LINES OF LIFE

Read the three remarkable, compelling winning entries in Bazaar’s annual short-story competition

for Bazaar’s eighth annual short-story competition, the theme of ‘Threads’ produced hundreds of submissions drawing on ideas from clothes and culture to communication and chronology, which were eagerly received, read, discussed and debated. But, over lunch at Claridge’s, the final-round judges, Bazaar’s Lydia Slater and Erica Wagner, the author Tahmima Anam, Bloomsbury Publishing’s Alexandra Pringle and Caroline Michel from the literary agency PFD, decided to award the top accolade to Jennifer Kerslake, for her tale about a father-daughter relationship. ‘Tin Man brims with warmth and such humanity,’ said Michel. ‘It could so easily have tipped into sentimentality, but never does. It remains on the right side of moving and utterly poignant.’ Anam agreed, praising Kerslake’s ‘compelling characters, darkly atmospheric setting, and an ending that will punch you in the gut – everything you want in a short story’.

Kerslake wins a two-night stay at the Mitre hotel, Hampton Court, and her story is published here, along with those by the competition’s two runners-up: Ashani Lewis’ modern fable that, aptly, spins a superb yarn; and a beautiful, bittersweet fiction by Rachel Blackmore.