Following on from the success of our Sound Walk September writing competition last year we invited winning writers Lydia Kennaway (poetry) and Claudia Zeiske (prose) to choose a theme for a writing competition we launched before Christmas.

The theme that had the most resonance for each of them was “Walking Home“. Entrants were asked to write a poem or story of 250 words or under and we received more than 90 submissions. The high number of entrants was boosted by former competition shortlister El Rhodes running a Writing Words of Wonder creative writing workshop on the theme.

Lydia stepped up to be one of the poetry judges and she was joined by writer, editor, and publisher Anita Roy. Our volunteer prose judges were Simon Piasecki and Kerri Andrews. We asked each to read and score the entries, and they have selected the top 24 submissions, 12 pieces from each category.

We are delighted to announce this week those 24 submissions and to publish these on the Walk Listen Create website

What happens next?

From the top 24, 12 have been selected by the judges as worthy of being shortlisted and these will be published in a limited illustrated chapbook, illustrated by Alban Low and published by Sampson Low.

Once the artwork is ready and Chris Bestwick has completed all his editorial work on the anthology, we will be announcing the shortlist.

But here’s a chance for you to identify those 12 shortlisted pieces – see if you can select them from here – tap on the heart button on the left at the top of the post to indicate your favourites.

We’d like to thank everyone who submitted pieces to the Walking Home writing competition – each submission has gone to support this year’s Sound Walk September event during which they will be a live showcase event at which the shortlisted authors will be invited to read their work.