Featured image and gallery: Leo Woollison Crook

Angela Cheveau and Kate Carne were crowned winners of the 2024 QuietManDave Prize on Friday.

The short-form writing prize is held bi-annually to honour the memory of the much-loved and well-known Manchester writer and critic Dave Murray, who passed away in 2019.

The writers were each awarded £1000 for their winning entries, with Cheveau scooping the first prize for flash non-fiction with her story To the Grasshopper in bottom right of Van Gogh’s Olive Orchard, 1889, and Carne taking home the first prize for flash fiction with her entry Conversing with the Comma.

Prizes were also awarded to the runners-up in each category, with Jay McKenzie winning second place for fiction with Florence Nightingale is late for her eyebrow threading appointment, and Kerry Andrew in third with Back Home.

Non-fiction writers Heather D. Haigh and Steve Ashton placed second and third respectively for their pieces When I Say You Look Tired, I Mean You’re Going To Die and Bringing up the Bodies.

Speaking to aAh!, QuietManDave project coordinator Isabelle Whinnet said: “I’m a writer as well, and the spirit of this prize is really inclusive. We offer sponsored entries for individuals who can’t afford the entry because we’re interested in hearing loads of new voices.

“I think it’s got a really good soul to it and everyone is always really excited to come along. It’s been a big thing to organise but I’ve had a really good team helping and I think it’s going to be a nice celebration of everyone’s work and all the hard work that’s gone into it.”

Following a brief welcome reception, senior lecturer James Draper introduced the evening: “The QuietManDave prize is named in honour of Dave Murray and is being supported by the generosity of Dave’s family and friends. In his memory, this prize seeks to encourage, discover, and celebrate new writers.”

The number of entries almost doubled from the previous competition back in 2022, with over 900 submissions. Judges Michael Pinchbeck, Catherine Love, Joe Shute, and Mufaro Makubika selected four shortlisted writers for each category. The flash fiction shortlist writers were Kerry Andrew, Jay McKenzie, Kate Carne, and Julia Rea, while the flash non-fiction shortlist included Faye Peden, Heather D. Haigh, Steve Ashton and Angela Cheveau.

Speaking on behalf of the judges, chair of the panel Michael Pinchbeck explained what a pleasure it was to shortlist the entries alongside his fellow judges. He went on to detail the shortlisting experience, drawing upon the words of George Orwell and John Berger to emphasise the power within each short piece.

“George Orwell wrote: ‘Good prose should be transparent like a window pane.’ John Berger wrote: ‘One does not look through writing onto reality as through a clean or dirty window pane. Words are never transparent, they create their own space.’ It’s this idea that writing is a window, as a way of framing or a way of looking,” says Pinchbeck, “that I’ve been thinking about as we judged the entries of this year’s prize.”

 Pinchbeck added: “We had a staggering 923 entries this year and I was struck by the way they each individually looked at the world, or created a world within their 500-word window frame. They’re a fitting tribute to a prize that continues to celebrate QuietManDave’s legacy.”

After Pinchbeck’s speech, the attending writers were invited to read their pieces to the audience. Kerry Andrew (Back Home), Julia Rea (Flesh + Bone), and Faye Peden (Kodak Christmas Remains) all performed their work in person while Steve Ashton (Bringing up the Bodies) and Heather D. Haigh (When I Say You Look Tired, I Mean You’re Going To Die) provided pre-recordings of their stories.

Manchester Met performance students Amelia Temple, Cerys Wrigley, and Saoirse Hannant-Clune, performed McKenzie (Florence Nightingale is late for her eyebrow threading appointment, Carne (Conversing with the Comma), and Cheveau’s (To the Grasshopper in bottom right of Van Gogh’s Olive Orchard, 1889) pieces in their absence, receiving a round of applause for their extraordinary work.

After the readings, James Draper took the floor to announce the winners of the QuietManDave Prize 2024. Announced in reverse order, Draper declared Kerry Andrew in third place, Jay McKenzie in second, and Kate Carne first place winner of the flash fiction prize.

He then announced the non-fiction category winners with Steve Ashton in third, Heather D. Haigh in second, and Manchester Met student Angela Cheveau taking the first place prize.

Students Hannant-Clune and Wrigley accepted  first-place prizes on behalf of Angela Cheveau and Kate Carne, sharing emotional messages on behalf of the writers. Cheveau shared that as a poet, flash fiction is something she is naturally drawn to both for its brevity and its ability to articulate profound thoughts or emotions in a compressed way.

In her acceptance speech, read by Hannant-Clune, Cheveau said: “I am thrilled to be alongside such talented writers and to be such a small part of such an esteemed competition. As a student of Manchester Metropolitan, this is even more special to me. I wanted to write this piece in order to commemorate my friend Rachel who took her own life.’

Cerys Wrigley then shared Carne’s acceptance speech: “Like QuietManDave, I embraced the act of writing relatively late in life. Perhaps an increasing awareness of mortality stimulates human creativity. Or maybe I just realised that writing is more fun than going out to work.I feel grateful to have the space and the unruliness to put words on the page, and it’s a bonus when other people receive those words.

“Conversing with the comma arose one morning in the garden when I was watching a raggedly edged orange butterfly dancing through the air. It settled and revealed a perfect comma on the brown underside of its wing. That was three years ago. Unfortunately, this flash fiction turned out to be a kind of omen because not a single comma butterfly has appeared since.

“Next summer, if you happen to see one of these butterflies, immerse yourself in its summer orange, its scalloped wing and, of course, that precious punctuation mark.”

In an interview with aAh!, Flash Fiction Prize shortlisted writer and third place winner, Kerry Andrew, said: “It’s always validating because sometimes you’re working on your own stuff and thinking it’s a bit rubbish. This is a reminder that sometimes your work is great.”

Dave Murray’s son, Tom Murray, thanked the writers and said a few words about what the QuietManDave prize means to him, and what it would mean to his late father: “Thank you, everyone, for coming and for all the submissions. What we’ve read here today was absolutely incredible. I feel like I can’t speak because I’m so touched by the amazing stories, they were just so profound and beautiful.

“I think my dad would have been so proud at this event and how much it means to so many people, how much it offers and how much space it gives to young and aspiring writers. I think he wouldn’t be able to quite believe all the people that have come, submitted work, and all the amazing work that’s been shown here.”

Draper congratulated the writers and thanked the attendees, closing the event with a final word of encouragement: “So please, all of you, keep writing, keep sending your work out there. We hope you’ll be inspired by the brilliant work we’ve seen as part of this year’s QuietManDave Prize.”

Profiles of the winners and their pieces, along with shortlisted pieces can be read in full for the Flash Fiction and Flash Non-Fiction categories.