Many writers have shared their thoughts with the public:

"There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you." - Beatrix Potter

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." - Anaïs Nin

"Sharing your writing, being enlarged by others' writing, is what makes you feel famous." - Gretchen Bernabei

"Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth." - Edna Ferber

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." - Ben Franklin

"One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones to form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment." - Hart Crane

"There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one can agree what they are." - W. Somerset Maugham

The Best of Times Short Story Competition

Spring 2022 results

Note: stories are available for reading only where the authors have given permission.

First Place ($492)

Cheryl Lockwood, QLD: Signs of Boredom

Second Place ($70)

Eleanor Turner, NSW: Otherwise Engaged

Third Place ($35)

Alexandra Patrikios, TAS: Thismia Americana

Highly Commended

Jim Brigginshaw, NSW: In the Wake of Drake

Jay McKenzie, QLD: And Whiter Grows the Foam

Cassie Hamer, NSW: The 2021 AGM of the Allied Union of Elbows

Commended

Peter Smith, NSW: The Proposal

Sue Clayton, NSW: Astrology Conversion

Leigh Garrahy, QLD: Fifty, Fabulous and (not quite) Fit

Rose Saltman, NSW: Leaving Australia Twice in Thirty Minutes


There were 74 short stories in the competition, from 64 entrants.