2025 Short Story and creative non-fiction lists
Our short story judge, James Young was impressed with the high calibre of entries in 2025 (and we had the highest number of entries ever. In fact, he was so impressed, he sent us an additional 19 stories that he wanted to highlight as they almost made the longlist. See the lists below.
Winner of the Sussex prize was selected from the longlist and almost made the longlist.
The longlist and winners for the Founders Prize is also listed below - all of them impressed our judge and founder of the Book Festival, Sam Davey.
Winners were announced on 25 September.
Shortlisted short story writers
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The Ghost of David Bowie by David McGrath - 1st prize!
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Tick-tick-tock-tick by Samarth Bhasin - 2nd prize
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The Tide's Resolve by Timothy Collyer - 3rd prize
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School Photo
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The Understander
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Blank Summer
Short Story Longlist
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The Ghost of David Bowie
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The Tide's Resolve
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School Photo
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Stuck On You
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Tick-tick-tock-tick
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The Understander
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Toothpick
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The Amateur Ornithologist’s Guide To The Nest Construction Of Coastal Birds By Arthur Dawson, With Illustrative Colour Plates By Loic Prud’homme
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Reading Teeth
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Obelisk
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Blank Summer
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Sarah Hollis and Nan Fry
Almost made the short story longlist:
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The Golem of Glasgow
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No-nonsense Kind of Woman
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It Is Not Death To Die
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Sharp
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Great Baddow
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Relentlessly Prismatic
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The Vanishing Dad
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The Mermaid
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There's Only One Deirdre Meadows by Kate Marsh - winner of the Sussex Prize
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Daisy Chains
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Alice, Over The Road
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Catch Me
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Words Men Whisper On Buses
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The Stableyard
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Dugout
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The Good Level
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Moving On from What Might Have Been
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The Unreliable Archive
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Memory
Creative Non-Fiction Shortlist
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From Massachusetts to Masada by Kevin O'Hara - 1st prize
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Reflections by Bobbie Lane - 2nd prize
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Anna Wintour is in the room by Simon Hobson - 3rd prize
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Musing on reflection
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Reflections (same title different story!)
Creative Non-Fiction Longlist
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Hazy Reflections on street work
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Musing on reflection
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Pageturner
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Being gentrified
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From Massachusetts to Masada
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Reflections (two entries with this title)
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Anna Wintour is in the room
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A Holi separation
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War wounds
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Mother's daughter
Thank you to everyone who entered
Hastings Book Festival team