The 39 Steps writing competition Showcase was brilliantly hosted by Electra Rhodes a keen John Buchan enthusiastic who shared her passion for flash fiction as well as her long-held admiration for Buchan’s novel The Thirty Nine Steps, the inspiration for the competition.

The 39 copy numbered limited chapbook anthology, edited by Annemarie Lopez, and beautifully designed, hand-assembled, and published by Alban Low, included stories of 39 words or under, from 19 authors, many of which were able to attend and read their work at the Showcase. NG Bristow recited the introduction he had written to the anthology, as well.

The outright winner was written by Sarah Royston, a previous Walking Writers’ Salon guest, for her story entitled “Have you been a literary innkeeper for long?”.

Volunteer judges, Mary Loring and Nick Sayers commented on the winning story:

“We could have been happy with four or five of the entries as our winner – the standard was certainly high and the creative variety made judging difficult. In the end, though, we both loved Have You Been a Literary Innkeeper for Long? and we think it is a worthy winner of the competition. We really enjoyed the way this piece, with its deft rhythm and gentle humour seemed to evoke a sense of character, place and story, not to mention literary history, all with a connection to The Thirty-Nine Steps.“

Sarah Royston receives a €100 cash prize and artwork created by Alban Low. Commenting at the Showcase on her success:

“I confess, having read The Thirty Nine Steps many times as a child, and loved it. I didn’t go back to it for the competition. I just knew that I wanted to enter something. It was some of the chapter titles really stood out for me, and this was one of them, and as soon as I saw “literary innkeeper” my mind started going. You kind of spin off in different directions, don’t you? So I started thinking about, you know, pubs. I like a good pub in literature as in life, and these are just some of my favorite literary inns. Just each get a very short mention, and as I’m sure many of you found. But yeah, that’s the story of this little piece about the joy of pubs in literature.”

The competition had been dedicated to author Geoff Nicholson (deceased), a loyal supporter of walk · listen · create, and another Salon guest. We were delighted that his partner, Caroline Gannon, not only contributed a prize for her favourite story from the anthology (Gin Lane by Bridget Daly), but also joined the Showcase to talk about Geoff and read some of his writing from his memoir Walking on Thin Air.

You can read and listen to each of the 39 stories here.