Short Story Competition Judges

Fiona trained as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language and worked in that capacity in Italy, Indonesia, Germany and Greece. She then began writing textbooks and online materials for learners of English.  

Fiona turned to fiction after retiring. Her first novel, The Exit Facility  (2021) is an adventure story set in a euthanasia facility and deals with themes of assisted dying, disability, poverty and homelessness. The Exit Facility  was the runner up in the Society of Authors' inaugural ADCI Literary Prize in 2023. Like Fiona herself, the heroine of this book suffers from a rare eye disease that causes the gradual loss of central vision. 

Fiona’s second novel, The Foreign Wives’ Club,  is inspired by the twenty years she spent living on the Greek island of Crete and is both a paean to the beauties of that island and a cautionary tale about the challenges involved in marrying into its very different culture. 

Isla's debut picture book, April's Garden, received critical acclaim for tackling some of the complex social challenges that contemporary children face.

The author has developed creative writing programmes for libraries, schools and organisations including Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. She has worked on two long-term story-telling projects including an online working group to create an own-voice children's book with a blind protagonist which aimed to reconnect a group of adults who are blind and vision-impaired and an Ireland-wide call-out to collate a contemporary anthology of creative writing inspired by "the blind poetess of Ulster", Frances Browne. 

Richard was born and brought up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and studied English Literature at the University of Wolverhampton before becoming a journalist and communications officer. He has won numerous prizes for his short fiction. His debut novel, The Margaret Code, was published by Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, in April 2025. The voice-led whodunnit is about an elderly woman whose failing memory holds the key to a crime investigation. Richard lives in Greater Manchester.

Sarah writes short stories mainly for the women's magazine market, worldwide. Bridge House Publishing recently compiled a collection of her uplifting stories - Feel-Good Stories which is now widely available in print or as an ebook. She has also written 14 novels which you can find in libraries in the Large Print section. They're soft paperbacks, ideal to curl up with. The majority are historical, often set in late Victorian/early Edwardian times. Her aim is to entertain you with her interesting and quirky characters. 

Swapna, who also writes as Swapna Reddy, is the award-winning children’s author of the Dave Pigeon books. She loves writing about boisterous characters and madcap adventures and is working with Scholastic, Faber & Faber, HarperCollins and Oxford University Press to bring stories to young readers around the world. 

Swapna lives in New Zealand with her husband, son and their dog, Archie. When she’s not writing she is usually reading, dreaming about living on a boat or eating Jaffa Cakes.  

Tom is a south west based former political cartoonist turned author and illustrator, he has written over 30 titles, ranging from picture books, middle grade and graphic novels such as The Story Machine, The Accidental Prime Minister and Alan, King off the Universe. He can often be found over a drawing board, pen in hand next to a plate of biscuits.