…eternal time loop! Endeavoring evasion, I got stuck in an…
Olek B lives in England and is interested in creative projects and computer science projects. He currently studies A-levels. He also participated in a similar writing competition called “Eleven Words of Wisdom”, which has 16,507 human participants.
Shortlisted for Write Ten 2025. Read all the winning and shortlisted stories here: Write 10 – The Published Stories 2025
Parish. Perish. Priest smooths my pronunciation out and chants away.
Andreea Finichiu writes from Ploieşti, Romania.
Shortlisted for Write Ten 2025. Read all the winning and shortlisted stories here: Write 10 – The Published Stories 2025
Head tilted, raven poses for photos, caws, then flies off.
Peter Marshall was born in London, now living in Dundee, Scotland. He is a repurposed scientist who coordinates the Wyvern Poets. His nature haikus and diverse poems are in various print and online locations.
Shortlisted for Write Ten 2025. Read all the winning and shortlisted stories here: Write 10 – The Published Stories 2025
Pregnant woman in marble. The baby’s kicks are still felt.
Ilias Tsagas is a Greek poet and photographer. His work has appeared in journals, magazines and anthologies internationally. He can be found on Instagram (@ilias.tsagas).
Shortlisted for Write Ten 2025. Read all the winning and shortlisted stories here: Write 10 – The Published Stories 2025
The kite soars,
Kissing a wire;
A family in tatters.
Tom Ledger holds a BA from Keele University and currently lives in Lympstone, Devon. Previously he’s lived in Australia, NZ, Canada and France. He gardens, writes and looks out of the window… a lot.
Shortlisted for Write Ten 2025. Read all the winning and shortlisted stories here: Write 10 – The Published Stories 2025
Train departing. Releasing deep breath. No-one yet knows she’s gone.
Lesley Mason writes directly from the heart hoping to share the beauty and wisdom she stumbles across in living an ordinary life. In 2024 she was shortlisted at the Teignmouth Poetry Festival and won the Oberon Herbet Prize. More recent publications include pieces in the Richmond Arts anthology Changes and the nature anthology Language of the Land.
Shortlisted for Write Ten 2025. Read all the winning and shortlisted stories here: Write 10 – The Published Stories 2025
Women lift water from wells,
heft need like an apology.
Cynthia Kitchen lives in the North-West of England and has worked as a primary school teacher, hoping to fire children with a love of reading and writing poetry. Publications include Ver Poets anthologies, Candlestick Press, Headland Press and Bridport Prize anthology.
Shortlisted for Write Ten 2025. Read all the winning and shortlisted stories here: Write 10 – The Published Stories 2025
Lifting the blind, my fence zigzags uphill like reverse lightning.
Scott Dalgarno counts himself fortunate to have seen his poems in APR, The Yale Review, The Antioch Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, and other journals. Three of his translations of the 8th Century Tang poet, Du Fu, are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal. Two of his poems will be in the Fall issue of The Iowa Review. His volume, Third-Class Relics, was a finalist for the 2024 Sally Albiso Prize and has just been published by MoonPath Press. He lives and writes under firs and dogwoods in Lake Oswego, Oregon where he works for issues of justice. Find out more here.
Winner of Write Ten 2025. Read all the winning and shortlisted stories here: Write 10 – The Published Stories 2025
Words as action. Action through words. Mixing words with action.
Our fourth annual competition for the briefest stories was as exciting as ever. We received stories about film scenes, birdwatching, biographies and flying saucers. Stories set off, stopped, re-started. Action was a verb, a noun, a misnomer.
A massive thank you to everyone who submitted ten words. We felt lucky to gorge on each tiny slice of innovative storytelling. All entries were read anonymously.
Our winning stories used every word to make us think and feel. Without space to develop ideas in detail, micro stories exist in the ephemeral world of hinting and suggesting. Our winners responded to the theme, ran with it, swallowed it up and spat it out.
We would love to hear what you think! And let us know if you have an idea for a future theme.
Scott Dalgarno, ‘Thundersnow at Midnight’
Cynthia Kitchen, ‘Far Country’
Lesley Mason, ‘Reclamation of Self’
Tom Ledger, Untitled
Ilias Tsagas, ‘Sculpture, 3200 to 1600 BC’
Peter Marshall, ‘Flighty’
Andreea Finichiu, ‘The Slip’
Olek B, ‘Time Loop’
Briefly Write is a creative space for short poetry and fiction co-edited by sister-and-brother team Elinor Bell-Clark and Daniel Clark. Founded in 2020, we are a community-driven, not-for-profit initiative built on the principles of concision, clarity and compassion.
We publish a twice-yearly journal of quality writing and photography (Briefly Zine). We run an annual free-to-enter Poetry Prize, which attracts thousands of entries from around the world. We are active members of the literary community, obsessive readers and supportive editors.
Briefly Write is fully funded by donations on Ko-fi.
This year, we will pay more writers than ever before. Everything we receive goes to website costs and paying writers. Find out more here: Support Briefly Write
Submissions for Issue 14 of Briefly Zine are open now. Find out more: Submit to Briefly Zine
Ultrasound in hand, she scattered lupin-seed hopes on the wind.
Patricia Flaherty Pagan is a Second Prize Winner of Briefly ‘Write 10’ 2024. She lives in a brown house on Boston’s north shore with her family and three mischievous rescue cats. She is the award-winning author of Enduring Spirit: Stories and Trail Ways Pilgrims. Her flash fiction has been published in journals such as Cleaver Magazine, The Ocotillo Review, and The Sirens Call. See more on her website.
Briefly ‘Write 10’ 2024 asked writers for ten-word stories on the theme of DESTINY / HISTORY. It took us many many many re-reads to choose our winners. The selected stories stood out for innovative use of language, for making us feel and think, as well as careful engagement with the theme.
Briefly Write is a little literary space with big ideas. We publish a twice-yearly Zine of bold and brief micro poetry, prose and photography. We host two annual competitions – Write 10 and the Briefly Write Poetry Prize – and other occasional collections, including Briefly Think, a themed call for thoughtful short essays. We publish succinct, meaningful reviews of poetry and fiction, with a focus on debut collections and environmental themes. We also provide writing inspiration and personalised feedback in the Briefly Zone.
Briefly Write 