We are thrilled to announce our winners in the 2010 SAWC Short Story Competition.

First prize is awarded to Arthur Bacchus for ‘Line of Sight '

Second prize is awarded to William Oosthuizen for ‘Board and Lodging '

Third prize is awarded to Ann Kern for ‘The Colours of Choice'

Fourth place 'The Branding' by Kristi Bauer

Fifth place 'A Winter Sun Rising' by Richard Burmeister

Sixth place 'A Simple Divinity' by Graham Cruikshanks

Congratulations to our three winners, as well as the follow-up stories. Read the judges' ratings and comments for the top six entries here.

Our judges, in order, were Alex Smith, Liesl Jobson, Karen Jeynes, Charlotte Randall, Ginny Swart and Henrietta Rose-Innes. As published authors, together they have accumulated almost 20 national and international writing awards. A huge thank you to them for their input, expertise and time.

A special word of thanks to Ginny Swart for her commitment to supporting writers in South Africa. Ginny almost single-handedly sorted through the stories to come up with our top 30, and then top 25. Ginny, you are our heroine! Thank you.

The 2010 SAWC competition has been the hardest to judge. We received dozens and dozens of very good and excellent stories. Coming up with a shortlist was an agonising process.

After much reading, re-reading, shuffling, arguing and comparing of notes, we came up with our top 25 stories for 2010 and then, our top six.

Well done to everyone who entered. If your story did not make it into the top six or the top 25, please don't be discouraged. Keep in touch with us, keep reading and most important, keep writing. Remember the foundations of fiction: good dialogue, description, action and strong characters.

Best wishes

Nichola