In January, Kobo and Curtis Brown Creative held the Jeffery Archer Short Story Challenge, a call for all aspiring writers to send in their best 100-or-fewer-word story.  A panel of Kobo judges selected 20 semi-finalists, and then bestselling author Jeffery Archer himself picked the three finalists, announced at the London Book Fair on April 15^th.

Those three finalists were invited to submit a 3000-word excerpt from their novel in progress to Curtis Brown Creative, who selected the most talented author to receive the grand prize: full enrolment in their online How to Write a Novel course.

And the winner? Robert Maslen!

Robert’s 100-word story beat out nearly 1000 submissions, impressing the Kobo team, Curtis Brown, and Jeffrey Archer himself. Congratulations Robert!

You can find Robert’s story “Voices” as well as the other 19 semi-finalist stories and three honourable mentions in this free eBook compilation.

Robert Maslen is a writer and linguist from Yorkshire. His short-short stories have appeared in Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, the Bridport Prize Anthology and The Frogmore Papers (this autumn).