Fiction award for Dromineer writer

CONGRATULATIONS to Dromineer poet and writer Eleanor Hooker, who has won first prize in the UK's Bare Fiction flash fiction competition.

The well-known Programme Curator for the Dromineer Literary Festival, and helm and Press Officer for Lough Derg RNLI Lifeboat, was shortlisted for the award last year. She was one of 445 entrants from all over the world and was recently chosen as the winner; the second and third prizes were awarded to two Australian writers.

Richard Skinner, Director of the Fiction Programme at the Faber Acadamy, judged the entries. He said he wanted to be “hit right between the eyes from the off and all the way through”, by the winning works.

“I was looking for flash fictions that really surprised me — took me hostage even — and that moved the story on apace,” Mr Skinner said. “I wanted to read a spicy soupçon, something that felt complete, in its own world rather than what might be a cut-off from a short story, and I was also looking for a real sting in the tail rather than just a punchline. I wanted to see writers really playing with and stretching the flash fiction form, reaching for the unsayable, working hard to leave me wondering and wanting more.”

He awarded first prize to Eleanor’s wondrous story ‘The Lesson’. Set in Ireland, the creepy school teacher, Brother John, is a superbly-drawn character, complete with cane and equally stinging quips. The characters of his students, O’Shea, Hennigan and Ryan, also shine through. The dialogue is pitch-perfect, displaying a strong sense of tension and teasing humour. This piece doesn’t put a foot wrong in its entirety and is filled with lines that most novelists would kill for—“They measure his mood by the range of his limp”. And all this in a mere 500 words. A triumph.

Author of the 'Shadow Owner's Companion', Eleanor Hooker’s second poetry collection, 'A Tug of Blue', is forthcoming from the Dedalus Press this year. Her prizewinning flash fiction will be published in the spring 2016 edition of Bare Fiction magazine and, later, on the magazine's website.