RHYS DAVIES PRIZE: Story of gay fatherhood and loss wins Swansea University’s short story award

A story exploring a side of gay married life its author says “would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago” has won the 2026 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition, run by Swansea University.

Ben Fergusson’s Piedmont tells of two mothers who arrive in Italy in the dead of night, strangers brought together by circumstances involving their sons.

As they confront unfamiliar territory and distorted memories, the pair grapple with their own sense of self and responsibility in a story about love and loss.

The award recognises the best unpublished short stories in English, up to 5,000 words, by writers born in Wales, living in Wales, or who have lived in Wales for two years or more.

Fergusson, 46, lives in Abergavenny with his husband and son and is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

He said the win was “a complete surprise and a huge honour”, and that the story was inspired by a visit to Piedmont in Italy and the idea of writing about gay married life, “from parenthood to widowhood and loss”.

“As a gay husband and father living in Wales, it is particularly poignant to win an award named in honour of Rhys Davies, a gay Welsh writer who was not able, in his prolific output of hundreds of short stories, to write explicitly about gay characters,” he said.

Davies, born in Blaenclydach in the Rhondda in 1901, wrote more than 100 stories and 20 novels, and Fergusson said the writer still managed “to unpick ideas around social conservatism and the shifting complexities of relationships and personal identities”.

Guest judge Tyler Keevil said the winning story stood out for its rich characterisation and distinctive narrative perspective. “It somehow feels like more than a short story: it has the depth and scope of a novel, distilled to its essence. It’s stunning,” he said.

Fergusson receives £1,000, and Piedmont will feature alongside the finalists’ stories in the Rhys Davies Short Story Award Anthology 2026, published by Parthian in October.

First established in 1991, the competition has run 13 times and was relaunched in 2021 by Swansea University’s Cultural Institute on behalf of The Rhys Davies Trust, in association with Parthian Books.

Fergusson’s debut novel The Spring of Kasper Meier won the 2015 Betty Trask Prize, and his forthcoming children’s novel won the Faber Action! Prize 2026.

The winner, judge, editor Elaine Canning and the finalists will discuss the anthology at a free launch at Swansea’s Waterstones on Wednesday 28 October at 6pm.