JUDGES

The Judges for our Sunday 8 November  2026 event on the theme of HOT/HEAT are Joanna Campbell and John Holland


Please Note -  Both judges read ALL stories submitted. All stories are judged 'blind' ie all stories are received by our administrator Christiane, who ensures that no personal information about the authors is passed on to our judges. 

We are currently closed for submissions, which open on Sunday 16 August


Joanna Campbell's first short story collection, When Planets Slip Their Tracks, was shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award and longlisted for the Edge Hill University Story Prize. 

Her second collection, Please Leave the Pool Now, will be published in 2027. Joanna's novel, Instructions for the Working Day, was shortlisted for both The Independent's Book of the Month and the Rubery International Book Award. 

Her first novella, A Safer Way to Fall, was runner-up in the inaugural Bath Novella-in-Flash Award. Her second novella, Sybilla, won the National Flash Fiction Day Award. Her third, The Hilltop Hour, was runner-up in the 2026 Bath Novella-in-Flash and will be published this summer. 

Joanna is also a feedback editor, as well as a reader and judge for short story and flash fiction competitions. 

Joanna lives in Bisley near Stroud. Her website is www.joanna-campbell.com



This will be John Holland's 25th as Stroud Short Stories organiser, editor and judge. John has now been running Stroud Short Stories for 12 years. A former librarian, library campaigner and satirical gag writer for the BBC and Punch magazine, John started writing short fiction in 2012, taking over the running of SSS in 2014. In 2024 he was awarded the Stroud News & Journal Community Award for his Contribution to the Arts in running Stroud Short Stories. John has now hung up his pen, but between 2012 and 2022, he had more than 100 stories and flash pieces published in anthologies, magazines and online. 
He was also lucky enough to have won first prize in five international short fiction contests, including InkTears Short Story Contest, Dorset Fiction Prize and To Hull and Back. He's been runner up, shortlisted, longlisted, commended, etc in competitions over 60 times.

John has performed his stories at live lit events in London, Birmingham and across the south west.

John lives in Ebley in Stroud.

X (formerly Twitter) @JohnHolland52

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