Winners of GGBT Creative Writing Awards 2014

Henry Wismayer

Elizabeth Ducie

In a truly international competition for the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust's Creative Writing Awards in 2014 entries arrived from near and far, from various parts of England and neighbouring Ireland, and from as far away as San Francisco on the west coast of the USA and Phnom Penh City in Cambodia.

The judges would like to thank all the entrants for their keen interest and good writing, and they hope very much that the writers will continue with their good work.

Prose writers had to begin with the following words and to continue from there:

‘Three doors opened off a dark passage. From behind one of them there seeped the smell of....’

There were two winning entries in 2014:

Best Prose Fiction Writer: Elizabeth Ducie (Devon, UK) for ‘Liver and Onions’

Best Prose Travel Writer: Henry Wismayer (London, UK) for ‘MV Umoja’

Though there were many interesting and commendable entries, prizes were not awarded in the other categories.

Elizabeth Ducie’s story ‘Liver and Onions’ has been uploaded to the GGBT’s website, and may be read there.

Henry Wismayer’s prose travel text ‘MV Umoja’ is not available for the time being.

The Winning Writers

Henry Wismayer

Henry Wismayer lives in London (UK), and began writing about travel in 2008, when his account of climbing of a mountain one weekend in Morocco was published on the front page of an in-flight magazine. He is now a freelance feature writer specializing in travel. His articles have appeared in over fifty publications worldwide including The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, Time Out, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, Geographical, Wanderlust and CNN. He specializes in adventure travel in Africa and the Middle East, with occasional forays into more luxurious climes. You can find out more about his impressive range of work on his website.

Elizabeth Ducie

Elizabeth Ducie lives in the county of Devon (England, UK), and she is a member of the Chudleigh Writers' Circle, Exeter Writers and the West Country Writers' Association.

When she was a teenager, her essays and poetry helped her to win her first overseas trip following a newspaper competition. After more than thirty years as a technical writer, she returned to creative work in 2006. For the past seven years, she has enjoyed experimentation with different types of writing. She has written articles for content websites and on commission, and short stories and poetry for competitions, in which she has achieved some wins, several honourable mentions and some short-listing.

Her first novel, Gorgito's Ice Rink (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014), is set in Russia and based partly on her travel experiences. During the eight years of working on this project, she graduated with an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter (England, UK).

Elizabeth’s other publications include Sunshine and Sausages: How to Run a Successful Garden Party (Chudleigh Phoenix Publications, 2013), Parcels in the Rain and Other Writing (Chudleigh Phoenix Publications, 2014), a collection of short stories, flash fiction, travel writing and memoirs, The Business of Writing: Part One: Business Start-Up (Chudleigh Phoenix Publications, 2014) and The Business of Writing: Part Two:Finance Matters (Chudleigh Phoenix Publications, 2014).

With her friend and fellow writer Sharon Cook, she is co-editor of the Chudleigh Phoenix Community Magazine, and together they launched the Chudleigh Phoenix Annual Short Story Competition, which is now in its fifth year. They have also published two collections of short stories, Life is Not a Trifling Affair (Chudleigh Phoenix Publications, 2011) and Life is Not a Bed of Roses (Chudleigh Phoenix Publications, 2012). Both anthologies are available as paperbacks and as ebooks.