Comments From A Judge
Baden Prince Jnr
Baden Prince Jnr judged the International Open Short Story Competition in 2007 and offers his thoughts and comments on the overall standard of entries received.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of the pieces were a delight to read. Even in
those cases where the writing may have lacked technical merit, where writers
were inconsistent with their use of tenses or failed to pay attention to the
fundamentals of spelling and grammar, compensation could be found in
startling turns of originality: quirky phrasing, striking imagery, unusually
drawn characters, an engaging twist of the plot or brazen, often outrageous
flaunting of literary conventions. It was reassuring to read so much work
presented by writers who weren’t afraid to defy the norm, to try to be
different, to voice their images and dreams to the unseen audience with an
original voice.
It was no easy task to select the top three from such a distinguished field.
Every single person who “placed” is entitled to consider that she or he has
achieved something worthy of note. The “Special Mention” category was
brought in as a tribute to those whose work was considered good enough to
warrant a place among the winners, although all of the winning places had
been allocated.
It was an honour to be involved. If this year’s competition was anything to
go by, I can’t wait for next year’s (that’s if I’m invited back!)
Baden Prince Jnr
Short Story Competition Judge 2007
Discover more about Baden Prince Jnr and read comments from our Editor Preetha Leela on writing for competitions.