Orton Competition (2022)

It’s that time of year, when we showcase the amazing talent of Orton Writers with the third annual Orton Competition. The theme for this competition is Ghost Stories.

Bring us your stories of spooks and ghouls, whether they are stories of hauntings in graveyards or souls living in computers.  There is no restriction on genre.  Send us spine chilling tales of angry ghosts seeking revenge, of bemused ghosts who can’t accept their condition. Of those haunted by the ghosts of the past, or maybe ghosts aren’t as scary as we are led to believe.

Word limits are:

• Poetry : 40 lines
• Flash Fiction : 500 words
• Short story : 3000 words

The short list will be published in our annual anthology and the winner in each category will receive a paperback copy of the book.

The deadline for entries is midnight on 12th March 2022.

We will accept one submission per category per person.

Please submit as a word attachment to [email protected] with the subject ‘Orton Competition – your name – title of your story’.

Please include a word count in the body of the e-mail and number the pages of your submissions. The judging will be anonymous so please do not put your name anywhere in the document itself.

We will accept one submission per category per person.

We are happy to accept dual submissions but if your work is accepted/published elsewhere, please let us know as soon as possible as it will need to be withdrawn from this competition.

Copyright for the work will remain with the author, however Orton Publishing will have the unrestricted right to publish the shortlist in the anthology or on their website and to use extracts for advertisement and PR purposes. 

The judges will be Cheryl Byrne, Kenzie Millar and David Goodman

Cheryl has been a judge for the previous two competitions is the Head of Community at Orton Publishing, taking a leading role in running Orton’s Manchester Writer’s Circle. She primarily writes short stories with a sinister twist. Her work can be found in Analogies and Allegories Literary Journal and Fly on the Wall Magazine.

Kenzie is a gifted writer of short stories and a co-organiser of Orton’s Manchester Writer’s Circle.  She received a distinction in her Creative Writing Masters from Manchester Metropolitan University and was shortlisted in the 2020 competition in both the Short Story and Flash Fiction categories with Yuletide and Christmas Dinner. In 2022, she will be appearing in an upcoming anthology: Of Mothers and Myths published by Fly on the Wall Press. You can also find her insightful reviews of a variety of books in Crack Magazine.

David is one of the longest serving organisers for Orton Manchester Writers Circle. He is a writer of short stories and has been occupied more recently with writing scripts for his fun and insightful YouTube channel "Gooder's Front Room" looking at Film and Tv shows and can be found here. This year he is hoping to get a podcast off the ground which will see people discussing the films that have had the biggest impact on them.

We are very excited about this competition and look forward to reading the submissions!