International Literary Prize 2025 Winners
The Results
We are delighted to announce the Winners, Runners-Up and Highly Commended entries
for the 2025 International Literary Prize.
Judges' Choices and Editors' International Choices will be announced in January.
Prizes will be awarded at the International Literary Festival in February 2026. The festival will also see the publication of the anthologies and the launch of the 2026 International Literary Prize.
Shortlisted Stories will be published in the 2026 Short Story anthology. Shorlisted Poems, and extracts from winning scripts, song lyrics and links to performed songs will be published in the 2026 Poetry anthology.
Please note: Shortlisted entries in Scriptwriting and Songs are not published in the anthologies
FEEDBACK will be completed by the end of January
Short Stories
1st Place
My Own Personal Jesus- Seán McNicholl, Ireland
2nd place
Leporidae - Kathy Hoyle, United Kingdom
3rd place
Brick- Paul Bassett Davies, United Kingdom
Highly Commended
Polystyrene: A Love Story - Catherine Khédir-Clifford, France
Somewhere in England - Sue Smith, United Kingdom
Of Flesh and Bone - John Lavelle, USA
Need for Meat - Aneeta Sundararaj, Malaysia
Night Tennis - Alison Wood, United Kingdom
Death's Favourite Shortbread - Marie Keiding, Denmark
In the Dark - Deborah Fowlis, United Kingdom
Catching Trout on a Thursday - Gordon Aindow, United Kingdom
The Evening Run - Marc Hall, United Kingdom
The Truth and Other Lies - Ashleigh Adams, USA
The Painter's Palimpsest - Timothy Collyer, United Kingdom
SHORTLIST
A Partner Always Knows
After Jack
At home with the Millers
At the Sea Edge
Bearing Time
BRICK
Broken Angels
Catching Trout On A Thursday
Count the Days
Couple's Complete Guide to Racquetball and Yoga
Death Rattle
Death's favourite shortbread
Gifted
In Pieces
In The Dark
Left At The End
Leporidae
My Own Personal Jesus
Need For Meat
Night Tennis
Of Flesh and Bone
On Hawthorn Crag
Polystyrene: A Love Story
pornography
Rayesh
Reel
Resurrection Fern
Secrets of the Hidden Port
Skeleton Water
Sleeping Beauty
Somewhere in England
Somewhere in England
String Theory
Thaw
The Clocks That Worked
The Corpse Seeker's Picnic
The Doorstep Maulings
The Evening Run.
The Great History Extinction Act of 2020
The Other Kind of Woman
The Painter’s Palimpsest
The Postcard
The Severed
Judges Choices
Notions of Love.
Mud, Blood and Bounty
Editor's Choices
Mysteries and Mistakes
The CHARLIE project
The Master of Revels
The Bronze Horseman
GP
The Knife Sharpener
Unbroken Friendship
Where the fence grew small
Beauty
A Modern Ghost Story
Last Kiss
Love in South London
Poetry
1st Place
The Other Side Of Me - Iain McGrath, United Kingdom
2nd place
On Hearing the Last Bee of Summer - Hang Kuang Sang, Malaysia
3rd place
Inverse Functions - Chad Frame, USA
Highly Commended
Affair - Richard Burtle, United Kingdom
Canal Visit - Anthony Powers, United Kingdom
Domestic - Megan Littlefair, United Kingdom
Festival of Lights - Stephen Pollock, USA
Mother's Day - Sean Kelly, Ireland
She Paid - Christian Donovan, United Kingdom
Waste Ground - Peter Clegg, United Kingdom
You Weren't Meant To Know - Rachel Wood, United Kingdom
Shortlist
A Play within a Play
Acquiescence
Affair
All the Things I Keep from You.
Bury it deep inside
Canal Visit
Domestic
Don't You Dare
Drawing from the Bones
Festival of Lights
File Not Found
for Keepers of Books
Inverse Functions
Memory Stick
Mother's Day
Nausicaa and the storytelling animal
Not here, not yet
On Hearing the Last Bee of Summer
Origin Story
Quintessence
Red Giant (v.2)
Riding T1
She paid
Still Life
The Beach
The Blue Room
The Box (Please Don’t Read This Poem)
The Friday Evening Poets’ Society
The Other Side of Me
The Secret Photo
Time
Transatlantic
Trenovissick (1955)
Troy Town
Waste ground
You Weren't Meant To Know
Judges Choices
Selkie and Hare
Rumour
Summer of Lucia
Editor's Choices
Diabolus in Musica
Conversation in Camera
Scriptwriting
1st Place
Riders On The Storm - Marilyn Moriarty, USA
2nd place
The Pilgrim - Simon Rowe, Japan
3rd place
What Occurs At A Funeral, Stays At A Funeral - Alan Mitchell, United Kingdom
Highly Commended
Straight Please! - Gotham Lee, South Korea
What Does He Do In There - Richard Layton, United Kingdom
Shortlist
Riders on the Storm
The Security Expert
Criminal Conservation
The Curious Case of Chester Green
Straight please
What does he do in there?
What occurs at a funeral, stays at a funeral
Survivors Journal
The Pilgrim
Straight Please!
Songwriting
Song Lyrics
1st Place
Wounded - Terry Miller, United Kingdom
2nd place
Empty Houses - Alan Mitchell | Keith Melhuish, United Kingdom
3rd place
Something About September - Harker Jones, USA
Highly Commended
I Longed To Capture Sunshine - Devon Muhlert, Canada
Shortlist
I Longed to Capture Sunshine
Every Day Until September
Something About September
Empty Houses
Wounded
Empty Houses
Performed Song
1st Place
Dark Moonlight - Alan Mitchell | Keith Melhuish, United Kingdom
2nd place
I would like - Csaba Gál, Hungary
3rd place
All Your Songs Are Going To Be Sung - Simon Waters, United Kingdom
Shortlist
All your songs are going to be sung
Dark Moonlight
Paint Pictures for Me
Worlds Apart
I would like
Be inspired
Listen to the theme song and read winning entries from previous years.
