myself. It boosts morale and gives me something to cite in future query letters. All said I’m pleased and motivated by the award.
2. No. Back in 2011 (thirteen years ago!) I won the Ken Klonsky prize for an unpublished novella, Break Me (Quattro Press, Toronto, 2011) under the name Tom Reynolds. Nothing since.
3.Believe it or not it was Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting For Godot that I saw at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. My book contains excerpts from a play interspersed throughout and it was written first. The absurd, comic, play needed a more serious narrative around it so the prose story came after.
4.Ah, the future! I think the future looks a lot like the past and present. Pursuing ideas, writing, trying to find outlets for reaching people (I just started writing on Medium), being rejected then trying somewhere else, entering contests (I was a finalist in the Eyelands Book Awards last year with a different manuscript — Life And What’s Wrong With It — under a shorter version of my name. So I’ll probably enter again next year). They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But that’s probably what I’ll do.
Thomas Gordon Reynolds lives on disability in small town Canada with his wife Catherine and their rescue dog Raisin. He has lived a long time, written a lot, and published a little. He refuses to let his failures stand in the way of the success he knows is just the right word choice away. He wishes everyone associated with the prize, entrants and administers, well. The writing world needs more happiness.
L. Annette Binder / NOVEL PUBLISHED /The Vanishing Sky
1.I’m incredibly thankful to be a recipient of the Eyelands International Book Award for my novel The Vanishing Sky. I couldn’t believe it when I found out the news, and I’m honored to be part of such an outstanding group of finalists. The award has a special meaning for me because I spent two summers studying in Greece after college, and I have happy memories of the hospitality and kindness of the people I met on my travels.
2. I’ve received prizes for individual short stories, which have been included in the Pushcart and O. Henry Prize anthologies, and for my short story collection, which received the Mary McCarthy Award, but this is the first prize I’ve received for a novel.
3. My novel tells the story of a mother in a small village in Germany who is trying to hold her family together during the closing months of World War Two. Her older son has come home from the eastern front suffering from a mental breakdown and her younger son has escaped from his post in the Hitler Youth and is trying to come back home to her. The story was inspired in large part by my father’s family history. My father was required to join the Hitler Youth as a boy, and family lore has it that he walked away from his post near the end of the war and tried to find his way back home. Writing the book helped me explore the complexity of my own family history, but in the end the characters in the book are very different from the people in my family.
4. I just finished a memoir, which chronicles my mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease, looking to science, history, art and literature to try to find meaning and beauty even as her cognition fails. I’ve also been writing short stories and hope to have a collection completed sometime soon.
L. Annette Binder was born in Germany and immigrated to the US as a child. Her short stories appeared in the Pushcart and O. Henry Prize anthologies and have been performed on WordTheatre and Public Radio’s Selected Shorts. Her story collection Rise (Sarabande) received the Mary McCarthy Prize, and her debut novel The Vanishing Sky (Bloomsbury) was a New York Times Book Review Selection for Summer. Annette studied Classics at Harvard and has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.A. and M.F.A. from the University of California.
Iryna Polishchuk /CHILDREN’S BOOKS UNPUBLISHED /Letter of hope
1. My name is Iryna Polishchuk. I am an author from Ukraine. I am so happy to be a prizewinner of an international book contest. It is amazing and unbelievable in the same time! I am deeply grateful to Eyelands Book Awards and especially the judges for support in this hard for Ukrainians time.
2. It is my third prize in my writing career and I really appreciate it. My category is children’s book unpublished.
3. I write for kids because I worry about their future and the future of the world itself because it depends on today’s children dreams and inspirations. Hope my books help them to find their way in life. With a help of adventure story I show them how to be brave and kind, the importance to protect nature and care for animals, to collaborate and help each other, to fight for good and freedom, and never give up, and to see the light even in the darkest time.
4. I have already started to write my new book. It is about the war. I am sure that is necessary to document the today’s events for future generation to prevent the destructive war in the future, not only in Ukraine but also all over the world. Nothing can justify the fear in a child’s eyes. Noting can justify bombings and explosions. Nothing can justify the lost future!
Iryna Polishchuk is a children’s writer from Kyiv, Ukraine. She is a mother of two nice children and a caring teacher of English. She, like millions of Ukrainians, faced the terrible war with bombings and explosions nearby. However, she is still staying in Ukraine with her family. In her books, she continues teaching children to be brave, caring and kind, helping them to find their way in life. It is her public duty to remind that everyone deserves freedom and happiness. Iryna deals with topics such as war, pandemic, global warming and environmental disaster but more importantly, she shows children how to overcome difficulties with the help of friendship, kindness, creativity and collaboration. She is deeply grateful to the Eyelands Book Awards, for this unique opportunity to make good deeds together in this difficult time.
Anna Mantzaris / SHORT STORIES UNPUBLISHED /Machinations of the Heart and other Stories
1.I’m so appreciative. And I loved reading the bios and looking at the wonderful work of the finalists and other prize winners.
2. I am so grateful to have been a finalist for Eyelands in 2020.
3. The short stories are named after the title story, Machinations of the Heart, which was a new version of my first published short story. I used the theme from that piece of an “almost” connection people often have while I was writing and curating the rest of the stories in the collection.
4. My flash fiction collection, Occupations, was just released by Galileo Press, and I have a few projects in different phrases right now, including editing a prose chapbook, working on more short stories, and maybe (!) revising a novel draft.
Anna Mantzaris is a San Francisco-based writer. Her work has appeared in Ambit, The Cortland Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Necessary Fiction, New World Writing Quarterly, Sonora Review, and elsewhere. Her fiction chapbook Occupations is forthcoming from Galileo Press. She teaches writing in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University.
I am so excited and honored to be the unpublished Historical Fiction winner! Wow, thank you so very much. I hoped for this, worked very hard and just couldn’t believe the words when I saw my manuscript listed. My whole family was here for brunch and I was shaking when I read the email for the first time and told them. I hope this is just the start for “26.2” and the story can only be shared with more from here.
2. “26.2” also won first place in the Chanticleer International Book Awards Chaucer Early Historical Fiction contest (1 of 5). I have also won an Honorable mention and was shortlisted for another manuscript in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. I am so deeply honored to have these stories recognized. This is my first overall win in the historical fiction category. Thank you!!
3. “26.2”’s inspiration comes from both my love for running and my awe of Greece. I often tell people, we have “300” and “Troy.” We need the full retelling of the world’s first marathon. After visiting Greece and falling so in love with Athens’s history and beauty, I decided to write “26.2.” After researching and finding that so much of Athens’s history, around the time of Marathon, shaped world history, Philippides’s story just took a life of his own through my fingers, telling itself in this reimagined journey of both Athens and Marathon.
4. I would absolutely love to publish “26.2.” My goal is to get the story out to the public for all runners and historical fiction enthusiasts. My dream is for “26.2” to motivate and move people. I would also like to pursue publishing for my other three manuscripts, as well as meddle into some early childhood chapter book writing, inspired by my daughter, who is a new reader.
Amy Cleven – I am a marathon runner, author, and past traveler to Greece. My goal in writing “26.2” was to evoke personality, experience, and a vividly imaginative telling of the world’s first marathon, while also capturing the beautiful and inspiring heart that is Greece. I have won a First Prize award at the Chanticleer Book Awards, have been published in a poetry anthology, and have worked 15 years in the Nuclear Medicine field. I live in rural Wisconsin, USA with my husband and two young daughters. As a runner and writer, Greece has always inspired and awed me. I was so happy to imagine the first ever marathon through Phidippides’s words.
Jeff Fearnside / HISTORICAL FICTION PUBLISHED /Ships in the Desert
1.It feels wonderful! Writing is such a solitary business, and it’s not always easy to know how many people one’s writing is reaching and how they receive it. Winning an Eyelands Book Award is a confirmation that others see value in the work, which is encouraging. That’s really the most important thing for me about winning awards: connecting with other people. Hopefully, it brings the work to the attention of those who might not otherwise hear about it. It works the other way as well. For example, it’s brought me into contact with the good people at Eyelands: Andriana, Gregory, Patricia, and everyone else. I’ve also discovered new books by writers who were finalists or winners of different contests, and I’ve even befriended many of them on social media, where we now follow each other. In this way, community is built.
2. No, I’ve been fortunate to have won a number of awards over the course of my career. My most recent book, Ships in the Desert, alone has won four major awards so far, including, of course, an Eyelands Book Award! I feel extremely grateful for this. As I just mentioned, it puts me in touch with other people, a much wider range of people than I otherwise would be able to connect with.
3. My personal experience, for one. Kazakhstan, which is where most of Ships in the Desert is set, is important to me, as I lived there for four years and met my wife there. I’m fascinated by the commonalities and differences between cultures, and so the book is about that as well, with sections in which I look back to my time in Kazakhstan after my return to the U.S. Finally, my passion for the natural environmental and my dismay at the state of it worldwide today was a big motivation to write the book. Its large central section, which is framed around the story of a trip I took to the dying Aral Sea in Central Asia, is all about the importance of water, its proper management, and the consequences of failing to protect this life-giving natural resource. Seeing firsthand those ships grounded in a desert that had once been a sea, I understood that the reasons for the disaster were not just limited to the time and place where it happened; it’s something we’re seeing play out in various ways all over the world right now. I felt compelled to bear witness to this and, I hope, help us imagine ways to protect our natural environment, which is really protecting our own health and long-term future on this planet.
4. I have several projects in the works! I had been writing a lot of poetry while Ships in the Desert was in production, and so I now have three differently themed poetry manuscripts I’m shopping around, one that’s more formally inventive, one that’s more environmentally focused, and one that’s more culturally relevant. Obviously, I hope to find good homes for all three. In the meantime, while I’m submitting those, I’ve turned my attention back to writing fiction again. I’m about three stories away from completing another short-story collection, and I’ve also completed the first draft of a novel set in Kazakhstan. Finishing those are my two highest priorities at the moment, and I’m feeling quite excited about both.
Jeff Fearnside is the author of two full-length books and two chapbooks of prose and poetry, most recently Ships in the Desert (SFWP, 2022), which has been recognized with several honors, including a Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Award. Fearnside’s individual stories, essays, and poems have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies such as The Paris Review, Los Angeles Review, The Pinch, Story, and Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest (University of Washington Press, 2016). Among several competitive writing fellowships he has received are residencies at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, Kentucky, and the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Other awards for his writing include a Grand Prize in the Santa Fe Writers Project’s Literary Awards Program, the Mary Mackey Short Story Prize from the National League of American Pen Women, and an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. Fearnside lived in Central Asia for four years and has taught writing and literature in Kazakhstan and at various institutions in the U.S., currently Oregon State University and the MFA in Writing Program at OSU–Cascades. More info: https://www.jeff-fearnside.com/
Nancy Burke / POETRY UNPUBLISHED /Caesura
1. Writing is, in some ways, a social activity – I consider my poems to be elements of a discussion with those writers who have formed me, and who function as aspects of what I might call, after Freud, my “ego ideal,” the interlocutors of my being. Yet in other respects, writing is an isolated activity. Having the sense that there is sharing across the globe, especially in what seems like a time of global strife and fragmentation, seems especially meaningful to me.
2. I have been grateful to have received other gestures of recognition for my writing, but I especially appreciate this support from Greece as I have such fond memories of a few summers I spent in Corfu, which this particular prize enlivens.
3. My book doesn’t have a single source of inspiration behind it. I am moved to write as a way of forming my reactions to experience. For me, this is what it means to be alive. It’s a matter of self-creation – “write or die,” as they say.
4. To keep writing! Specifically, I want to delve deeper into my poetry writing, find a home for a novel-length manuscript that has recently finished with me, and also write more songs, reviving a part of my life I’ve mostly been away from since the pandemic.
Nancy Burke is a poet, fiction writer, psychoanalyst and psychotherapy activist from Evanston IL. Her work has appeared in Story International, After Hours, American Poetry Journal, Confrontation, Whitefish Review, Alaska Quarterly Review and other literary publications as well as in psychoanalytic journals and online. Her writing has won numerous awards, including several conferred by the Illinois Arts Council, as well as by Rhino, Gradiva, Fish, Writers-Editors, Atlanta Review, Spoon River Poetry Review and other organizations and publishers. She has released two CDs of original music. Her first novel, Undergrowth (Gibson House Press), was published in 2017. She recently completed the manuscript of a second novel, The Box, for which she is currently in search of a home.
Brandi George / POETRY PUBLISHED /The Nameless
1.My book is so much about growing up in the rural United States, and I have often wondered if people who grew up in very different circumstances would still be moved by it. This tells me that, yes, it’s possible. My primary goal is to connect to others through my work, so this is a wonderful thing.
2. I have won others with my first book, although this is my first international book award.
3. My book was inspired by so much— the people I grew up with, Michigan flora and fauna, cornfields, yoga, poetry, tarot, cows, haha. All of the human and more-than-human beings around me—past and present—gave me a unique image, a vision, and a new mode of being.
4. I’m working on a series of poem-essays about figures from my dreams and visions, including Michelangelo, Elizabeth Siddal, Virginia Woolf, Salvador Dalí, William Shakespeare, and a bear.
Brandi George is the author of Gog (Black Lawrence Press, 2015) the play in verse, Faun (Plays Inverse, 2019), and The Nameless (Kernpunkt Press, 2023). Her poems have recently appeared in American Poetry Review, Fence, and Orion, and she has been awarded residencies at Hambidge Center for the Arts, the Hill House, and the Time & Place Award in France. She teaches writing at FSW in Fort Myers, Florida.
Grand prize (published books): Five-day staying in Athens to attend award ceremony Grand prize (unpublished books): Translation into Greek and publication from Strange Days Books
Grand prize and prize winners : a handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards and a book from Strange Days books!
Certification document for every prize winner
(Judge ANDRIANA MINOU)
Short Stories Unpublished
Machinations of the Heart and other Stories – Anna Mantzaris USA
Short Stories Published
The Peculiarities of Yearning – Stephanie Carty United Kingdom
Poetry Unpublished
Caesura – Nancy Burke USA
Poetry Published
The Nameless – Brandi George USA
(Judge GREGORY PAPADOYIANNIS)
Novels Unpublished
Do You Want This Life? – Thomas Gordon Reynolds Canada
Novels Published
The Vanishing Sky – L. Annette Binder USA
(Judge KATHERINE WISEMAN)
Historical Fiction Published
Ships in the Desert – Jeff Fearnside USA
Historical fiction Unpublished
26.2″ – Amy Cleven USA
(Judge P.H.C. MARCHESI)
Children’s book Published
Griff, Luke and Ariadne in Leave No Footprints: The Never-Ending Universe Revisited – Judith Brulo United Kingdom
Children’s book Unpublished
Letter of hope – Iryna Polishchuk Ukraine
///////////////////////////////////////////
(Judges: al the above & Hardy Griffin)
GRAND PRIZE – UNPUBLISHED BOOK
The Coffee Lovers, Memoirs of a Communist Princess
Irene Fenn lives in Hebden Bridge, a small town in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, famous for being home to many artists and writers. Though Yorkshire is always the place they return to, Irene and her husband have travelled widely throughout Europe and the United States and lived for a number of years on Crete. When not struggling to reach her daily word count, Irene enjoys solving crosswords and tending her garden.
Seasons of Four Faces – Benjamin Kwakye USA
Benjamin Kwakye was born in Accra, Ghana and now lives with his family in Michigan in the United States. He holds degrees from Dartmouth College (where he received a Senior Honor Roll for outstanding leadership, distinguished service and intellectual and artistic creativity) and Harvard Law School. Kwakye is a director of The Africa Education Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting science education in Africa. He is the author of several works of fiction and poetry. His work has won several awards, including the African Literature Association’s Book of the Year Award for Creative Writing, regional Commonwealth Writers Prizes for Best First Book and Best Book, and the IPPY Gold Award for Adult Multicultural Fiction. His other awards include the Afrique Newsmagazine WEB DuBois Award for Literature, an indie book award for poetry, and the Illumination Book Award for Poetry (Bronze). Innocence of Photographs was a finalist for the Snyder Poetry Prize. His novel, The Clothes of Nakedness, was adapted for radio as a BBC Play of the Week. Leading scholar, Professor Eustace Palmer, notes that “Kwakye continues to reinforce his claim to being incontestably in the front rank of African writers.”
Do You Want This Life? – Thomas Gordon Reynolds Canada
Thomas Gordon Reynolds lives on disability in small town Canada with his wife Catherine and their rescue dog Raisin. He has lived a long time, written a lot, and published a little. He refuses to let his failures stand in the way of the success he knows is just the right word choice away. He wishes everyone associated with the prize, entrants and administers, well. The writing world needs more happiness.
Paradisos – Bill Kokkaris Australia
Bill Kokkaris is an Australian of Greek background born in Sydney, 1961. He is a produced playwright and was the managing director of Take Away Theatre, a Sydney-based theatre company for 25 years. His plays, Baraki, Night Journeys, and A Lifetime of Summers are bilingual, written in Greek and English. The company was the recipient of Australia Council funding and was recognised as one of Sydney’s leading multicultural theatre companies. Bill also worked as a journalist/editor for the Australian government in various departments. His interest are in immigration studies and has an Honour degree in Social Anthropology and a post graduate degree in Communications. When he is not writing, Bill enjoys drawing, painting, playing the piano, travelling with his wife and raising two daughters. In 2020 Bill received an Invited Residency at Varuna, Katoomba where he completed the first draft of PARADISOS.
Until the End – Dane Diamond USA
Dane Diamond caught the attention of screenwriter Patrick Sheane Duncan (“Mr. Holland’s Opus, Courage Under Fire”) at 12 years old, impressed by Diamond’s “flair for action… and great dialogue.” Diamond later graduated from The University of Santa Cruz with a major in Theater and a minor in writing. Next, he received recognition through numerous commissions to write independent short films. Dane Diamond is also a buzzed-about actor gaining attention for his appearance in the anticipated independent film “bUMS.” Diamond’s artistic abilities extend even further as he has proven himself an accomplished songwriter, garnering recognition from industry icons such as Chino Moreno, Lenny Kravitz, and Macy Gray. Based in Los Angeles, Diamond writes and creates art daily. For Diamond, writing is more than just a daily practice; it is an opportunity to give agency to voices not often seen without a stereotyped guise. Stories help to inform and share thoughtfulness through creativity. Dane, who recently earned his Black Belt, practices Kung Fu when he is not writing. He is overjoyed to be a finalist in this year’s Eyelands Book Awards. He wants to thank all those who have supported him, including Gregory Papadoyiannis, for reading his novel “Until the End.”
Tashi Chaturvedi is an avid storyteller and delves into the intricacies of relationships and emotions in her fiction. She generates ideas and develops characters for stories sitting in the cozy corners of the public libraries, away from routine distractions. Armed with an online certification in creative writing authorized by Wesleyan University and offered through Coursera, she has a passion for weaving tales and crafting compelling narratives as it is bred in her bone. Her father was a journalist in reputed English daily and her grandparents were acclaimed academicians. Presently, she works as a freelance writer and editor. When not immersed in the world of words, Tashi enjoys travelling, listening to music and stargazing.
NOVEL PUBLISHED
Fire on the Island -Timothy Jay Smith France
From a young age, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that has taken him around the world many times. En route, he’s found the characters that people his work. Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian Chiefs and Indian tailors: he hung with them all in the course of an unparalleled international career that also saw him smuggle banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, maneuver through Occupied Territories, represent the U.S. at the highest levels of foreign governments, and stowaway aboard a ‘devil’s barge’ for a three-day crossing from Cape Verde that landed him in an African jail. Tim brings the same energy to his writing that he brought to a distinguished career, and as a result, he’s won or placed in dozens of literary competitions for his novels, screenplays and stage plays. A prominent reviewer called his first novel “literary dynamite” and he’s never stopped writing. His first job after college was in Greece, where he has since spent cumulatively a decade or so of his life. Fire on the Island is his homage to Greece and the Greek people.
The Folly at Raighvan Park – Judith Crow Scotland
Funeral – Daisuke Shen and Vi Khi Nao USA
Vi Khi Nao is the author of many books and is known for her work spanning poetry, fiction, play, film, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Her forthcoming novel, The Italian Letters, is scheduled for publication by Melville House in 2024. In the same year, she will release a co-authored manuscript titled, The Six Tones of Water with Sun Yung Shin, through Ricochet. Recognized as a former Black Mountain Institute fellow, Vi Khi Nao received the Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize in 2022.
From The Village Of Lucca, – JP Roarke USA
JP Roarke was a trial lawyer for about 30 years, as well as a teacher and mentor to a number of younger trial attorneys. He began writing after completing trial in a death case several years ago. Serious illness forced his retirement and interrupted the writing, but he fortunately recovered and has since written two novels and several short stories, including the novels, From The Village Of Lucca and Jane Banneker. Roarke’s writing has been honored in a number of international publications and published both in Europe and the United States. Much of his work, including both novels and several short stories, was inspired by trial situations he was privileged to experience. He lives with his wife in the Palm Springs area of Southern California and is currently working on a third novel.
The Vanishing Sky – L. Annette Binder USA
L. Annette Binder was born in Germany and immigrated to the US as a child. Her short stories appeared in the Pushcart and O. Henry Prize anthologies and have been performed on WordTheatre and Public Radio’s Selected Shorts. Her story collection Rise (Sarabande) received the Mary McCarthy Prize, and her debut novel The Vanishing Sky (Bloomsbury) was a New York Times Book Review Selection for Summer. Annette studied Classics at Harvard and has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.A. and M.F.A. from the University of California.
Dis-Affected – Lew Passmore United Kingdom
Lew Passmore’s screenplay Four Last Songs was a Nicholls Fellowship semi-finalist in 2000 and won first prize at the Nashville Film Festival the following year. For a decade he worked in the emergency services as a firefighter in the US and the UK and was a mechanic for the RNLI Lifeboats. In 2012 his short story The Gibson won first prize in the British Czech & Slovak Association writing competition. He published a slim volume of prose in 2022. Called Outsiders, it contains five short stories including The Gibson and Somnambulist, longlisted in The Short Story competition in 2019. Currently based on the west coast of Scotland, Lew is a full-time student of writing at the University of the Highlands and Islands. Dis-Affected is his first novel.
Bed Table door – Csilla Toldy Northern Ireland
Csilla Toldy’s published works include three poetry collections with Lapwing Belfast (Red Roots – Orange Sky, The Emigrant Woman’s Tale and Vertical Montage). Numerous poems and short fiction have appeared in online and print magazines, including Fortnight, Southword, The Black Mountain Review, Breaking the Skin Anthology, The Incubator Journal, Snakeskin, Ink Sweat and Tears, Poethead, Headstuff, Crannog, The Honest Ulsterman, Lagan Online, Cyphers, Abridged and in anthologies in the UK, Canada and Australia. In 2019 the Scottish publisher Stupor Mundi published a short story collection Angel Fur and Other Stories. Her personal essays were published on the Ploughshares blog, in the Incubator and in the Irish Times. Csilla’s poetry and prose have been long and short-listed for the Bridport Prize of Poetry, Strictly Writing Award, Fish short story, Fish Memoir, Kingston University Short Biography Prize, Oxford Brooke International Poetry Prize and the Bath Novel Award. She was awarded the Desmond Elliott Residency by the National Centre for Writing in UNESCO City of Literature Norwich with Bed Table Door (2023 Wrecking Ball Press) and she was a Writer in Residence in Hjo, Götaland in Sweden.
POETRY UNPUBLISHED
Waiting for Godot In the Blue Corolla – Jennifer M Phillips USA
Jennifer M Phillips is a bi-national poet, retired Episcopal Priest and AIDS Chaplain, gardener, grower of Bonsai, painter, and has been writing and publishing poetry and prose since age seven. Phillips grew up in upstate New York and has lived in Britain, four other states, now is at home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Her work has won several awards, is currently nominated for a Pushcart Poetry Prize, and has appeared in over ninety journals. Her two chapbooks are Sitting Safe in the Theatre of Electricity (iblurb.com, 2020) and A Song of Ascents (Orchard Street Press 2022). A poem is like a little brass pan to carry fire’s coals through the winter, and so she writes.
Telling – Mary Paulson USA
Caesura – Nancy Burke USA
Arbor Vitae – Maureen Alsop USA
Maureen Alsop, Ph.D. is the author of Arbor Vitae;Tender to Empress (visual poetry); Pyre; Mantic; Apparition Wren (also a Spanish Edition, Reyezuelo Aparición, translated by Mario Domínguez Parra); and Later, Knives & Trees; Mirror Inside Coffin; and several chapbooks.. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Columbia Review, Missouri Review, Hyades Magazine, The Laurel Review, AGNI, Blackbird, Tampa Review, DIAGRAM, Memorious, The Kenyon Review, and featured on Verse Daily. She has short stories forthcoming with Lincoln Review and South Dakota Review. She teaches online with the Poetry Barn. She is a Book Review Editor and Associate Poetry Editor at Poemeleon. Www.maureenalsop.com
My Favourite Colour Is You – Cheyenne Macrides United Kingdom
Cheyenne Macrides is a prize-winning poet, artist and student from the UK with Greek Cypriot roots. She discovered her passion for creative writing at the age of seventeen. Starting with personal journaling as an emotional outlet, she transformed her inner thoughts and feelings into evocative poetry exploring life, nature, relationships, and spirituality. Her poem Firefly won 2nd prize in the young poet’s category at Wells Festival of literature in 2021. Her poems explore themes of love, heartbreak, growth and spirituality. She is currently working at one of the largest independent European publications, Crack Magazine as a content and social media assistant. She is also studying for her master’s degree in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.
POETRY PUBLISHED
Anamnesis – Denise O’Hagan Australia
Denise O’Hagan is an editor and poet, born in Rome and based in Sydney. She has a background in commercial book publishing, working for Routledge, Heinemann and Collins and consulting for the State Library of NSW. She set up her own imprint, Black Quill Press, in 2015, through which she assists authors wishing to publish independently. Poetry editor (Australia/NZ) for Irish literary journal The Blue Nib until 2020, her own poetry has been widely published and awarded in competitions in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, the UK, Hong Kong and the States. Her poetry collections include The Beating Heart (Ginninderra Press 2020), shortlisted for the Society of Women Writers NSW 2022, and Anamnesis (Recent Work Press 2022), category finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Award and shortlisted in the Rubery Book Award (2023). https://denise-ohagan.com
The Nameless – Brandi George USA
Brandi George is the author of Gog (Black Lawrence Press, 2015) the play in verse, Faun (Plays Inverse, 2019), and The Nameless (Kernpunkt Press, 2023). Her poems have recently appeared in American Poetry Review, Fence, and Orion, and she has been awarded residencies at Hambidge Center for the Arts, the Hill House, and the Time & Place Award in France. She teaches writing at FSW in Fort Myers, Florida.
Tourist- TAK Erzinger Switzerland
TAK Erzinger is an American/Swiss poet and artist with a Colombian background. Her poetry has been featured by journals at Indiana University, Cornell University, McMaster University, the University of Baltimore and more. Erzinger’s poetry collection “At the Foot of the Mountain,” (Floricanto Press 2021), won the University of Indianapolis, Etchings Press Whirling Prize for 2021 for best nature poetry book and was a finalist at The International Book Awards 2022. It was also a finalist at the Willow Run Book Awards and Eyelands Book Awards. Her poetry collection “Tourist” (Sea Crow Press 2023) was released in April. Erzinger was awarded a spot by the Art Centre Padula, Artist in Residency Programme summer 2023. She lives on the foothills of the Alps in Switzerland with her husband and two cats.
The World is Our Anchor – Emma Wynn USA
Emma Wynn (they/them) teaches Philosophy, Religious Studies, LGBTQI+ U.S. History, and Psychology in a boarding high school in Connecticut, the United States. They have been published in multiple magazines and journals and nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice. Their first full-length book, “The World is Our Anchor,” was published this year by FutureCycle Press.
Amiss – Gina Ferrara USA
Gina Ferrara lives and writes in the United States in New Orleans. Her poetry collections include Ethereal Avalanche (Trembling Pillow Press, 2009), Amber Porch Light (Word Tech 2013), Fitting the Sixth Finger: Poems Inspired by the Paintings of Marc Chagall (Kelsay Books 2017) and Weight of the Ripened (Dos Madres Press, 2020), a finalist for the Eyelands’Poetry Prize. Amiss, also published by Dos Madres Press, is her fifth collection. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Callaloo, The Poetry Ireland Review and Tar River Poetry and was selected for publication in the Sixty-Four Best Poets of 2019 by Black Mountain Press. Since 2007, she has curated The Poetry Buffet, a monthly reading that takes place via Zoom and the Latter Branch of the New Orleans Public Library the first Saturday of each month. She teaches English and writing at Delgado Community College and is the editor of the New Orleans Poetry Journal Press.
HISTORICAL FICTION / MEMOIR UNPUBLISHED
Footbridge to Sunset – Oma Stanescu Romania
Romanian writer Oma Stanescu, the literary pseudonym of Mihaela Carmen Stanescu, has been a member of Bucharest Writers Union since 2010. Mihaela Carmen Stanescu was born at Bozioru-Buzau, Romania on June 18th, 1961. After she graduated primary, secondary and high schools in Buzau and Constanta, she graduated the Faculty of Economics in Iasi in 1985, along with a neo-Greek course, between 1982 and 1985. Living in India for three and half years, she graduated courses in Hatha Yoga in India at Serampore- Calcutta, Ananda Ashram- Pondicherry, Lonavla Yoga Institute- Poona, Jain Yoga Institute Adhyatma Sadhana Kendra- New Delhi. She was a student of Ayurveda for six months in 1988, at Ariya Vaiyda Chikitsa Salayam, Coimbatore, India and at Ariya Vaiyda Salayam, Kottakkal- Kerala. She also visited Dera Baba Jaimal Singh and the Golden Temple in Amritsar. She returned to Romania after the Romanian changing of the regime. https://en.everybodywiki.com/Oma_Stanescu
26.2″ – Amy Cleven USA
I am a marathon runner, author, and past traveler to Greece. My goal in writing “26.2” was to evoke personality, experience, and a vividly imaginative telling of the world’s first marathon, while also capturing the beautiful and inspiring heart that is Greece. I have won a First Prize award at the Chanticleer Book Awards, have been published in a poetry anthology, and have worked 15 years in the Nuclear Medicine field. I live in rural Wisconsin, USA with my husband and two young daughters. As a runner and writer, Greece has always inspired and awed me. I was so happy to imagine the first ever marathon through Philippides’s words.
The coffee lovers, Memoirs of a Communist Princess Ilinda Brunner
See CHILDREN’S BOOKS category
Antediluvian Quest – Peter Hankins United Kingdom
Peter Hankins spent many years pecking out a novel on his iPad while sitting with his elbows pressed together on London commuter trains, travelling to and from his civil service job (where his ability to write prose that sounded authoritative was an important asset). He wrote a long-running blog Conscious Entities about philosophy, the mind, and artificial intelligence and self-published a book The Shadow of Consciousness on the same subject. He now has another blog, Seen and Done about writing and other creative work by him and others. Since retiring with chronic health problems in the shape of Crohn’s disease, he has focused his energy mainly on short stories, which have been recognised in a number of competitions and published in anthologies or online. He hopes to return to the novel in due course.
Finding Strength In Scars: How Things That Break Us Make Us Stronger – Rachel McNair USA
Rachel was born and raised in Oklahoma. She graduated with a B.S. in Information Technology and a minor in music from Florida State University. After overcoming six cancer diagnoses and treatments, she chose to pen a book chronicling her ongoing 11-year struggle with a rare type of cancer. Her aim is to boost awareness for young adults facing cancer and inspire hope for prolonged survival in others. She is an avid reader, movie trivia buff, and foodie. She also enjoys playing piano and bass in a folk/classic rock band with her husband and her father. She is excited about finishing her first book, and about venturing into the world of writing and publishing. She is currently working on a romance novel and aspires to one day be a novelist. She currently lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband Jon.
HISTORICAL FICTION / MEMOIR – PUBLISHED
The New Empire – Alison McBain Canada
Alison McBain has 200+ short stories, poems, and articles published worldwide. Novels she’s penned have won the Foreword INDIES Award, Literary Classics International Book Awards, and Readers’ Favorite Book Awards. Her latest novel The New Empire is also a finalist for the Canadian Book Club Awards. When not writing, Ms. McBain is the associate editor for the magazine Scribes*MICRO*Fiction, administrator of The Scribes Prize, and writes a silly webcomic called Toddler Times about the puns and perils inherent in raising three daughters. She lives in Alberta, Canada.
Magda, Standing – Christine Fallert Kessides USA
Christine Fallert Kessides was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was always interested that all the ancestors she could identify had immigrated to the US from Germany. After reviewing her family genealogy and reflecting on some of her relatives’ experiences, she was inspired to write Magda’s story. Christine attended college and graduate school at Northwestern University and Princeton University, respectively. She had a career writing policy reports on international development for The World Bank in Washington, DC. Now retired, she volunteers with nonprofits that support women and families in need, and especially enjoys travel, yoga, and sharing books with friends. She lives in suburban Maryland with her husband and sees their four children, grandchild, and granddogs as often as possible. Magda, Standing is her first novel.
The House Filler – Tong Ge Canada
Born and raised in China, Tong Ge came to Canada in the late 80s as an international student to pursue her master’s degree. Since 2012, she has written under both her real name and the pen name Tong Ge, publishing poems, prose, and short stories in both English and Chinese across North America, England, and Taiwan. Her works can be found in publications such as PRISM International, Canadian Stories, Ricepaper, Academy of the Heart and Mind, FLOW magazine, Vineyard Poetry Quarterly, 渥水, 远方的诗, Polyglot Magazine, Aloka Magazine, Magnets and Ladders. With four literary prizes already received, she is also a finalist for four others. Her debut novel, “The House Filler,” was published in Canada in 2023.
Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops – Allison Hong Merrill USA
Allison is a loveaholic, a Taiwanese immigrant, an award-winning and bestselling author who shares her Chinese culture with strong storytelling skills to create empowering books, to build understanding and love. She earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and writes both fiction and creative nonfiction in both Chinese and English for both adult and young readers. Her work appears in the New York Times and the Huffington Post. Her debut memoir, Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops, has won over 45 book awards. She is a keynote speaker, an instructor, and a panelist at various writer’s conferences nationwide and in Asia. She also appears on TV, radio, and podcasts; in magazines, newspapers, and journals. She’s available for interviews, teaching, and speaking engagements. Sign up for her short monthly email at allisonhongmerrill.com.”
Ships in the Desert -Jeff Fearnside USA
Jeff Fearnside is the author of two full-length books and two chapbooks of prose and poetry, most recently Ships in the Desert (SFWP, 2022), which has been recognized with several honors, including a Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Award. Fearnside’s individual stories, essays, and poems have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies such as The Paris Review, Los Angeles Review, The Pinch, Story, and Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest (University of Washington Press, 2016). Among several competitive writing fellowships he has received are residencies at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, Kentucky, and the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Other awards for his writing include a Grand Prize in the Santa Fe Writers Project’s Literary Awards Program, the Mary Mackey Short Story Prize from the National League of American Pen Women, and an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. Fearnside lived in Central Asia for four years and has taught writing and literature in Kazakhstan and at various institutions in the U.S., currently Oregon State University and the MFA in Writing Program at OSU–Cascades. More info: https://www.jeff-fearnside.com/
SHORT STORIES UNPUBLISHED
There is no death in finding Nemo – Jeffrey M. Feingold United Kingdom
Jeffrey M. Feingold is a writer in Boston. His debut short story collection, The Black Hole Pastrami, published in 2023 (MFT Press), was followed shortly after by There Is No Death in Finding Nemo, a collection of stories featuring magical realism. Jeffrey’s stories have been nominated for the Pen America Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, the Pushcart Prize, and The Best American Short Stories; finalist for the Eyelands Book Awards in Greece; shortlisted for the Exeter Story Prize; and winner of London’s Superlative literary journal annual short story prize. Jeffrey’s work appears in magazines, such as the international Intrepid Times, and in The Bark. Jeffrey’s work has also been published in anthologies, and by numerous literary reviews and journals, including The Pinch, Maudlin House, Wilderness House Literary Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and elsewhere. Jeffrey’s stories about family, about the tension between heritage versus assimilation, and about love, loss, regret, and forgiveness, reveal a sense of absurdity tempered by a love of people and their quirky ways. http://www.jeffreyfeingold.com
The House of Genyo and other stories – Terry Watada Canada
Terry Watada is a writer living in Toronto, Canada. He has three novels, five poetry books and a short story collection in print. His fourth novel, Hiroshima Bomb Money (NeWest Press), is due for publication in 2024. His sixth poetry collection, The Mask (Mawenzi House), is due by the end of 2023. He also has written a play for the Lighthouse Summer Theatre Festival, Port Dover, Canada. Sakura : the Last Cherry Blossom Festival will premiere in the summer of 2025. He is very happy that The House of Genyo, his second short story collection, is a finalist in the Eyelands International competition.
Aegina Tales – Alexander Matheou Greece / Malaysia
Alexander Matheou has spent twenty years leading humanitarian work and missions around the world. In 2016, while supporting the response to the migration crisis in Greece, he researched the history of how his Greek grandfather died in the resistance in Central Greece in 1943, and he published the story on Amazon. He then spent four years researching and writing a novel, Generations of Leaves, loosely based on family history, set in the Balkan Wars in Greece in 1912/1913. Each summer he stays on the Island of Aegina, where in 2022 and 2023, he wrote Aegina Tales, a collection of short stories that weave an ancient spell from the abandoned goddess, Aegina, into the lives of people living on the island in the summer of 2023. Alexander is currently Regional Director for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, based in Malaysia, and is responsible for coordinating humanitarian work in thirty-eight countries.
Machinations of the Heart and other Stories – Anna Mantzaris USA
Anna Mantzaris is a San Francisco-based writer. Her work has appeared in Ambit, The Cortland Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Necessary Fiction, New World Writing Quarterly, Sonora Review, and elsewhere. Her fiction chapbook Occupations is forthcoming from Galileo Press. She teaches writing in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University.
The Weather house – D.R.Hill United Kingdom
Originally from Birmingham, D.R. Hill now lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK. He is a theatre practitioner, performer and writer. His plays, The Tale of the Corn Woman, The TV Addict and Black Geordie have been performed by Theatre Station Blyth, and All Change by the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. He co-wrote the play Peace in Our Town with Barrie Keeffe, as a commission from Cheltenham Literature Festival. As a fiction writer, D.R. Hill has had previous short stories published by Bandit Fiction and The Channel. In 2021 he was shortlisted by Eyelands for his novel, From Now On. Previous publications include Under Scan (co-written with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer), Voices of Culture (The Role of Culture in Promoting Refugee Inclusion) co-written as a commission from the European Union, and ArtReach – 25 Years of Cultural Development. In 2023 he completed a new play, Draining the Swamp, which received a staged rehearsed reading in London, before a full production was created for a run at the Edinburgh Festival. The play has a committed tour across south west and south east England in March/April 2024. D.R. Hill is married with two sons.
SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED
Conquered by Fog -Fabiana Elisa Martínez USA
Fabiana Elisa Martínez was born in Buenos Aires. She is a linguist, a language teacher, and a writer. She speaks English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian. She has lived in Dallas, Texas, for more than twenty years. She is the author of the short story collection 12 Random Words, the short story Stupidity and the collection Conquered by Fog, both published by Pierre Turcotte, and the grammar series Spanish 360 with Fabiana. Her stories have been published in five continents in publications like Rigorous Magazine, Ponder Review, The Good Life Review (UK), Rhodora Magazine (India), Mediterranean Poetry, Writers and Readers Magazine (UK), Libretto Magazine (Nigeria), Automatic Pilot (Ireland), Lusitania (Buenos Aires), The Pilgrims of the Plate (Buenos Aires), Egophobia Journal (Romania), Defunkt Magazine, Freshwater Literary Journal, Syncopation Literary Journal, and the anthologies Writers of Tomorrow, Pure Slush-Love, Lifespan 4 Anthology (Australia), the 2022 Wordrunner Anthology, the Crossing the Tees Firth Short Story Anthology (England), and Pure Slush-Marriage, Lifespan 6 Anthology (Australia). Two of her short stories were broadcast in the Manawaker Flash Fiction Podcast. Her story “Conquered by Fog” was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize by the editorial team of Freshwater Literary Journal. Fabiana has received multiple literary awards.
A Perfect Day to Die – Yoko Morgenstern Germany
Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Yoko Morgenstern started writing fiction while living in Canada, inspired by many writers who wrote in a second language. A Perfect Day to Die (Guernica Editions, Hamilton. 2022) is her latest publication. Some of the stories in the collection have been translated into Brazilian Portuguese and German. In 2021, she participated in the anthology titled Women Power curated by the International Human Rights Art Festival, New York. She translates, too. Her Japanese translation of The Ghost Brush by the Canadian novelist Katherine Govier was long-listed for the Japan Translation Award in 2015. She received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, a Post-graduate Diploma in Journalism from Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario, and an M.A. in English and American Studies from the University of Bamberg, Germany. She is an official member of the Japan P.E.N. Club and Die Kogge (European Authors Association). Currently, she lives in Nuremberg, Germany.
The Peculiarities of Yearning – Stephanie Carty United Kingdom
Stephanie Carty is a writer and clinical psychologist in the U.K. who writes short fiction, novels, and workbooks for writers to help them apply psychological theory to their work.
Set a Crow to Catch a Crow – Mary-Jane Holmes United Kingdom
Mary-Jane Holmes lives, walks and writes in the wilds of the UK’s North Pennines. Mary-Jane has won the Live Canon Poetry Pamphlet Prize with her pamphlet Dihedral, the Bath Novella-in-Flash Prize (Don’t Tell the Bees published by Ad Hoc Fiction), the Bridport Poetry prize, Dromineer Flash Fiction Prize, Reflex Fiction Flash Fiction Prize, the Mslexia Flash prize and the Writer’s Digest rhyming poetry prize . She has been shortlisted for the Beverley International Prize for Literature and longlisted twice for the UK National Poetry Prize. She was included in the BIFFY 50 2019/2020, showcasing the best British and Irish Flash Fiction and was a UK National Poetry Archive showcased poet during lockdown. She has an MA (Distinction) in Creative Writing from Kellogg College, Oxford and has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council studentship to complete a PhD in creative writing at Newcastle University. UK.
Attention Seekers – Emma Brankin United Kingdom
Emma Brankin is the author of Attention Seekers (2023). A writer and educator from Glasgow, Scotland, she received a Masters in Creative Writing and Education from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her work has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize’s Short Story Contest and made Wigleaf’s prestigious Top 50 list. She was the winner of Fugue Fiction, To Hull and Back and Superlative’s Short Story Contests. Other stories have appeared in publications such as Narrative Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly and X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine. She assists her cat Sabre with his burgeoning social media career on Instagram via @sabre_reads.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS UNPUBLISHED
Above and Beyond – Adrian Lynch England
Adrian spent his formative years growing up on a North London council estate where all children were sent to the austere Blackwell school to be classified. He was ranked low because of a condition called dyslexia, which makes him see in a way that others don’t. Adrian escaped the mean streets whenever possible to visit the bluebell-carpeted woods of a nearby magical realm called Harrow Weald. There he found a retreat which harboured mysterious creatures and space aliens, whispering mists, and the ghosts of Grims Dyke whose mournful songs rustled autumnal leaves. Learning to be normal took more and more of Adrian’s time until, with a cunning mixture of hard work and bluff, he increased his ranking from low to high, passed exams, became an adult with a respectable career in the National Health Service and now lives in a tranquil English village in Bedfordshire. Adrian’s short stories have been published online and in magazines, and his Middle-Grade Sci-fi adventure is currently on submission to publishers. Website: http://www.adrian-lynch.co.uk Represented by Carsten Polzin.
Letter of hope – Iryna Polishchuk Ukraine
Iryna Polishchuk is a children’s writer from Kyiv, Ukraine. She is a mother of two nice children and a caring teacher of English. She, like millions of Ukrainians, faced the terrible war with bombings and explosions nearby. However, she is still staying in Ukraine with her family. In her books, she continues teaching children to be brave, caring and kind, helping them to find their way in life. It is her public duty to remind that everyone deserves freedom and happiness. Iryna deals with topics such as war, pandemic, global warming and environmental disaster but more importantly, she shows children how to overcome difficulties with the help of friendship, kindness, creativity and collaboration. She is deeply grateful to the Eyelands Book Awards, for this unique opportunity to make good deeds together in this difficult time.
Comanche & Djinn VS Grown-ups – Maziar Lahooti Australia
Maziar is a Norwegian born and raised child of refugees whom fled the Iranian revolution. He grew up in Bergen, Norway, before his family immigrated to Perth, Australia when he was a teenager. Today, Maziar is a Perth based Iranian/Norwegian/Australian writer and director of feature films. Maziar completed his directing debut feature film, BELOW, in 2019, adapted by Ian Wilding off his stage-play, produced by Good Thing Productions. BELOW premiered at Melbourne International Film festival in August 2020, and has since been distributed on DVD and streaming. Maziar’s speculative screenplay, DIE WELL, made the finals in several high profile global competitions for unproduced screenplays, notably the Nicholls Fellowship (run by the academy of arts and sciences in the U.S). In 2018, this screenplay won Maziar the Warner Brothers / Blacklist screenplay competition. He has since worked for Warner Brothers Studios, and many other companies in the capacity of a screenwriter. Though Maziar’s work is primarily for the screen, he hopes to expand into literature and is committed to doing so.
How the Children of Chernobyl and Their Alien Friend Saved the PlanetEarth – Ilinda Stefanova Brunner Australia
Ilinda was born in Bulgaria, where she published her first books of poetry and short stories. Some won national awards and were translated and published in Ukraine, Germany, India, and Poland. ‘Parcels’ told the story of her family sending rare parcels to an uncle in the Belеne forced labour camp and another locked up in the Sofia prison for being a jazz musician – in communist Bulgaria jazz was banned and labelled ‘American propaganda.’ Her acclaimed play The Importance of Being Desirable, staged in Sofia and Vienna, was described by the English playwright Sir Roland Harwood as “… an accomplished piece of work… a dialogue snappy but never crass, and often poetic.” After moving to Australia, Ilinda won the HarperCollins/Varuna Fellowship for Manuscript Development for her Memoirs of the Red Berry Princess, which is about a traumatic childhood in a communist country. She published poetry in literary magazines and anthologies. Her short story Giving a Bath to His Mitera, published in the prestigious anthology One Story Many Brisbanes 5, drew wide media attention. Ginninderra Press published her poetry book Knockturnal Animal. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.
The Grandmaster’s Sword – Karin Bachmann Switzerland
Karin Bachmann was born in the year of the first moon landing. Perhaps this explains why she is equally interested in technology, history, and stories. Karin has been writing children’s and YA books for over 30 years. She’s the author of over 10 whodunits and several short stories, has won prizes for her writing, and has appeared on the radio and on local TV. In 1993 and 1995, she travelled to New Zealand, ostensibly to learn English. That was when she became permanently infected with the travelling-bug. She spent every free minute exploring the country and its people – and, incidentally, earned her Proficiency in English qualification. Since that time, she has been expressing her whims and her passion for adventures in English as well. In 2021, Karin was awarded the Cultural Prize (Kulturpreis) of her hometown of Pieterlen in the Swiss Canton of Berne. One of her books in German (Monster im Dunkeln) will be on the IBBY list of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities in 2023. Karin lives in an apartment full of books that also serves as a base camp for hikes in the Alps and the Jura Mountains. Karin was eyelands book awards prize winner in 2022 (children’s books category)
CHILDREN’S BOOKS PUBLISHED
My name is Cinnamon – Vikas Prakash Joshi India
Vikas Prakash Joshi is an-award winning writer, editor, translator, podcaster, public speaker, novelist and amateur cook in Pune, India. His first book for children, My Name Cinnamon (Hay House India), was published in November 2022, and it has been lauded all over the world, in over 30+ countries, endorsed by many top Indian and foreign writers, and received 8 publishing offers. Story Ink, a Mumbai-based production company, has also acquired the book for screen adaptation. It was illustrated by the award winning illustrator for children’s books Niloufer Wadia. Vikas has been a part of several prestigious literary festivals like Pune International Literary Festival, (PILF), G Literati Festival Indore organized by the Valley of Words, and Bookaroo Children’s Festival Vadodara. My Name is Cinnamon is now in its second print run. Vikas has received and been nominated for 12 prestigious recognitions so far, including the A3F Literary Award for Fiction 2023, Asian Literary Society Award for Best Debut Fiction, Asian Literary Society Certificate of Excellence in Fiction, Skipping Stones Magazine USA Honour List for International Books 2023, shortlisted for the Valley of Words Awards for Young Adult Fiction 2023, longlisted for the 2nd Binod Kanoria Award for Children’s Books 2023 and FICCI Award for Children’s Books 2023 Above 10+ years. Talks are on for translation into other languages. His articles, book excerpts and short stories have been translated into 30 languages, both foreign and Indian languages, and in offline and online publications of 24 countries.
The Girl in the Water-Joseph Howse Canada
Joseph Howse writes fiction, as well as technical books on computer programming and image analysis. He lives in a Canadian fishing village, where he chats with his cats and nurtures an orchard of hardy fruit trees. When he can, he goes roaming in a pair of old work boots, which have lasted twelve years on six continents, though the soles have twice been replaced. Joseph’s debut novel, The Girl in the Water, has won the 2023 Independent Press Award for Literary Fiction, the 2023 IAN Awards for Outstanding Multicultural Fiction, and the 2023 IPPY Awards Bronze Medal for Best Regional Ebook (Fiction). He is currently working on a sequel.
The Magic of Believing – Diane Dowsing Robison USA
A native of California, Diane is an independent producer and author now living in Las Vegas with her incredible husband, who continues to be “the wind beneath my wings.” Two grown children and five grandchildren complete the foundation of their lives. The Magic of Believing is the first of two books she’s blessed to have published this year — her adult novella, Beyond Forever debuted only a short while ago. Along with having written screenplays, theatrical plays, and television pilots, she’s contributed to the Chicken Soup for the Soul anthology series, and co-edited a now-classic in the entertainment industry, A Martian Wouldn’t Say That. Honing her craft, Diane also published and edited an international industry magazine for over a decade. With a full and varied career as an independent producer, she now has film that will be produced next year in Europe. The Battle Over Malta is a true World War II story about a man and woman’s journey of love and survival on the strategic — and relentlessly under siege — Mediterranean island of Malta.
Igloo – Jennifer Burkinshaw United Kingdom
Jennifer Burkinkshaw read English and Classics at Cambridge university before becoming an English and Drama teacher for twenty years in the UK and in Paris. She started the endless journey of fiction writing via an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Now living in Yorkshire, Jennifer is the author of two published young adult novels, Igloo, and the recently-released Happiness Seeker. As well as travel, she enjoys reading, of course, theatre and her growing family.
Leave No Footprints – Judith Brulo United Kingdom
Judy grew up in Shepshed, Leicestershire (UK). She studied at the Guildhall School of Music, London. After graduating, she worked as a professional violist and teacher. Judy’s love of writing emerged through the need to create material for her Early Years music groups. Then, along came the real inspiration: grandchildren, Kaia and Taio, for whom she wrote stories on almost a weekly basis. She lived in Cambridge for many years, before moving to Cyprus for six years. She now lives near Atherstone in Northwest Warwickshire with her husband, Alex. Judy spends her time writing, editing, and presenting Reading-Music-Action sessions. Recently, the screenplay adaptation of Revenge of the Servants of the Gods – the first book in the Vulture Island Adventure Series – has won seven film festival awards.
PRIZE AND GRAND PRIZE WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED ON DECEMBER 30!!
Eyelands Book Awards 