2012 Story and Poem of the Year

This is the toughest job of the year but judgment must be made and here it is:

Prose:

One winner and one very special mention in this category.

The winner is:

ton.car's 'The Art of Falling Apart'. This takes the prize because it gets into the head of a very difficult subject with understanding and compassion and yet it confronts all of the pain and fury head on. A truly superb and memorable piece of writing:

http://www.abctales.com/story/ton-car/art-falling-apart

Honourable mention must go to blackjack-davey's 'The Brightlingsea Boy' due to its sparsity of language, its brilliant construction and its sheer originality:

http://www.abctales.com/story/blackjack-davey/brightlingsea-boy

Poetry:

This has been a fantastic year for poetry and I make no excuse for nominating a few here. But one has to be chosen as the winner and this is it:

THE EXTREMELY ABRIDGED HISTORY, PRESENT & FUTURE OF PAUL ASKEW, IN FIVE DREAM SCENES by AKT is just brilliant. It keeps up an extraordinary pace and there's surprise after surprise. This one has stayed with me for a very long time now:

http://www.abctales.com/story/akt/extremely-abridged-history-present-fut...

Honourable mentions must go to:

berenerchamion for 'Before The Tank Ran Out':

http://www.abctales.com/story/berenerchamion/tank-ran-out

sid for 'fear of shadows':

http://www.abctales.com/story/sid/fear-shadows

sid again for 'shall we'

http://www.abctales.com/story/sid/rattle

and scratch for 'Kingfisher':

http://www.abctales.com/story/scratch/kingfisher

They are all quite magnificent!

2011 Winners:

Poetry:

This has stayed with me from the moment I first read it - and although there were very strong pieces from maggyvaneijk, mistaken magic, span, rokkitnite and mcmanaman this one from fatboy74 takes the prize:

http://www.abctales.com/story/fatboy74/i-cant-help-wishing-christopher

Prose:

I just can't part these two. Alibob has consistently delivered all year long and jlb continues to be original and excellent. They're very different but both fulfil all the essentials of great storytelling:

http://www.abctales.com/story/jlb/tv-inspectors

http://www.abctales.com/story/alibob/secret

2010 winners:

For prose, the prize this year goes to one of last year's runners up - the truly excellent Chelsey Flood. She was in the running with three of her stories but this one stood out. For 'Medusas' Chelsey Flood wins our Story of the Year:

http://www.abctales.com/story/chelseyflood/medusas

The Poem of the Year was no easier to choose. The award goes to another of our truly excellent young female writers. She's consistently good and gets better and better. Maggy Van Eijk's 'Diary of a Motel Receptionist' is our winner:

http://www.abctales.com/story/maggyvaneijk/diary-motel-receptionist

Congratulations to both - and to all of you who make this site one of the very best for the quality of its poetry and prose.

Tony Cook