About Us

Henshaw Press was launched by a small group of dedicated writers, editors, lecturers and, of course, readers who wished to actively support creative writing. They decided that they wanted to run quarterly competitions throughout the year with closing dates at the end of March, June, September and December. 

In 2023, due to illness and retirement, the running of the competition was transferred to Hobeck Books, a small, independent publisher based in Staffordshire. Some of the existing competition judges and critique writers continue to work with Hobeck. There are also some new faces who joined the team, all published writers and / or academics. All, of course, avid readers.

The format of the competition continues, with four competitions every year.

The aim is to encourage as wide a range of writing as possible and competitions are open for any subject and any style.

The competitions are non-profit making for the team. Profits go towards buying books for schools. We only take out enough to cover the hosting of the website. All time spent running the competition is done for free. If you are an educator and you are interested in being the recipient of books for your school for 2026, please do get in touch.

Every two years or so, we publish books of the prize winning stories. There are five anthologies published: Henshaw Treats, Henshaw Two, Henshaw Three and Henshaw Four. Henshaw Five, Henshaw Six.

To find out more about us you can contact Rebecca Collins at hobeckbooks@gmail.com

Or telephone Rebecca on 07967 831230.

Who We Are

The Henshaw Short Story Competition simply wouldn't happen without the support of the team of volunteers. Firstly, we have Rebecca at Hobeck who receives all the entered stories, stores them, replies to all the writers and distributes the stories to the judges. She also gathers the winners together and spreads the joy to them when the time comes and arranges for the payment of the winnings. She does not take part in the judging process herself.

First Readers

We have a team of four dedicated first readers who take it in turns to read all the stories in any given competition. As the competition is running, Rebecca sends the stories in batches of 10 or 15 to the current first reader to read. They are tasked with picking 40 stories to go on to the next stage. They have to do a lot of reading!

Second Readers

There are two second readers on the team. One of them will read the 40 stories passed to them, via Rebecca, by the first reader. They have to choose 20 stories to go to the final stage. Nail-biting stuff!

The Judging Panel

There are currently six judges on the judging panel, all of them published writers and / or academics. Rebecca sends them copies of the final 20 stories and they all read the stories individually (no conferring - starter for 10!). They then give Rebecca their final scores, Eurovision style. They will give their chosen best story 7 points, then they will also award runners up with 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points respectively. This really is the nail-biting phase. Rebecca tots up all the scores in a spreadsheet (she loves this stage) and a winner, a second prize and a third prize will gradually emerge.

You might be surprised to learn that the judges rarely pick the same winning story. Although there is often a clear winner through the point system. A couple of years ago, two stories came joint third so they had to share the prize.

Critique Writers

In addition to judging and reading stories, some members of the team, and some other writers who are not on the judging or reading panels, work as critique writers for Henshaw. They get paid a very nominal fee for their work, which is incredibly cheap considering what they offer. So if you opt to have a story critiqued, Rebecca will send your story to one of three writers. Rebecca herself critiques nonfiction pieces. 

Meet Some of the Team

Some of the team members prefer to remain anonymous and that is respected, so note not all of those involved in running the competition are mentioned here. But to give you a flavour of who is reading and working behind the scenes, here are some of team members below.

Dr Mike Davis is a retired educator who has worked in secondary education, as Head of English faculty in comprehensive school, and in higher education, as both lecturer and research fellow. Over many years he has read widely and published in a variety of domains. He particularly enjoys modern novels and short stories, supplemented by occasional forays into great classics.

Dr Rachel Sargeant is a bestselling suspense author published by HarperCollins. She also writes the Gloucestershire Crime Series published by Hobeck Books and, under the penname Rae Starling, dark thrillers with Hera Books. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies and have won or been placed in competitions, including a second prize in a Henshaw Press competition in 2016. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham.

After a varied career in television, the electricity industry and research/headhunting, Sally Rose Pethybridge moved to Portugal in 2002. Been an avid reader since she was 4. Special dispensation to move from junior library to senior at 10. She hasn't stopped reading. Handbags had to be roomy enough to hold a book, now (due to extortionate price of English language books in Portugal) has to have room for a Kindle. Never less than 8 books backed up to read!

Jane Lomas has been writing and widowed for what feels like forever. She blogs (mainly about grief) and writes stories about belonging, longing and relationships. She has had several flash fiction, short stories and creative non-fiction pieces published. If not writing, she is usually found walking with her rescue greyhound, Molly.

Rebecca Collins has worked for over two decades in the publishing industry, working with clients such as Rachel McLean, Research Retold, Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Summersdale. She is also a published non-fiction author and poet. But, perhaps more importantly, she owns over 4,000 books and doesn't own a kindle. She once had a story shortlisted for a competition run by the charity MIND. That made her very happy.

Laura Fowler is the mum of two and lives in Norfolk. She is an author and journalist. She has had poetry published on The Dirigible Balloon, Lavender Lime Literary, Heart Balm Lit and The Great Get Together Poetry Fest. Her flash fiction was published in 206 Word Stories Horror Anthology by Bag of Bones Press.

Katherine Mezzacappa is an Irish writer of mainly historical fiction, long resident in Italy, who also writes as Katie Hutton and Kate Zarrelli. Her novel The Maiden of Florence was shortlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Gold Crown award, 2025. Her short stories have been published worldwide. Katherine serves on the executive committee of the Irish Writers Union. She also works as a manuscript assessor.