Annual winner is named

A month ago, the team behind the Global Short Story Competition launched a public vote to find their annual winner for 2013 and website users have now had their say.
The winner of the £250 prize is the winner of the August Global Short Story Competition, Seth Townley, of Bergen, Norway for his story Contemplating Breakfast.
Begun more than six years ago, the competition runs every month with a £100 first prize and £25 for highly commended writers, in addition to the annual prize, which is selected from the twelve monthly winners. The competition, which has topped £10,500 in money handed out, has had entries from more than 50 countries over the years.
Each month’s competition is judged by Fiona Cooper, an author in North-East England, where the competition’s organisers Inscribe Media are also based.
When she selected Contemplating Breakfast for the August prize, Fiona said: “I love it when a writer presents a bizarre scenario as completely normal and sustains this throughout the work, as this writer has done. The surreal lifestyle and totally grungy surroundings are presented with wry humour - this is what happens when life just knocks you down to the underbelly and you're just clinging on and shuffling through. Richard Farina wrote a book in the sixties called 'Been down so long it looks like up to me' and this story could very easily turn into linked scenes and anecdotes which would evolve into a very satisfying novel. Excellent.”
John Dean, competition administrator, said: “The quality of our 2013 winners was very high, reflecting the standards reached by so many of our entrants. Seth is a worthy winner.”
The monthly competition, run by Inscribe Media Limited from the North East of England, was launched in December 2007. Winning stories can be viewed at www.inscribemedia.co.uk where the latest competition can also be entered.